MultiPoint won’t stop them preferring football to Maths, but it might help develop their learning ability

This article from IDG’s PC World site about some of the challenges to teaching in Thailand, and technologies to help overcome them, was interesting and had a humorous ending. A reporter came to visit one of the schools where we are trialling Microsoft Multipoint, and the children and teachers really took the time out to show him how it helped them in their maths school work. Not only does MultiPoint help address the challenge of lack of PCs in the classroom by enabling multiple mice to be connected, it also helps make classes more interactive by enabling all the kids to participate at the same time. It also helps the teachers monitor responses so that they can track who has understood and who is still behind. But one student, when asked what he’d like to be doing if he had the choice on a sunny day, said he’d rather be playing football with his friends. I guess even the power of technology can’t stop kids being kids.

But what it can do is enable kids, if they are stuck in the classroom on a sunny day (we’ve all been there, right?), learn in a more collaborative way – perhaps accelerated learning might even free up some time for them to develop their football skills. And if they don’t get the opportunity to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo, then having some Maths and computer skills might be handy for maximising their opportunities when they leave school.

A whitepaper from a Thai teacher called Parichat Pasatcha from Uthaiwittayakhom School makes for interesting reading in this regard. The paper looks at how teachers can use Microsoft Multipoint and other Computer-Assisted Learning Technologies to enhance learning capabilities. The paper outlines a way of empowering students though CALT by tasking them with selecting their own favourite subject, and then helping them develop at least one lesson, based on the Basic Education Curriculum. Not only does this develop their own project skills, it also enables them to develop tools and lessons from which other students might benefit.

 

So how does MultiPoint fit in? Well, according to the whitepaper: Nowadays, computers are widely used in the educational institutions. Most of them use computers to develop Computer Assisted Instruction software, or CAI, to make a student-centric learning method. This is because it enables student to learn in a way that fits to their skills and intelligence without having to wait for other students in the same class. It also minimizes teacher’s burdens on monitoring all students in the class, while students can learn or repeat the lesson on their own without much help and support from the teacher. This also helps reducing several problems in case that one class comes with several levels of student’s proficiencies because students who are more intelligent will understand the lesson far quicker than others. Thus, the CAI will help ease the problem caused by this difference in individual’s learning capability. CAI can help fill the gap in dealing with different student’s learning skill levels. It opens more chances for students to learn and improve how they will learn better. The most important benefit of the CAI is that it has its own evaluation process. This can make students see their own success and progress through each step and each lesson. Also, CAI is useful when there are not enough teachers to teach all subjects in a school, since it can be used to support teaching many students interactively and simultaneously. (Boorana Somchai, 2000)

If the students develop their lessons using the MultiPoint platform, they can then collaboratively demonstrate and learn with other students, helping each other along, and they can do this with minimal active participation from the teacher, who will be observing and can jump in if needed. And according to Parichat Pasatcha, “The school held an exhibition to demonstrate the use of Microsoft MultiPoint software and computer lesson as a new learning media to the teachers and staff in the Uthaithani Province. The students and teachers are very excited with the result.” Not as excited by football, I bet, but that’s one battle Maths might never win!

Supoet Srinutapong, director - public sector program, Microsoft Thailand