Tomas Chlebek This week, from the 7th to the 13th of December, the worldwide event "An Hour of Code", which aims to introduce as many people as possible to the world of informatics through one-hour programming lessons. In the Czech Republic, the "Hour of Code" has been held 184 times this year, the global number is close to 200 thousand, and events are also organized by companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Apple.
For the third time this year, Apple turned over 400 of its Apple Stores into classrooms, and Tim Cook visited one during class yesterday. He watched and partially participated in the learning activities held at the new Apple Store in New York on Madison Avenue. However, the most significant part of his presence there concerned his statements about American education.
"The classroom of the future is about problem solving and creating and learning to express yourself," he said, watching eight-year-olds actively interact with Apple employees and each other as they programmed a simple Star Wars game using simplified coding language blocks. "You rarely see this level of interest in a class like this," Cook commented on the students' activities. He went on to say that he would like to see programming as a standard part of the curriculum for schools, just like mother tongue or mathematics.
As part of the Hour of Code, iPads are available to participating students at Apple Stores, but they are not available in most US public schools. Some even have minimal access to computers, such as the one whose students visited the Apple Store on Madison Avenue. Teacher Joann Khan mentioned that there is only one computer in her classroom, and the already outdated computer lab at her school was canceled due to insufficient funds.
Apple is trying to help the modernization of American public education, for example, by choosing 120 schools from all over the United States that are doing the worst this year. They provide them not only with products, but also with people who will help teachers there to organize teaching involving computing.
The goal is not only to adapt the knowledge of the upcoming generations to modern technologies, but also to transform the teaching process itself, which should become more focused on creative work with information rather than memorizing it. Currently, standardized knowledge tests are typical for the American school system, which were supposed to improve teaching, but the opposite has happened, because teachers only have time to teach children in such a way that they succeed in the tests as best as possible, which depends on school funding and the like.
“I'm not a fan of studying for the test. I think creativity is so important. Teaching the mind to think is so important. Studying for a test is too much about memorization for me. In a world where you have all the information right here,” Cook pointed to the editor's iPhone, “your ability to remember what year the war was won and things like that is not very relevant.”
In connection with this, Cook also addressed one of the reasons why Chromebooks with Google's web operating system have become so widespread in American schools in the last few years. Cook called them "testing machines", their mass purchase by American schools was at least partly initiated by the transition from paper to virtual standardized tests.
“We're interested in helping students learn and teachers teach, but not tests. We build products that are end-to-end solutions for people that allow kids to learn to create and engage on a different level.” Cook went on to say that Apple's products are better suited for educational use with native apps and easier creation of specialized apps. Chromebooks run all applications in a browser, which requires a constant Internet connection and limits the creation of specialized applications.
Source: Buzzfeed News, Mashable
