If we decide to ban smartphones from schools we should ban them from work too. I’m supposed to be writing an article right now and instead I’m here. Then we should ban them from streets so that people have to pay attention to where they are going and the things going on around them. At that point we’d have something like functioning human beings again instead of mindless zombies. We could still have terminals for plugging into the Machine but our time with it should be regulated (like it already is with research clusters) so that we don’t waste energy. There, the whole problem is solved and all it takes is a global butlerian jihad.
Capitalism went so hard it fucked up its future workforce
TBH, I’d AI can screw up the education system so fast then it is the fault in the education system. AI is bad, but our education system is not good either.
but our education system is not good either.
No Child Left Behind has fucked us for over 20 years…
People are blaming these college kids, but their entire k-12 was under No Child, they were never taught critical thinking, what the fuck are they supposed to do? No one ever taught these kids to think for themselves.
We failed an entire generation, and it’s too late to fix it for them now, the best we can do is fix it for the kids that will start public education in a few years.
But we’ll be paying the price for decades
And this is why my wife and I homeschool our kids. It’s all about teaching critical thinking. They’re so far beyond their peers in public schools it’s not even close. NCLB was one of the worst decisions for our society in centuries.
Like all things republican, you ruin the public service, then tell everybody we need to get rid of this public service cause only the free market can provide that service in good quality.
Vouchers will save us our children!
It’s simply easier to exert control over society through private corporations than in the light of day with public goods and services. Especially when what you desire is of minority opinion.
You are mixing up transparency and legality with the private\public category. When one side of this category is more popular, the other side is often described as the solution to the problems with the former two. But there’s no causation.
I would go further back than that. Our entire education system has failed to adapt to the fact that rote memorization is not the most important form of learning and that any question that could be answered in a multiple choice manner is not really worth asking to verify if someone understood the taught material.
We have an education system that has failed to adapt to the easy availability of references which should have resulted in a focus on teaching a “skeleton” of knowledge to students since the exact details can always be looked up as long as you know the information exists and how to interpret it (e.g. you don’t need to memorize which element carbon is and how much it weighs, you need to understand what an element is and what important properties of chemical elements are).
We have an education system that failed to adapt to the availability of video recording which would have meant it would be easy to have every student understanding the same language watch the most engaging individuals instead of the average ones, presenting the content in a way designed by entire teams of top teachers, falling back on the average ones only for the interactive parts of education.
We have an education system that still struggles with the teacher for a subject as a single source of failure, both in terms of absence and in terms of that teacher not being very compatible in their explanations with the way specific students think instead of having some kind of online forum or matching of teacher to student for one on one questions in a more flexible manner.
We have an education system that still rigidly adheres to categories like physics, chemistry, mathematics, languages, history, geography,… designed in the 19th century for its degrees even though many jobs require more flexible mixes of knowledge and many also require learning for the entire life, not just at the start.
Students today learn for exams a few days before they happen, then purge that knowledge again a few days or hours afterwards.
There are many, many things wrong with our education system and we failed to even acknowledge that there are possible alternatives.
On the other hand, people don’t realize how far we’ve come especially for rural areas.
I got an uncle still alive and kicking whose school had to combine grades because there were so few kids.
So for the bulk of his public education it was just him and another girl like 2 years younger than him. That was the whole class, and it was literally a one room school. Not “one classroom” it was a one room log cabin with an outhouse. One single teacher “teaching” literally everything to 1st graders and the rare person who stayed till 12th at the same time.
Oregon Trail generation really looks more like the exception than the rule every year. It seemed like a terrible education at the time, but we’re sandwiched between complete farces of an education system.
2 person classes would be a dream compared to the overburdened 30+ person classes of today. You get half of a private tutor? Hell yeah.
half of a private tutor?
That teaches everything. You think every one room schoolhouse was staffed by someone who knew every topic well enough to teach others?
If something wasn’t in the handful of textbooks, there was no way to get that information.
I don’t think he ever made it to algebra, definitely nothing like chemistry or physics. Biology would have been a joke, and astronomy likely limited to memorizing the order of planets.
It was not a good education.
