Friday 31 October 2008

Computers in schools



A few shots of a computer lab in an old school. The ICT teachers teach skills - talking endlessly while the boys sit (patiently) and listen. A lesson I watched was on the various workings of the inside of a computer to a Grade 7 class - interesting in many ways but after 30 mins I had to leave. My suggestion was why not get the boys in groups to take an old machine apart while the teacher explained what they were. They thought it was a good idea but I don't think they will do it. They were wathcing a powerpoint with all the terms etc. They did have a display at least up on the wall he could point to.





I was at one of the new schools this week and watched the delivery of 150 brand new desktops!! It was amazing - the new schools have 2 ICT labs with 25 in each, a language lab, computers in the Library Resource Centre and some for the administration. Very impressive but what a huge job to set them all up. Mind you they would have lots of helpers to move them around and usually a fulltime IT teachnician on site.





The new school ICT Labs are large although not set out all that well with monitors facing the back of the room instead of the front so the teacher can see what the kids are doing! Each student has a computer each - no sharing or collaborating on tasks.

4 comments:

Geoffrey said...

The new schools project, like everything new in Qatar, is very ambitious. How do you cope with having to work with so many schools? Are they all the schools roughly the same or does a particular school stand out from the others?

Geoffrey said...

He he he, I like the photo of the computer parts on the wall - it's sort of like an autopsy.

President Bean Osama-Bama said...

When I'm President of the United States, everyone will have their own PC.

Wait a minute! I AM President of the United States.

My finest hour!

President Bean Osama-Bama said...

Mmmm. Now maybe I'll change the name of Dell to Ding Dong.

Hope no one takes a shot at me.