这期的标题是 - Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools
How the science of learning can get the best out of edtech
如若教师与科技牵手，学校将因此而改变
学习该如何运用最好的教育技术
IN 1953 B.F. Skinner visited his daughter’s maths class. The Harvard psychologist found every pupil learning the same topic in the same way at the same speed. A few days later he built his first “teaching machine”, which let children tackle questions at their own pace. By the mid-1960s similar gizmos were being flogged by door-to-door salesmen. Within a few years, though, enthusiasm for them had fizzled out.
1953年，B.F. Skinner去参观了他女儿的数学课。这位哈佛的心理学家发现，每个学生都在以相同的方式，相同的速度学习着相同的内容。几天之后，他就打造了他的第一个“教学机器”，它可以让孩子按照自己的步调来处理问题。到了60年代中期，这种类似的小发明很是受那种上门推销的销售人员追捧。但几年之后，这种热情就渐渐地消失了
Since then education technology (edtech) has repeated the cycle of hype and flop, even as computers have reshaped almost every other part of life. One reason is the conservatism of teachers and their unions. But another is that the brain-stretching potential of edtech has remained unproven.
在那之后，即便是计算机几乎改变了我们生活里除教育之外所有的东西，教育科技也总是火一阵儿冷一阵儿。其中一个原因自然是教师以及教师公会的保守，但另一方面，教育科技对于大脑潜能开发至今也没有强力的证据。
Today, however, Skinner’s heirs are forcing the sceptics to think again (see article). Backed by billionaire techies such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, schools around the world are using new software to “personalise” learning. This could help hundreds of millions of children stuck in dismal classes—but only if edtech boosters can resist the temptation to revive harmful ideas about how children learn. To succeed, edtech must be at the service of teaching, not the other way around.
然而今天，Skinner的继承者们正在让那些持怀疑态度的人重新看待这个问题。 受到科技界亿万富豪比如马克扎克伯格和比尔盖茨等人的影响，全球有很多学校正在用软件来个性化学习。这可以帮助亿万处于困境的学生。只要教育科技的推动者们可以抵住那些对孩子学习不利想法的诱惑。要获得成功，教育科技必须服务于教学本身，而不是反过来。
Pencils down
The conventional model of schooling emerged in Prussia in the 18th century. Alternatives have so far failed to teach as many children as efficiently. Classrooms, hierarchical year-groups, standardised curriculums and fixed timetables are still the norm for most of the world’s nearly 1.5bn schoolchildren.
放下铅笔
传统的教育模式始于18世纪的普鲁士，迄今为止在大批量教学效率方面被证明是最好的。教室，分年级，标准化的课程，固定的课程表仍旧是当今世界15亿学生的标准模式
Too many do not reach their potential. In poor countries only a quarter of secondary schoolchildren acquire at least a basic knowledge of maths, reading and science. Even in the mostly rich countries of the OECD about 30% of teenagers fail to reach proficiency in at least one of these subjects.
有太多的学生潜能没有被开发。在贫穷国家， 只有四分之一的中学生能学到基本的数学，阅读和科学知识。即便是在经合组织最发达的国家，也有30%的年轻人在刚才这几个项目中至少有一个是弱项
That share has remained almost unchanged over the past 15 years, during which billions have been spent on IT in schools. By 2012 there was one computer for every two pupils in several rich countries. Australia had more computers than pupils. Handled poorly, devices can distract. A Portuguese study from 2010 found that schools with slow broadband and a ban on sites such as YouTube had better results than high-tech ones.
在过去十五年里，这种情况一直没有得到改变，哪怕是学校在IT上数十亿的投资也无济于事。在2012年以前，富裕国家的学生可以做到两个人用一台电脑。澳大利亚的电脑比学生都多。但使用不当的话，这些设备反而会让人分心。一项从2010年开始的葡萄牙的研究显示，网速慢或者是禁用类似youtube这种网站的学校，比那些条件更好的学校的教学效果反而要好
What matters is how edtech is used. One way it can help is through bespoke instruction. Ever since Philip II of Macedon hired Aristotle to prepare his son Alexander for Greatness, rich parents have paid for tutors. Reformers from São Paulo to Stockholm think that edtech can put individual attention within reach of all pupils. American schools are embracing the model most readily. A third of pupils are in a school district that has pledged to introduce “personalised, digital learning”. The methods of groups like Summit Public Schools, whose software was written for nothing by Facebook engineers, are being copied by hundreds of schools.
真正重要的是教育科技如何被使用。他可以帮助定制教学。自从马其顿王国的菲利普二世雇佣了亚里士多德给他儿子当老师后，富人都开始雇佣家庭教师。圣保罗到斯德哥尔摩的维新派认为，教育科技可以有办法使每一个学生都被照顾到。美国是最快开始使用这个模式的。有三分之一的学生在学校里开始使用“个性的数字化学习”。使用这个项目有Summit公校等，这些软件由Facebook的工程师义务提供，并被分发到上百个学校。
In India, where about half of children leave primary school unable to read a simple text, the curriculum goes over many pupils’ heads. “Adaptive” software such as Mindspark can work out what a child knows and pose questions accordingly. A recent paper found that Indian children using Mindspark after school made some of the largest gains in maths and reading of any education study in poor countries.