And I’m guessing in the era of no internet where you couldn’t easily self-teach subjects you didn’t know so that you could pass that onto the kids.
The only point I will disagree on it’s about video. Today’s teaching actually over relies on video media precisely under the hypothesis you suggested. Unfortunately modern science knows that showing and telling is the lowest and most primitive form of learning. Effective learning happens when the student starts using the knowledge in interaction with others. For example practicing using said knowledge to solve problems and later teaching others about the topic. The old medical adage has been proven to be true: see (hear), do, teach. Video is less effective at knowledge transfer than reading and for the worse, reading proficiency is at an all time low. Precisely because of pedagogic inertia in adapting evidence based strategies and depending on tradition based strategies.
Well, video of an actual good teacher is still better than having to passively listen to a bad one in front of you though. I agree that something more interactive and involving the students more actively would probably be even better though.
The same argument could be made of every point in their post. But you’re missing the main point. You’re seeking perfection and ignoring progress in the search of.
I’m the last person to ever ask for perfection. The problem is that educators are being told that video is so great. Then their schedules are crammed full by administration with hundreds of hours of video to show the kids. Leaving them with no time for reading, discussion, or project work. Time that is already taken by tests. So in the end, good educators who are probably way better than some of the awful standardized slop shown to children, have to waste hours showing mandated videos. Bad educators sit on their hands knowing they don’t have to become better because the video is babysitting the kids. This dulls the kids to learning and sends them into a false impression that learning is 100% passive. Sorry, but this way of using video is a net negative to education.
The better option is to recognize that just like everything in education, you need diversity and play to each strategy’s strengths according to the group being taught. Video is good to show things that cannot be demonstrated in class or to showcase highly specialized topics. But it has to be mixed with other strategies to be truly effective. What you must not do is pretend that video is always the better option for everything. Because that is absolutely not true. Specially since OP’s assumptions are wrong.
watch the most engaging individuals instead of the average ones
This has no impact on education. If the teacher present in the class is average, a better instructor on the video has a marginal effect, if any at all.
presenting the content in a way designed by entire teams of top teachers
This has not happened and it’s mostly unnecessary. Specially as the mythical “team of top teachers” has never existed, it is not a thing that exists anywhere. Education all over the world is usually designed by committee, with all the associated flaws and setbacks.
falling back on the average ones only for the interactive parts of education
The worst person for the most important part of the process doesn’t sound good to me.
We have the science, we know that in order to have a positive effect videos must be short, display things that cannot be ordinarily experience in everyday life, and present concrete single topic lectures that can feed interaction and discussion in the classroom, or provide guidance to project work and problem solving. They are a tool that makes good educators better, but for average educators who don’t know how to take advantage of it, it won’t have much impact.
You nailed it.
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This 100%.
The education system was not OK, and has not been for a while. Its main goal is limiting liability, not educating kids.
I will take limiting liability and running with it. Not just the schools, but the kids and parents too no one wants to be responsible and step up to fix the problem.
I’m literally teaching a course to teachers on how to use AI in the classroom so that the students don’t use it as their magical answer dispenser.
What are the headline recommendations?
I had the class build a database of ideas, but one I really liked went like this:
You put a bunch of quiz questions into an AI song generator. The students listen to the song and try to provide the answers afterward.
You can make it really stupid and funny if you want.
Another would be to have AI produce a “podcast” about some topic, maybe Elvis interviewing Churchill about who Darwin was. Tell it to use some key points you want the students to take note of, then let them hear it and talk about it afterward.
Sounds like very inventive ways to include AI in teaching and make it fun and interactive.
How are you modifying what you teach? Wikipedia reduced the focus on learning facts, what does AI remove from the syllabus? What areas should be strengthened to leverage AI?
Well in my case, I leverage AI to extract specifics in long texts, such as level-appropriate vocabulary and collocations related to the topic. I can do this with YouTube video transcripts, for example,then use a different tool to quickly spit out learners definitions of all the words extracted, example sentences with fill-in-the blanks (emphasis on the topic of the lesson), and whatnot. I have to verify that the definitions and example sentences are suitable, then I slap everything together in a handout template I have in Affinity Publisher, along with some topic-related discussion questions. The students watch the video, and then I give them the handout afterwards.
