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‘The Future? A digital teacher stamping on a human face...

Discussion in 'Education news' started by Mrsmumbles, Apr 9, 2018.


Are learning sheds with online teachers a stupid idea?

  1. Yes, wide open to abuse and dumbing down, kills off teaching etc

  2. No, I was about to jack in teaching anyway, now I can be a fluffy tutor all day instead

Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

  2. catmother

    catmother Star commenter

    What will the pupils do if they don't have teachers to torment on a daily basis?
    phlogiston, Mrsmumbles and tonymars like this.
  3. install

    install Star commenter

    Mmmm...some might say it is ironic when some students wouldn't mind using a mobile phone all day anyway.

    Also sounds like an extended IT lesson. A one size fits all approach is sometimes lethal.
    Mrsmumbles and tonymars like this.
  4. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    Blimey...suddenly any job other than teaching seems more secure. If this happens, the next generation of kids are going to need a LOT of extra tuition in order to cope, or else end up semi-educated. Since when did being well informed become the subject of contempt? You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone...
    Jamvic likes this.
  5. baxterbasics

    baxterbasics Senior commenter

    This was reported in the Times newspaper as well on Sunday.

    Has anybody heard of the concept of problem-reaction-solution?

    The problem was been created - a dire shortage of maths teachers due to years of government underfunding and intolerable stresses on teachers. So people say "how can we solve this crisis", and the same people who created the problem come up with the solution - study rooms where pupils sit at computers and work through at their own rate. The workforce is already in place - low paid cover supervisors.

    Expect the first schools using this method to be starting around September this year. Other schools will follow suit as a solution to a maths staffing crisis...then lo and behold, it will be tried for Science as well, then English...

    I fully expect that Pearson have already invested a lot of money in computer-based courses and are ready to roll these out on a trial basis to schools in a matter of months.
    Jamvic likes this.
  6. ravenscroft2

    ravenscroft2 New commenter

  7. ravenscroft2

    ravenscroft2 New commenter

    The days of shudding kids away in buildings are
  8. phlogiston

    phlogiston Star commenter

    So, what happens to the kids who can't access the learning programme because they can't read, don't or won't understand it, don't have the temperament for reading through endless power points or can't use any other forms of learning?
    What happens to the practical subjects?
    What happens to the PE activities?
    What happens to the multitude of activities where kids learn to work with each other as a team?
    What happens when a child having difficulties with a topic needs the assistance of someone who knows the subject inside out and can find the way to explain something difficult?
    What happens to the artefacts and experience we used to bring to the children?
    What happens when children need to learn something that involves nuanced discussion rather than the black and white answers that a computer can give?
    This is not a solution to the shortage of teachers, its a pseudo-solution to coop up children, desocialise them and then enable us to blame them when our economy falls behind the countries that really value education.
    The option to give children self study packages has been around for decades. They're sometimes useful for children cut off from the mainstream, but we don't use them because we - even the dimmest witted polito from the party we hate knows that sometimes cheapest isn't best.
    (That's why they drive around in cars teachers can't afford).
    Mrsmumbles, Jamvic and tsarina like this.
  9. tsarina

    tsarina Occasional commenter

    Sometimes my tutees will explain that their teacher is "ok", but mostly what they do in class is read off a powerpoint and then do worksheets and they don't really understand because it hasn't been explained and that's why they need a tutor. I cannot envision reading off a computer screen and answering questions online being any better at helping them understand. Computers cannot teach. They are a tool to access information. You can teach yourself using a computer if you have the skills and motivation to do so. Most secondary school students do not.

    But hey, there must be a packet of money to be made flogging the programs to the schools.
  10. Jamvic

    Jamvic Senior commenter

    We all know this was the plan all along. The writing has been on the wall for state school teaching as a respected, long term career for some time now.

    As with most everything else today generating an income stream for big business is the number one priority.

    Job done Gove. Job done Tories.

    Will the last well qualified, experienced, caring teacher please turn off the lights :(
    Mrsmumbles likes this.
  11. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    They have. They were advertising years back for teachers to help design distance learning resources. Just didn’t realise they meant this nonsense! Why do the British value themselves, their own skill sets and their own people so poorly?
    phlogiston likes this.
  12. lanokia

    lanokia Star commenter

    Amazing... I wonder how many of these tech companies will have had meetings with the DfE to find ways to profit out of a government manufactured education crisis...
    Jamvic, phlogiston and Mrsmumbles like this.
  13. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    There is indeed a mega shedload of shekels to be made from these initiatives. It’s the sort of bilge they trot out at those dreadful ‘academies roadshows’ conferences they hold at London Olympia. Horrible, really. I’m sure that many senior party donors and party politicians have significant investments in Pearson. Ah, capitalism and education, such loving bedfellows!
    lanokia likes this.
  14. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    Mental mind meetings and cross-postings! Great minds think alike!
    lanokia likes this.
  15. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    Gonna get a heckuvva lot worse?!
  16. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    Would the last teacher in the last flight to China please detach the pier from the nice shiny aeroplane at Heathrow? And pour me a sparkling gin and tonic as we sail through the clouds above the numerous failing West London academies which lie below us...
    phlogiston likes this.
  17. Mrsmumbles

    Mrsmumbles Star commenter

    And vote for any party other that the Tory Cochons as well? Anyone. Really. Anybody else at all. Let’s resurrect Libdems!

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