Comment: Jersey needs a 'radical' education re-think

Tuesday 07 August 2018

Why is our current educational model largely based around a set of short exams?

One local secondary school is exploring how technology could now offer a different way forward, with everyone in the class pursuing a specialist course which suits their needs, at their own pace. Rory Steel, who is Beaulieu's CTO and Assistant Headteacher, argues Jersey is perfectly placed to come up with a new system, which uses the fast internet speeds we now have at our fingertips.

"Another academic year has drawn to a close, as usual around this time of the year I ponder the future and catch up on some TED talks. This repository of exciting Tech, Education & Design talks are delivered by thought provoking experts. My favourite TED speaker is Sir Ken Robinson, he shares a common belief with many educationalists that the current education model is broken.

"In his first 2006 talk 'Do schools kill creativity,' among other things, he explains how 2-hour exams which sadly try and quantify a lifetime of student learning and potential are clearly flawed. They’re also biased to a distinct type of intelligence; I know plenty of people that have impeccable exam results yet struggle with common sense practical problems and vice versa. 12 years on from this talk, and not much has changed; from a logistical and standards point of view we have an absence of a better model, so what can we do to correctly assess learning? I’ve seen many alternative theories come and go but all had fundamental flaws that couldn’t be scaled nationwide, until now.

Pictured: Sir Ken Robinson, argues the current educational model is broken. 

"Recent developments in technology and artificial intelligence mean online assessments have become more reliable and secure. Last year I completed a Google online test that tracked my face to check I was sitting the exam and didn’t get someone else to do it. It gave me real activities to complete live and auto-marked my test using AI technology. It gave me a glimpse of the future.

"Last month I was introduced to an online course for cybersecurity, and my test students have become obsessed with it. Students can select from a plethora of specialist courses and have to solve complex problems that reveal unique codes to pass the modules. They receive badges upon completion that have points allocated to them, based on the module difficulty. Students can compare their scores with others in the same school, region or even world placings. This form of learning is called gamification, and is tapping into this generations online habits, increasing engagement.

"The exciting part of this gamification course is its potential to disrupt the traditional model of education. The key lies in the jobs board attached to the site. Once a student completes a number of modules it suggests potential, and very real, jobs they might be interested in. A student showed me a job in the UK  for a 'Junior Penetration Tester: Cyber Risk & Technology.' She read up on the details and realised she was only one small module away from being allowed to apply for it. So, she went home that night and started the course. Later that week she had learnt the basics of Ethical Web Hacking in her own time. She was motivated, excited and determined to succeed. At no point did the application ask for GCSE’s, which was poignant for this enthused 15-year-old student who is yet to take even one! Why should education be based on ‘date of manufacture’ rather than a students rate of progress? Are year groups useful or just historical?

"I appreciate the need for a well rounded education but the world requires specialists more and more. Technology alone is a field now so vast it is impossible to teach anything in real depth with 1 hour a week. I want students to be able to sample a range of introductory topics early, find what ignites their passion and follow it with laser vision. That requires a room of 25 students to all be working on different topics at the same time, teachers to assess and feedback these varied topics simultaneously, and find separate exams for each to assess these specialist skills - simply not possible in the current educational model.

"So, for now, our school will trial a shadow curriculum, IT homework to be replaced with online cybersecurity modules, building skills, raising employability in the sector to complement rather than replace. This model could be emulated for all major sectors in the island: financial, law, construction modules to name a few big employment areas that could utilise gamification eLearning. With more and more students finding it difficult to meet the rising university fees, a 'Jersey looking after Jersey' bespoke learning platform, tailored to local needs could keep more young talent in the island. With the ability to change our laws, being in the world top 10 for internet speeds, we have the opportunity to make these agile changes quickly. It would be brave, it would be risky but the payoff could be huge. Not only would the economy benefit from less imported talent, our community as a whole would be more skills oriented.

Pictured: fast internet connections are opening up new possibilities in education

"We have tested ‘super-classes’ at Beaulieu, classes of 50 students with 2 teachers available. The student-teacher ratio remains the same as a 'normal' class but we are able to help students more quickly. The keys to managing classes of this size, are our online virtual lessons combined with automatic marking. All the students are at different stages of learning. No one is finished early waiting for the class to progress, while at the same time students that need longer to process the instructions can. The GCSE results of these classes showed the significant improvements it made to learning. These changes are only possible due to changes in technology, artificial intelligence is creeping into everyday education but I think it can evolve further and in a locally beneficial way.

"As a small island, it should be easier to implement radical change - but that’s just it, it’s not even that radical. The influence and effect of organisations like Digital Jersey, Skills Jersey & the Barclays Eagle lab are becoming more pronounced. It was an impressively large turnout for Barclays recent AI frenzy at the library, showing a willingness to adopt new ideas into the mainstream from local businesses. In the tech field we should believe Jersey can be world-class, I mentioned we are in the top 10 for internet speeds, in fact since the last upgrade we are likely more like top 3, possibly even first based on my home test! Take a moment to think about that, potentially first in the world... I don’t think JT will ever get the praise it deserves for the fibre network here. Soon we will watch 4K Ultra High Definition Netflix and not give a second thought to how it happens. For me, fibre has changed what is possible in education and I, for one, tip my hat to them. It can help Jersey in every industry if we can think a little differently.

Pictured: Jersey boasts some of the world's top average internet speeds. 

"Fundamentally changing education in this way seems futuristic but the mechanisms and tools are all in place. Can we be brave? Why does Jersey have to wait for the UK to change? Do we have the “highly-developed business and communications network” Locate Jersey says we do? Or after all the political bluster are we too risk averse to really be world class?"