Technology plays a huge part in the lives of young people, but schools in Nigeria are yet to take full advantage of the huge opportunities ICT offers in the classroom.
In the classroom of the future, everyone will take their shoes off at the door. Students will sit around big glass tables that they can write on with whiteboard markers, and there will be coloured lighting that can be changed to set the mood.
These ideas emerged from a project at Lampton school in Hounslow (London) where, rather than trying to shoehorn in as many hi-tech futuristic gadgets as possible, a group of students spent eight months finding out what actually worked well in different places around the world – and picked out what they liked best.
For today’s youngsters, information and communications technology (ICT) is an ordinary part of everyday life, and the Lampton students’ vision illustrates that perfectly. Children use their smartphones to organise and document their lives, look up information and keep track of their friends. Yet, in many schools they are expected to “power down” and focus on a curriculum that look familiar to the Awolowos.
While today’s classroom may not be very different from that of 50 years ago, the coming decades will see genuine change (Hopefully). First, because it will be cheaper to use ICT. In addition, there is a wider economic imperative: if Nigeria is to compete with countries offering cheaper labour and more natural resources, we’ve got to develop a flexible and rounded workforce replete with entrepreneurs and inventors.
Finally, the classroom of the future that everyone or, at least some of us hope for will be a place of greater equality.
Technology means we can address the kind of learning support that children get at home. For me, leading edge schools are the ones that acknowledge that children learn 24/7.
What do you think?
