In August this year, the Ministry of Education and other eight departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Children and Adolescents’ Myopia" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"), which made it clear that the teaching time using electronic products should not exceed 30% of the total teaching time in principle, and paper homework should be used in principle. However, according to a survey conducted by reporters in the past two months, some schools rely too much on electronic products to assign homework, making it the carrier of "sea tactics". Parents are tied to homework like "teaching assistants", and even the absurd phenomenon of "parents working overtime, children can’t do homework" appears.
"Children can’t do homework without a tablet."
"The first thing to do when I get home from work every day is to see what homework the teacher has arranged on the APP, as if I were reading." Mr. Wang, a parent of a first-grade student in a public primary school, said that there are 80 calculation questions in a day just for mathematics. "Did the child read a fake first grade?"
Half a month, the reporter looked through the APP mentioned by Mr. Wang, which listed various subjects such as Chinese, mathematics and English. After finishing the homework, it can be submitted online. After the teacher reviews it, it will be returned immediately, and parents will teach the children to correct it before uploading it.
In this way, using software on mobile phones, tablet computers and other devices to arrange homework has become a routine operation in more and more schools, and some schools have relied too much.
Mr. Shen, a parent of a third-grade elementary school student, said that the school not only requires children to do it online, but also requires parents to read it themselves and then upload it. "Every night like ‘ Teaching assistant ’ Similarly, once you are on a business trip or work overtime, your child’s homework will be abolished. After all, your grandparents are not very good at playing tablets. "
A reporter who talked for half a month found that homework depends on electronic products. One of the main reasons is that some schools are still keen on "super-class teaching" and "sea tactics".
A principal of a public primary school told reporters that according to the curriculum standards, school-age students are provided with exercise books and other teaching AIDS in addition to textbooks, but often these standards can not meet the requirements of some schools to "pull up".
The Ministry of Education has repeatedly stressed that there is no written homework in the first and second grades of primary schools, but many schools use electronic equipment to violate the rules in disguise.
Mr. Shen’s children attended a well-known public primary school in a coastal area, but in the past two years, almost all the homework done by children through tablet computers was one grade higher. Now children in the third grade have been exposed to the teaching content of the fourth grade. "Paper exercise books are not required because they are too simple for children."
Some teachers and parents report that homework APP helps to improve the efficiency of teachers’ correcting homework, evaluation and feedback, especially to make English and other language subjects lively and interesting. It can also analyze children’s weak knowledge points through big data, but if it is not used properly, it will easily become an electronic big question bank, which will increase the burden on students.
Electronic homework, labor-saving or tiring?
The original ink-scented exercise books have become tablet computers and mobile phones, and even the original extracurricular practice of hands, feet and brains is also inseparable from electronic products.
Ms. Liu, the parents of primary school students, said that the school-based curriculum requires children to show the places they have been in the summer in the form of tabloids, and take turns to give speeches after school starts. But tabloids must be made on the computer in PPT or PDF format, and then printed. "The implication is that parents can do it."
Computers, tablets, printers and point readers … … More and more families’ children’s rooms are filled with electronic products for learning needs. What makes parents anxious is not only that the equipment costs money, but also that the children hurt their eyes and worry about their children.
"I really don’t understand why homework like tabloids and paintings that give play to children’s imagination and potential must be done through computers?" Mr. Lu, a parent of primary school students, said that parents have been controlling the time when their children use electronic products, but for homework, parents have nothing to say if their children stare at the screen again.
"As soon as a child takes a tablet, it is necessary to prevent him from playing games and watching videos." Mr. Shen said that the couple can rack their brains, such as registering all the video applications on the tablet as members, so that even if they are not with their children, they can check whether their children have watched other videos through "history" on their mobile phones.
A primary school class teacher told reporters that the most frustrating thing for parents and teachers is that children will gradually use some homework apps to search for answers to questions online, making people unable to tell whether they really understand or plagiarize.
Building an information-based campus, not at the expense of children’s eyesight.
In fact, whether it is homework or extracurricular practice, more and more parents and children are exposed to electronic products not because of interest, but because of school requirements. Intelligent learning APPlications such as homework app are very common, and some applications have become an integral part of some local education administrative departments and schools to build information-based campuses and digital classrooms.
Take a well-known APP commonly mentioned by interviewed parents as an example. It is said that the APP has completed the C round of financing of 100 million US dollars in February this year, and entered 70,000 schools in more than 400 cities in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. More than 30 million primary school teachers and students are using this app to arrange and submit homework.
A central primary school in Luwan, Huangpu District, Shanghai has added the use of tablet computers in seven or eight courses, such as Chinese and mathematics, but the school’s myopia rate is low, and some classes even have no myopia.
President Wu Rongzhen said that the school insisted on not using all kinds of apps to arrange homework. "Electronic products used in schools are generally controlled within 15 minutes, but as homework assignments, time cannot be controlled. Once dependence is formed, it is a bad thing."
It is understood that some apps adopt a business model of free use of homework function and personalized counseling fee. For example, various courses of online learning must be paid for.
The founder of an online education platform said that homework APPs usually drain first, and then make money. The reason why they aim at homework is because it is a hard rule of the school every day, and the user’s viscosity is high. To some extent, it is what this kind of app is most willing to see that teachers and children form dependence.
Yu Jianbo, assistant dean of massive open online course Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University, believes that everything has advantages and disadvantages. Schools should use electronic products and application software appropriately. It is more important to learn how to use them scientifically and reasonably.
Wu Zunmin, a professor at the Education Department of East China Normal University, said that all localities should make detailed regulations according to local conditions when implementing the Implementation Plan. For example, it is suggested that students in the lower grades of primary schools should not be assigned homework grafted on electronic products except written homework. (Half-monthly talk with reporter Pan Xu and Wu Zhendong)