Laptop Masuk Sekolah

Di bawah ada saran-saran terhadap penggunaan Komputer Laptop di salah satu sekolah (National Plus) di Indonesia. Kita terus menerima informasi (seringkali retorika) mengenai hebatnya teknologi untuk meningkatkan mutu pendidikan di Indonesia, tetapi kami sudah mulai sangat ragu-ragu karena kelihatannya terlalu banyak siswa-siswi sekarang sibuk main games dan menggunakan Internet di luar sekolah untuk "chatting", mencari jodoh dan kegiatan-kegiatan yang tidak sama sekali berhubungan dengan pelajaran. Apakah kegiatan-kegiatan begini hanya menghabiskan waktu yang seharusnya digunakan untuk belajar di rumah? Bagaimana dengan "membawa Komputer Laptop ke sekolah"? Apakah membawa laptop ke sekolah dapat membantu meningkatkan mutu pendidikan siswa-siswi kita? Di bawah ada cerita dari salah satu guru asing (Amerika/Rusia), yang berpendidikan S3 (Rusia), dengan latar belakang teknologi (di banyak negara), mengenai pengalaman beliau sebagai “International Principal” (kepala Sekolah Internasional) di sala satu sekolah National Plus di Indonesia (Desember 2007). Kenalan Dulu Hello, readers and visitors, let me introduce myself. I am a retired American of Russian origin, now working in the position of “International Principal” at ....... Indonesia. Before my retirement in 2003 I worked in USA for several high-tech companies, the last of which was “Maxwell Technologies”, a semiconductor manufacturing company in San Diego, California, there I had a position of Radiation Testing Analyst/Engineer. I hold a Ph.D. degree in Engineering from the Academy of Sciences of Russian Federation, where I used to work many years in the area of design and testing of geophysical instruments – magnetometers, seismometers, data acquisition systems, etc. With these instruments I have traveled all over the Earth, including many countries in Europe, Asia and America, as well as 2 trips to Antarctica. I have 24 scientific papers published in international scientific magazines, and 2 scientific books translated by me from English into Russian. "The topic in question is LAPTOP COMPUTERS" "There is no lack in emotional words about modern high technologies, about how computers will help children learn easily the most complicated subjects, how the young generations will be prepared to enter the modern world, equipped with high skills and deep knowledge of every possible science and industry. It was said, that children will learn straight from kindergarten the internal structure of computers, that Internet access will help them to find quickly all necessary information, etc, etc… However, the reality is quite different, almost to the opposite. There is no need to explain that laptop computers inside the school are used almost exclusively for gaming, which occupies 99% of the laptop working time. Students play different active games – they fight with monsters, they defend Earth against alien invaders, they race cars, planes and other shooting and screaming machinery, they crawl in the caves in search of diamonds or win championships in space adventures. All this games have very bright graphics, they are accompanied by sounds, and the imagination of an 11-15 year old child is completely captured by the excitement of the game. But when the break ends, and the student must return to the real world for a lesson, some interesting things happen. First, the student is angry, because the gaming excitement was interrupted for the sake of a dull boring lesson. Naturally, this anger turns towards the teacher. The brain and the soul of the student are still fully there, in the game, and the student is absolutely incapable to think about any information related to the lesson. This mental state lasts from 10 to 30 minutes"