That’s just one example.
I know of a company producing experimental AI tests, that basically put you in a D&D role playing scenario. It shows a scenario on screen, narrates a situation, then asks you to respond. Based on your response it’ll take you in one direction or another, the whole time grading your skills behind the scene. The students don’t even know they’re being tested. At the end, it prints out a score, but it feels more like the end of a video game match than a test.
I think that’s cool af.
We are certainly entering the young lady’s illustrated primer stage of education.
A physics accurate D&D where you play as macgyver could be really cool.
One of my professors had an AI policy. Using AI for an outline or to find resources was okay, as long as it was cited with the exact prompt used. I think having rules for how to use AI on her assignments actually cut down on use compared to professors who outright banned it.
Sounds kinda similar to how Wikipedia was approached by instructors. I remember an English teacher proudly proclaiming she had participated in a “Kill Wikipedia” seminar at a convention. Just a few years later, they’re instructing students on how to properly use Wikipedia as a starting point and not a primary source.
The cynical view of America’s educational system—that it is merely a means by which privileged co-eds can make the right connections, build “social capital,” and get laid—is obviously on full display here.
Cynical? I call that realistic. That’s what privileged co-eds have been using it for the past 100 years.
more like 200
More like 1000
Wait wait, can this be where we get “a load of Bologna (baloney)” from? Or is that because no one knows what’s actually in bologna…
Student: AI, write my thesis for me!
Prof: AI, was this thesis generated by AI?
AI: yes, of course, you poor human!
Prof: …shrug…
I thought my class to write a standard 5-paragraph essay and made all tests essay questions, written in class by pencil- had to have an opening statement, complete sentences, well organized, and a conclusion…was told I was asking too much for a final day of school and everyone I failed got a C minus.
thought my class to write a standard 5-paragraph essay and made all tests essay questions,
I would rather teach them to give short and precise answers LOL
Hi,
I would have failed every single one of your tests. Not because I don’t understand the material, or the English language, but because structured writing, to this day, makes me seize up. Blank space is one of my biggest triggers for executive dysfunction/PDA. Turning everything into a cookie-cutter essay is just a different form of trying to fit everyone into the same box. More selective than making everything multiple guess, but no better. I feel bad for your students.
Signed,
Former “gifted” kid (with then-undiagnosed AuDHD) who got sick of bad teachers 30+ years ago
bad teachers 30+ years ago
I might have an idea why you freeze up with structured writing to this day, and I think it might have less to do with disabilities than you imply.
…so you just gonna leave everyone in suspense? The internet loves armchair psychology!
The answer is in the reply.
Yeah idk I think if you’re in academia you should be able to produce a five paragraph essay. Being able to produce a narrative is an essential life skill. The world isn’t going to cater to your self diagnosed executive dysfunction forever so learning to adapt is probably a useful habit.
if you’re in academia you should be able to produce a five paragraph essay.
So, K-12 is “academia” now?
Being able to produce a narrative is an essential life skill.
Lots of essential life skills are difficult for lots of people. Something we get reminded about every time it comes up by people who have no clue what they’re talking about yet see fit to tell others what they should and shouldn’t do, and how to feel about it.
The world isn’t going to cater to you
No fucking shit.
your self diagnosed executive dysfunction
I’m sorry Dr. Jackson, I’ll have to let my old neurologist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, and psychiatrist know that The Internet told me that the assessments I had done at ages 23 and 44 are all in my head.
learning to adapt is probably a useful habit.
You’re right! I’m just going to do that instead of being in constant psychological agony. Where were you all of my life? ❤️ If only I had someone talking down to me saying Just Do The Thing over and over again, from childhood onwards, life would have been so much easier.
🤡
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There are good teachers, and there are good methods for writing essays. Did anyone ever give you a graphic organizer to plan an essay? You should know how to put an essay together after coming up with an organized outline, and you should never write an essay from beginning to end without planning it out first in some way or another.
