Assgn4 The impact of poverty on educational outcomesTravis and Yongliang

Summary

Children who come from poverty-stricken households are usually less ready for school due to difficulties faced in health, home life, neighbourhoods and schooling. This is primarily because of the duration of poverty, timing of poverty, community characteristics and also the impact that poverty has on the child's network. When these children who come from lower-income families attend school, the majority score significantly lower in vocabulary and communication skills compared to children who come from higher-income families. From this, it is evident that children from low-income families arrive at school at a cognitive and behavioural disadvantage because of the poor living environment that they were brought up in.
Reader response:What do you think should be the key intervention strategy to help children in poverty to excel in their studies.
I feel that having parental involvement and a good parenting style should be the key intervention strategy to help children in poverty to excel in their studies. With good parenting since young, the values that help in their pursuit of knowledge like being hardworking can be instilled into them, allowing them to grow up to strive towards doing better in their studies through hardwork and perseverance. The article mentions about the Chicago Child Parent Center programme, where a research found out that children whose parents were more involved with their studies had greater academic achievement in reading and mathematics, teacher ratings of the school adjustment, grade retention and special education placement. After these children grew up they also generally had higher rates of school completion and attained more years of education. I also feel that the demands that parents have on children's academic progress serve as a motivation for children to work hard in order to achieve the desirable results that parents expect from them in order to appease their parents. Thus it can be said that parental involvement in the form of setting demands for their children can prove effective as it serves as a driving force for them to do well in studies.

assignment3 Travis and Yong Liang 4c

Educated girls are the greatest threat to extremists because there's no force more powerful than educated girls to transform a society. They change the demography. Educated girls help curb birthrates effectively which leads to social stability. Educating girls can double the formal labour force, which leads to a boost in the economy, and a rise in living standards and helpts to promote development. Furthermore, when a country educates and unleashes these women, they often become force multipliers for good. They also tend to become the backbone of large companies, development organizations and the garment industry.

I agree with the author that one of the best ways to bring a country to greater heights and oppose extremist groups would be to educate women. Educating women can bring out many benefits like easing the youth bulge in the population, and also double the formal labour force, thereby boosting the economy. I also feel that women have more forgiving mindsets than men and are able to calmly think over things better than men, and thus can make more informed decisions that can benefit the country. Educating women with the right social skills needed to lead the society is also important because this will allow them to recognise the ways extremist groups are desperately trying to make their country remain as a backward society. However I also feel that just education is not enough, women also need support and empowerment for them to shine at the opportunities they are given. They require the support and trust of their people in order to lead, and also require funds from third parties in order to bring peace to their countries and better standards for living for the people, otherwise all these educated individuals would have their potentials wasted away.

Yeo Yong Liang and Travis Tan Teenagers using smartphones

Reader response
I agree with the author in the viewpoint that we should not worry about teenagers using smartphones. As a teenager myself, I must agree that using smartphones has had many large beneficial effects on my life. For example, smartphones can easily kill boredom during inevitable timeframes of the day, like riding on a train where smartphones can allow you to occupy yourself by doing things like listening to music, playing games, reading e-books, instead of blankly staring into space while waiting for the train to arrive at your destination. The use of smartphones have also allowed students to be able to complete work quicker and easier. When they are unable to remember a mathematical formula, a quick press on the smartphones will give them their answer, instead of having to flip through every single mathematics textbook in order to find out the formula. However, smartphones are also definitely a double-edged sword. In a scenario where one is searching for solutions to a problem regarding his work, a single message from a good friend might lead you into endless chatting between both of you, and before you know it, precious time has been wasted and the task is still not completed. Smartphones can bring easy access to the unlimited amount of information on the web, but surely major distractions will also be more accessible to teenagers. This will significantly lower their work productivity if one is easily distracted. Only with one's clever use of these smartphones can they keep focused on their work and abstain from being easily distracted by the smartphone. Yet, the occasional distraction is still necessary, to prevent one from being labelled as a workaholic and for one to live life to the fullest. Therefore, the use of smartphones by teenagers is not a major concern to the livelihood of the young generation.

Summary
People worry about the teenagers' use of mobile phones because they are afraid that teenagers might get addicted to using mobile phones for social networking and for online games, none of which benefit them. However people should not only look at the disadvantages of using mobile phones as using mobile phones come with many advantages as well. By using mobile phones, teenagers are able to sharpen their quick-wittedness, multitasking skills, problem solving skills and also the ability to gather information from a bountiful of sources. Furthermore, they can learn to be independent as information is just a touch away. In a nuthsell, using a mobile phone brings about many positive effects and helps in the development of teenagers.

Assignment 1: Can schools survive in the age of the web? Travis and Yong Liang

Summary: Summarize the main arguments as to how education is likely to change in the future within 100-150 words
The alternative to education in the future will be online learning. We increasingly trust online media for something more fundamental: the skills, knowledge and instruction required to thrive in the modern world. Prestigious universities offer online educational materials in the form of recorded lectures, online tests, digital documents, and blue chip institutional endorsements. Education is not replaced but rather, it can be unbundled, if technology promises not so much to replace older institutions as to break up the packages they once offered, providing particular parts of education at a scale and cost unmatchable by the current education.

How far do you agree with the writer's view that the future of education needs to be 'unbundled' and redefined? Explain in 1 paragraph with reference to specific details in the article within 200-250 words.

I agree to a large extent to the author's viewpoint on the future of education, that the future will be a very uncomfortable place to learn. The future of education would be brimming with all kinds of technology for the children to learn. Although it does bring about many great benefits like allowing illiterate people to be able to learn to read, there are still many important experiences that cannot be experienced by one behind a screen. Community, tuition, interpersonal dialogue, shared space and time are examples of these experiences. The lack of these experiences will greatly hinder the progress of those who want to learn. The use of technology also disallows one to teach and make the students learn certain moral values. For example, integrity is one of these moral values as students can cheat by searching for answers on the vast web while doing online tests, while on the other hand they cannot do so under strict monitoring by teachers in written tests. This will allow students to learn the basic moral values one should have to grow up to become a trustworthy person respected by everyone for his moral uprightness.