I justify
this by telling you a secret: unlike a newspaper, which can pile up the bad
news until Mt. Everest looks like a sugar cube, a blog cannot. So this evening—no
rants about the Catholic Church (give it UP, Marc); no more tales of the
byzantine, tropical political schemes (PLEEEEEZE!); no more jeremiads of any
kind. Today is a good news day!
And the
good news is that some guy in Southern California has got it figured out: most
education is based on words, on language. But most students? Well, a
significant portion of kids are learning English as a foreign language. Then
there are those who simply learn visually, not verbally. As well, there are
kids with various learning difficulties, one of which is dyslexia.
That was
the case with Matthew
Peterson, who suffers from dyslexia, as did, apparently, Einstein. And it
was Einstein who said that words played no part in his math or scientific
thinking.
Think back
to your school—what was happening in the classroom? Well, the teacher was up
front, talking and writing on the chalkboard. He or she was teaching, but were
the kids learning?
No—according
to the video below. Seventy percent of American kids are below grade level in
math. So why not throw everything upside-down? Why not get rid of words? Why
not advance a little technologically beyond chalk? Why not have the kids play
games, instead of giving them homework? And why not have the games be
interactive, so that kids get feedback and learn?
“I don’t
teach, I observe learning,” I used to say to my students. Or how about this: “I
don’t teach, I create the environment to learn.” And that’s why, in those days
when I was working at Wal-Mart, I spent a lot of time learning PowerPoint.
Because even something as rudimentary as PowerPoint can be powerful.
“Oh, baby,
you are zeee BEST,” said a sultry little animation that I borrowed from the
Internet; that was when the student got the right answer. The wrong answer? A
bomb went off, or a 16-ton weight got dropped on a kitten, or the computer made
a disgusted sound.
The games
were nowhere as cool as JiJi, I have to say—but they were cool enough, and the
students liked them. But the 600,000 kids in 35 states who are involved with
JiJi? The numbers are impressive—in some cases the improvement is double or
even triple the rate for the control group.
I’d believe
it, because there’s something wonderfully addictive about JiJi. Unfortunately,
the company won’t sell the games to individuals, but only to schools, since
they believe that the presence of a teacher is important.
Damn—I’m
already totally in love with JiJi!
Hmm, if I
ran up to the local public school and bought the damn thing, do you think they’d
let me play?
