With the increased use of the internet in all aspects of our lives, are schools really necessary anymore? Would remote classroom environments work just as well? http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore 2008-09-06T01:58:22Z Geek1 http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/geek1 http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment1 2006-10-05T04:43:50Z MDT http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/mdt Although having schools is an added cost to taxpayers, it's crucial to give young people the opportunity to develop social lives. As young people, it's important to have relationships with peers to develop socially and learn how to interact with different types of people. I would think this aspect is possibly more important at an early age than even the educational aspects of schooling. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment2 2006-10-05T07:49:50Z Simpler http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/simpler Tools to enable remote learning can only be a supplement to real interaction, I think. Kids need the full bandwidth of real human interaction to understand all the social rules and unwritten codecs necessary to do well. They could not pick this up, if they were only accessing the school via a device at home. As other discussions in this forum show, kids already have problems with getting away from their PCs and gaming devices. This would mean that they would stay in front of it all day. It is a different story when used as a supplement to normal schools, e.g. when doing homework. Can also be used for kids that for some reason are unable to attend a normal, physical school. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment3 2006-10-05T08:57:19Z rmill9681 http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/rmill9681 I think school is very important to the social development of children. Also, if they were not at school, parents would need to be home to watch them and to make sure they were actually attending virtual class. Parents barely have enough time to drop off/pick up their kids now. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment4 2006-10-05T09:59:06Z ryan http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/ryan It does not have to be an all or nothing approach. long distance learning is already growing in acceptance. It allows for many people to access "experts" and allow for the hands on teachers to be generalists ensuring that the children are getting it. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment5 2006-10-05T11:06:37Z JBonnin http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/jbonnin Social interaction is absolutely necessary in early stages of life. No question of suppressing it! It´s at school, among real people, that an individual learns to face the world. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment6 2006-10-05T11:07:33Z JBonnin http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/jbonnin Social interaction is absolutely necessary in early stages of life. No question of suppressing it! It´s at school, among real people, that an individual learns to face the world. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment7 2006-10-05T11:32:25Z zen http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/zen I am a teacher so this might came a bit by surprise but I don't think a kid needs to be in a schoolbuilding to develop social skills. If only dad and mom and the rest of the family were more at home, these sociall skills can be learned in and arround the house. What is tought in school is highly overrated and so is it effectiveness. Also The whole eductional programm should became a big online game where you learn all kind of skills on your own pace from you own surrounding. Nothing wrong with kids spending hourse behind a computer, it all depends on what they are doing there. of course they will go out and play, that is something natural. The bad thing of school is that we take that out of their system. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment8 2006-10-05T13:15:33Z herman http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/herman Books will disappear from their shoulders. Knowledge will be given much much more easy to comprehend. Knowledge by gaming, statistics, physics, biology, etc. etc. Put a group of creative individuals together on a topic and some game-developers.... Mostly one will need hardly any words. Learning by gaming is the future. On schools they may work together to get some results. Or just playing chess etc. Sports... herman http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment9 2006-10-05T13:55:12Z JBonnin http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/jbonnin Socialization at school is not about playing games or obtaining results only. It´s about overcoming self induldgence and bad habits often transmitted by parents themselves. The daily contact with other children who are not necessarily friendly is fondamental to make the child become able to question and decide independently from parents and willing to overcome obstacles. It is the only way to form independent responsible adults. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#comment10 2006-10-05T14:00:16Z herman http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/herman I am sorry for my somehow cryptic explanation of my idea. I am not very familiar with this typing to persons I don't know. I will try to explain my vision by excample. ( I allready knew that once I understood what the teacher/professor explained I wondered why he/she made it so difficult first) I thought electronics might be an easy start for better explaining. Making more sense and much more simple. So I visited a friend who knew 'everything' about electronics. I asked ('what is a transistor etc' ) and he explained till I understood a lot. I constantly made drawings to show him what i understood so far and he corrected me until the drawing fitted with what he knew. I went with this and some text to a publisher of schoolbooks. They liked it very much, but the rules for the schools and books did not allow this. (There was no sex whatsoever in it ) I thought about a computergame to learn the properties of every electronic part and than building equipment with it. (In the computer) I thought it would not be all that difficult, but I did not have a computer then and knew noone with time or knowledge to help me further. (This is 15 years ago) I had new ideas for worldimprovement so forgot about his. Talking about education: I would like to learn fast and easy whatever I choose. And I think that will happen. In a very short time. And when a student comes to study statistics (or electronics or...) the professor learns that the student knows more than he knows. Just by playing GAMES. (How to build... in 10 minutes) HAHAHA When the children can learn so much so easy as they like it, they can teach each other. The teacher and the school are no longer for knowledge-input but for inter-human-interaction. Building a computer for real for instance.(from transistors etc.) Finding out what can be done with it. Creativity, motivation and taste will be more and more important. No more heavy books to carry around. (PINK FLOYD. The WALL)(movie and record) Later I worked on games to learn law. Landing with a helicopter on any field of law (hospital) and selecting a role (nurse) and making mistakes (.....) (ask for juridic advice or decide by what I already know, getting points for good behavior and speed.) Statistics may be the most easy subject to explain and learn by computer-GAMING. Maybe I start with that. I think I take to much space , I stop now and submit. herman http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/are-schools-necessary-anymore#expert-conclusion 2008-09-06T01:58:22Z With the increased use of the internet in all aspects of our lives, are schools really necessary anymore? Would remote classroom environments work just as well? The level at which a quality education over the interent has increased considerably over the past few years, it does not, however, consider the non-textbook related social learning that occurs in classroom situations. Most agree that attending school on a regular basis gives a child an opportunity to interact socially, teaching them skill they will need throughout their lives. At the same time, social development of children happens in all aspect of their lives, so everything is not learned within the confines of a school building. A mixture of both virtual online classrooms and schools seems to be the ideal solution. Perhaps a school could have a rotating student body where one half would be at home while the other is at school. This would ultimately save tax payers money and provide the necessary social interaction for our children.