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Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

fatihprojesi.meb.gov.tr

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Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#21

Post by mathetic »

Let alone the problem with the implementation of the system,

Almost half of the public schools in Turkey does not have proper funding for decent education.

Quarter of public schools have classes with more than 50 students (that holds true for metropolitans).

Many public schools in the Eastern part of Turkey lack money to provide heating to the students during winter. PS. Winter in the Eastern part can be as cold as -20 Celsius.

Yet government can find funding to provide tablets for students for some lucky schools. This is more than just PR work for the ruling party. This is plain hypocrisy.

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#22

Post by diminish »

f4stjack wrote: post #10

Be serious. You'll see that nobody is planning to kill school books, if you can read between the lines. That could have happened if the ministry had restructured the educational system to use tablets effectively. All they've done is scan the books and slap them into feature restricted tablets. Unfortunately, this is just a public relations move and nothing more IMHO. (Oh and the site is down I think? It only gives me…

I agree, the title is misleading in that, "Killing the books" is not intended as part of the project if you read the ministry web page (with a grunge design reminding 90s.)

The Peru experience with OLPC is reportedly having mixed results; so such projects should be worked out properly if not targeting short-sighted PR.

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#23

Post by jballanc »

fsniper wrote: post #17
jballanc wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American citizen living in Turkey, I agree that this effort is a bit cart-before-the-horse. That said, I think that Turkey is in an interesting place right now. Maybe the way they are introducing technology into the classroom is wrong, but at least they are interested in using technology in the classroom. Meanwhile, the US is arguing over the best way to use statistics to decide which teachers to fire. It seems…

The ones that are advertised are from Microsoft. Because they have the money. I'm a - past time active - Turkey LUG/LUF (Linux User Foundation) member and we still continuously do events but lack the funding for advertisement. On the topic, In my point of view, these moves are just wasting government funding, even a corruption possibility. If you know about Deniz Feneri Lawsuit you can understand my doubts. Without d…

I think the outcome of this experiment very much depends on the attitude that parents and students take into it. If they passively accept the technology, don't ask questions, and don't push for more access, more technology, then the project will be a waste regardless of any corruption or inefficiencies.

If, on the other hand, the students and parents expect to take this technology and do something with it, to change somehow the state of education, then it won't matter how poorly executed this first project is. Students will demand more and better access as time goes on.

I am an optimist. Recent reports on the success (or lack thereof) of the One Laptop Per Child program make me slightly more pessimistic, though...

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#24

Post by afsina »

fsniper wrote: post #11

As an Turkish citizen living in Turkey. this move is bold but too early move. Also it's nothing about killing books. It's just a AKP(the ruling party) pr move without any bases. We even lack the tech to run governmental sites in a stable and secure way. Forget about making this kind of technological movement worthy for the kids. These will be highly restricted tablets - even not working outside of classrooms -, and w…

Generally I agree that throwing hardware to schools does not solve anything.

"We have a tendency to restrict any sites against Islamic creationism so most of any pro-evolution or even scientific evolution ones will be restricted"

You have to back this claim. There were incidents where some blogs were blocked but that was because of a court order which was caused by an individual, not government.

"This year AKP legislated an education system of 4+4+4 which means, well I have no fucking idea! But as much as I've heard it would make possible 4 year old kids to be admitted for elementary school which will have "optional" Quran and "Prophet Muhammad" lessons and women to be continue education without attending the last 4 years."

Idea is to revert the previous "27th of february coup"'s education changes which practically destroyed technical high schools and unnecessarily combined elementary and secondary schools. I believe the new system is better, no matter what the government's agenda is. However it was executed too quickly. Also as a side note, if there is a demand for religious education (And there is), parents should be allowed to give it.

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#25

Post by dnda »

The big problem I see with the project is that everone seems to be focused on hardware, which I think should be at the bottom of the the list to provide decent digital education system.

Money should be spent on good educational content and infrastructure to distribute this content. End devices will change every year anyway but content stays for long time and it is content that actually matters.

The content delivery part actually could be independent of the hardware, but government of course can subsidize a cheap and robust device for students. Which naturally means an OSS solution like android.

However Microsoft entrenchment is at highest levels in Turkey and prevents development of a healthy IT ecosystem. Even the best universities completely bound to Microsoft tools and technologies. So I would expect they will try to derail this project on both software and hardware fronts.

This project has slim chance of success because of wrong focus and poor software expertise of contractors. But I can't blame them for trying. Turkey adapts technologies very fast, and has a chance to leapfrog other countries on this front.

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#26

Post by fsniper »

afsina wrote: post #24
fsniper wrote: post #11

As an Turkish citizen living in Turkey. this move is bold but too early move. Also it's nothing about killing books. It's just a AKP(the ruling party) pr move without any bases. We even lack the tech to run governmental sites in a stable and secure way. Forget about making this kind of technological movement worthy for the kids. These will be highly restricted tablets - even not working outside of classrooms -, and w…

Generally I agree that throwing hardware to schools does not solve anything. "We have a tendency to restrict any sites against Islamic creationism so most of any pro-evolution or even scientific evolution ones will be restricted" You have to back this claim. There were incidents where some blogs were blocked but that was because of a court order which was caused by an individual, not government. "This year AKP legisl…

I won't go into a quarrel about these. And I won't back any of my claims.

At least not on HN

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#27

Post by fsniper »

jballanc wrote: post #23
fsniper wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ones that are advertised are from Microsoft. Because they have the money. I'm a - past time active - Turkey LUG/LUF (Linux User Foundation) member and we still continuously do events but lack the funding for advertisement. On the topic, In my point of view, these moves are just wasting government funding, even a corruption possibility. If you know about Deniz Feneri Lawsuit you can understand my doubts. Without d…

I think the outcome of this experiment very much depends on the attitude that parents and students take into it. If they passively accept the technology, don't ask questions, and don't push for more access, more technology, then the project will be a waste regardless of any corruption or inefficiencies. If, on the other hand, the students and parents expect to take this technology and do something with it, to change…

I believe, only a few of the kids will push whatever they have for better use. This may be my pessimism, but lack of DIY culture and abusing of technology tendency of Turkey population makes me think like this.

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#28

Post by dnda »

fsniper wrote: post #26
afsina wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally I agree that throwing hardware to schools does not solve anything. "We have a tendency to restrict any sites against Islamic creationism so most of any pro-evolution or even scientific evolution ones will be restricted" You have to back this claim. There were incidents where some blogs were blocked but that was because of a court order which was caused by an individual, not government. "This year AKP legisl…

I won't go into a quarrel about these. And I won't back any of my claims. At least not on HN

Yet you spilled them here on HN :)

Re: Turkey kills school books, moves to tablet in all schools

#29

Post by jballanc »

fsniper wrote: post #27
jballanc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the outcome of this experiment very much depends on the attitude that parents and students take into it. If they passively accept the technology, don't ask questions, and don't push for more access, more technology, then the project will be a waste regardless of any corruption or inefficiencies. If, on the other hand, the students and parents expect to take this technology and do something with it, to change…

I believe, only a few of the kids will push whatever they have for better use. This may be my pessimism, but lack of DIY culture and abusing of technology tendency of Turkey population makes me think like this.

I can't say you're wrong. I only wonder what it would take to change that...
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