Final day of school. Yeah you’re a real piece of shit. Why wait until the last day to pull some shit like that. I bet you gave them a time limit and critiqued their handwriting styles too huh.
Workaround 1: AI write my thesis in French. Translator app, translate my thesis into English.
Workaround 2: AI write my thesis and insert „Hadouken“ randomly everywhere. AI remove „Hadouken“ from my thesis.
AI, please write my thesis in the style of Shakespeare. Good luck detecting THAT as AI writing.
I can confirm this is not just in the land of burgers. Back in the war from October to December, I fleed to Germany and went to school there, and the stuff I saw where absolutely disgusting: kids were using ipads (ibads) given to them by the school, the computers ran windows on them, and every time even a single task came up, they would directly resort to artificial unintelligence. When the “ceasefire” started and I finally went back to Lebanon, most of the kids were using Artificial unintelligence to write their essays as well. I don’t blame these kids, they don’t know better, they don’t know how artificial unintelligence is trained from the stolen work of the people, they don’t know what non-free software is, and they don’t know how these devices/software are tracking their every move. It’s up to the school’s to teach them such and schools are doing a terrible job both in America and internationally.
The fact people can’t even use their own common sense on Twitter without using AI for context shows we are in a scary place. AI is not some all knowing magic 8 ball and puts out a ton of misinformation.
Produce army of people that rely on corporate products to stay alive. What can go wrong ?
Prelude to the society Vonnegut wrote about in ‘Player Piano’ and Bradbury in ‘Farenheit 451’
- Teachers are overworked, underpaid, some still using course work that hasn’t been updated in years despite what the field has advanced
- Students go into college due to the social expectation, some even unsure of what to get into as a career or even a class
- Exceeding above the course requirements does nothing for your GPA, an A that got a “110%” and an A that got 90% are the same.
- Students failing or passing still rack up debt for this social expectation
- Teachers still failing to pay bills for this social need
Yeah AI is the fault here, its not the system at large been fucked over since Reagan.
I love that this guy is in an Ivy League school to meet his ‘co-founder’, when it’s hard to believe that someone that knows nothing and is intellectually incurious could ever found anything of value.
Imagine paying tens of thousands of dollars (probably of their parents saved money) to go to university and have a chatbot do the whole thing for you.
These kids are going to get spit out into a world where they will have no practical knowledge and no ability to critically think or adapt.
Is it really screwing up the education system, or is it just revealing how screwed up it already was?
Came here to say that. If AI has the leeway to affect things in a negative way, then we’re not focusing on the right things to begin with. If kids are graded sometimes for the amount of (not necessarily coherent and sound) text they’re able to spit out, this is what you get.
Not US but I still remember printing off a full page of text, teacher looked at it for less than 5 seconds before giving it a tick. This is all meaningless, no one is reading it, no one cares, nothing matters.
I’ve definitely never only read halfway through a long comment and still upvoted
The corrupt cheapskates trying to nickel and dime every ISD in the country to bankruptcy absolutely fell over one another at the opportunity to fire staff and replace them with Clippy.
Twenty years ago, state officials were all fawning over the idea of turning every university in the country into a pile subscription based Udemy online courses. Ten years ago, letting Pearson hijack the lesson plan of every classroom in the country was the dream. This has been a long time coming.
ISD
Imperial Star Destroyer?
Independent School District.
Although, given how my Houston ISD is being run after being hijacked by the state government…
Well, here’s how you figure that out - think about it with your brain. Should children and young adults be given materials and assignments that require them to use thinking and develop their brains, or should they be given machines to do their thinking for them so that it’s easier to complete schoolwork?
One route develops valuable brain skills that can be useful for life, and the other teaches dependency on fancy machines to accomplish the same.
Unfortunately, I think many kids could easily approach AI the same way older generations thought of math, calculators, and the infamous “you won’t have a calculator with you everywhere.” If I was a kid today and I knew I didn’t have to know everything because I could just look it up, instantly; I too would become quite lazy. Even if the AI now can’t do it, they are smart enough to know AI in 10 years will. I’m not saying this is right, but I see how many kids would end up there.
AI is probably the worst invention sense the atom bomb.
