Monday, August 11, 2014

ORWELLIAN DOUBLESPEAK: 1982 & 2014


eLearning in primary schools

Read more: http://abcsofdumbdown.blogspot.com/2014/05/can-computer-brainwash-you-betcha.html
Graphics from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5T-rq06Xe0

1982: AN ARTICLE ENTITLED “GRADUATES LACK TECHNICAL TRAINING, STUDY WARNS—BY 1990, 2 Million May Not Have Essential Skills Needed for Employment in ‘Information Society’” was published in the May 12, 1982 issue of Education Week, which said in part:
  • Students. Technology used for educational purposes has the potential to reshape instructional delivery systems, the report says, and that may result in a decentralization of learning from traditional schools into homes, communities and industries.… 
  • Responsibilities and relevance. Education must become more relevant to the world of work, the report contends, and this requires “informational feedback systems on the successes of students who have completed the required curriculum. Quality control has focused on the inputs into a system—teachers and textbooks, for example—and not the outcomes.... [bold added] (Read the rest of this insightful article, on pages 188-189 of the deliberate dumbing down of america.)
2014: NEWT GINGRICH published an opinion piece, "Get schools out of the 1890s," August 1, 2014. Here is an excerpt discussing what he calls "blended learning." Note how this is all data-driven and ask the hard questions as you read this:
Pioneering projects like Khan Academy, Udacity and Coursera are pointing toward a future of learning that is more like Netflix than the chalk-and-textbook system we have today. Each of them is using technology to help students learn at their own pace, on their own path, and toward their own goals....

New resources like Khan Academy have enabled creative teachers to integrate digital learning into the classroom and to coach students to offer better, more personalized instruction.
 

This "blended learning"—having some teaching done by a teacher and some through digital learning systems—is a revolutionary concept....

This model works precisely because it asks much of teachers and their students. Students' skills are assessed daily or weekly through interactive systems like Khan Academy....

Future lessons are tailored to fit their needs. Then teachers, armed with detailed data about each student, can lead small group and one-on-one sessions to help clear up problems.....

Educators with online tools... can usually accelerate the pace of instruction. In some cases, students skip whole grade levels while using blended learning....


The cost of educating each student declines in blended-learning environments, in part because schools require fewer teachers to manage the classrooms. With fewer discipline issues, students become more engaged in the material and as a result, learn better. Additionally, teachers have more free time to spend with each student. This makes classroom size rules obsolete, and since compensating teachers has been the main cost driver in education, it is a big breakthrough.

Why will these "blended-learning" (e-learning) classrooms need fewer teachers? Because Johnny and Susie are hooked up to the computer, getting B.F. Skinner's Programmed Instruction. Watch the video below to understand the "doublespeak" of Newt Gingrich:

Click link to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5T-rq06Xe0
Doublespeak Definition:

  • misleads
  • distorts reality
  • pretends to communicate
  • makes the bad seem good
  • avoids or shifts responsibility
  • makes the negative appear positive
  • creates a false verbal map of the world
  • limits, conceals, corrupts, and prevents thought
  • makes the unpleasant appear attractive or tolerable
  • creates incongruity between reality and what is said or not said
...Using doublethink, a person could hold two opposing ideas in his or her mind at the same time, fully believing in both ideas.(SOURCE)