在印度，这个一半的孩子小学毕业之后做不到阅读简单课文的国家，这种课程正在开始被广泛使用。自适应软件比如Mindspark能够识别出一个孩子知道多少，从而提出相应的问题。一篇最近的论文指出，在所有贫穷国家的教育研究中，课后使用Mindspark软件的印度学生在数学和阅读方面取得了最大的进步。
The other way edtech can aid learning is by making schools more productive. In California schools are using software to overhaul the conventional model. Instead of textbooks, pupils have “playlists”, which they use to access online lessons and take tests. The software assesses children’s progress, lightening teachers’ marking load and giving them insight on their pupils. Saved teachers’ time is allocated to other tasks, such as fostering pupils’ social skills or one-on-one tuition. A study in 2015 suggested that children in early adopters of this model score better in tests than their peers at other schools.
教育科技带来的另一个好处是可以让学校更有效率。加利福尼亚的学校正在使用软件来打破传统模式。学生们不再用课本，而是用播放列表来代替。他们可以访问在线课程并且参加测验。软件会评估孩子的进度，减轻教师批改作业的负担，让他们更全面的了解学生。教师节省下来的时间可以去做其他的工作，例如培养学生的社交技能或者对他们进行一对一辅导。2015年的一项研究显示，很早开始用这种模式学习的学生比其他学校的同龄人测试成绩要好
Pay attention at the back
Such innovation is welcome. But making the best of edtech means getting several things right. First, “personalised learning” must follow the evidence on how children learn. It must not be an excuse to revive pseudoscientific ideas such as “learning styles”: the theory that each child has a particular way of taking in information. Such nonsense leads to schemes like Brain Gym, an “educational kinesiology” programme once backed by the British government, which claimed that some pupils should stretch, bend and emit an “energy yawn” while doing their sums.
小心身后
这种创新当然是好的。但是最大化教育科技的优势意味着要做对很多事情。首先，个性化的学习必须符合学生学习的实际情况。他不能变成为了复兴类似“学习风格”这种伪科学的借口。这种理论认为每个孩子都有他们独特的接受讯息的方式。这种毫无意义的说法导致类似“健脑操"之类的诞生，这个运动技能学的项目居然还得到了英国政府的支持。认为有些学生做算术的应该做做拉伸，弯曲，打个哈欠之类会有帮助
A less consequential falsehood is that technology means children do not need to learn facts or learn from a teacher—instead they can just use Google. Some educationalists go further, arguing that facts get in the way of skills such as creativity and critical thinking. The opposite is true. A memory crammed with knowledge enables these talents. William Shakespeare was drilled in Latin phrases and grammatical rules and yet he penned a few decent plays. In 2015 a vast study of 1,200 education meta-analyses found that, of the 20 most effective ways of boosting learning, nearly all relied on the craft of a teacher.
有个不太重要的瞎话是说，孩子们根本不需要从事实或是老师那儿学习，他们只需要google就可以了。一些教育学家甚至宣称，事实对于类似创造性或批判性思维这样的技能反而是起到妨碍作用的。但事情恰恰相反。记忆与知识的结合才能够激发那些天赋。莎士比亚受过拉丁语和文法的训练，才写出了那样的戏剧。2015年，一项广泛的针对1200例教育数据的分析发现，20个对推动教育最有效的方式，都离不开老师在其中的精彩发挥
The second imperative is to make sure that edtech narrows, rather than widens, inequalities in education. Here there are grounds for optimism. Some of the pioneering schools are private ones in Silicon Valley. But many more are run by charter-school groups teaching mostly poor pupils, such as Rocketship and Achievement First—or Summit, where 99% of graduating pupils go on to university and laggards make the most progress relative to their peers in normal classes. A similar pattern can be observed outside America. In studies of edtech in India by J-PAL, a research group, the biggest beneficiaries are children using software to receive remedial education.
还有一件事势在必行，那就是确保教育科技会缩小，而不是放大教育的不平等现象。对此有些人持乐观态度。硅谷一些私校在这方面走在了前面。但更多的是一些教授贫困学生的特许学校，比如Rocketship and Achievement First或是 Summit。这些学校99%的毕业生都会去读大学。取得最大进步反而是那些平常落后的学生。我们可以在美国之外的地方也发现类似的事。J-PAL在印度的一项关于教育科技的研究发现，最大的受益者其实是那些用软件来进行矫正教育的孩子们
Third, the potential for edtech will be realised only if teachers embrace it. They are right to ask for evidence that products work. But scepticism should not turn into Luddism. A good model is São Paulo, where teachers have welcomed Geekie, an adaptive-software company, into public schools.
最后，只有当老师们真正开始使用教育科技时，这项技术的潜能才会被发挥出来。他们完全有理由怀疑这东西是不是真的有用。但怀疑不应该演化成对抗。一个很好的范例就是在圣保罗州，老师们都非常欢迎一家叫做Geekie的自适应软件公司在公校推广。
In 1984 Skinner called opposition to technology the “shame” of education. Given what edtech promises today, closed-mindedness has no place in the classroom.
1984年，Skinner把那些反对科技的人称作是教育的耻辱。考虑到教育科技今天的成就，固化的思想在教室这种地方，是没有立足之地的