Change the School System by Using Digital Technology

It is already happening in the Netherlands in 22 (and counting!) government-funded Steve JobsSchools

Maurice de Hond CEO sCoolSuite Concepts B.V.

At home, children live in an increasingly visual, interactive, digital world.

At home, children live in an increasingly visual, interactive, digital world. But when they go to school, they can see how it was in the past.

-  Schools are preparing children for the past, not for the future.

-  Usually, they are not employing today’s technology. -  The approach is ‘one size fits all’ and is not

based on the children’s talents and potential.

“Schools see the children as trucks, and the school as a silo to fill these trucks. But a child is a rocket and school must find the ignition.”

The wrong way of adding new technology

O.O. + N.T. = E.O.O.

O.O. + N.T. = E.O.O. Old Organisation plus New Technology = Expensive Old Organisation

The wrong way of adding new technology

- Prepare children for the future - With the help of today’s technology - Responding to the children’s talents and potential

-  Each child has one teacher as a coach -  Every 6 weeks coach, child and parent(s)

meet to discuss the à Individual Development Plan

-  An iPad for every child -  For at school and at home -  Virtual school available 24/7 à Tool for mass customization

Physical school organized differently: -  Each child has a teacher as coach -  Base group of children of different ages -  Base group together only 25% of the day

Classes becomes studios Teachers becomes specialists Workshops are organized Children can select workshops based on their individual development plan

Between workshops there is also time for individual training activities with the iPad (mainly language and arithmetic) in the quiet area and for working on projects with other children

Working with this adaptive system: - Does not require a lot of the teacher’s time - Each child can develop at its own pace - Gives a perfect overview of the children’s abilities on different subjects

Effects: -  Workshops have fewer children than in

traditional classes -  In a workshop, all children are on same level -  Teachers spend less time on administrative

tasks and more on helping individual children

-  Mostly uses apps or content already available on the market or made by teachers themselves

-  Not every child uses the same apps or content

-  We created infrastructural tools: sCoolTool (the personalised agenda) sCoolSpace (Virtual Schoolyard with augmented reality)

sCoolProject (for doing projects together) sCoolTracker (for collecting analytics from

apps)

Results of this school system: -  Children enjoy it more, because of the iPad

and for owning their own development -  Increased: independence, flexibility, creativity,

programming, working with technologies -  More parent involvement

Results of this school system: -  No child is an exception -  Fewer problems with ADHD or ADD -  Integration of children with disabilities

Currently: -  22 government-funded schools working

with this approach -  Next year: at least 100 schools -  A lot of interest from other countries

So don’t add digital technology to the current system, but use it to drastically change the school system : That is the real revolution in education