Renegade Rants Episode 7: How 21st Century Smart Education Could Work
In today's rant, I flesh out how a smart computer learning system would work. While online courses are available for homeschooled and distance learning children already, they don't fully utilize computer technology.
What if the courses were broken down into short modules that students would watch or read, followed by several questions about the material. These questions wouldn't be for marks, they simply give feedback to the computer algorithm.
The learning program would automatically adjust the course material and future modules depending on how the student answered so that time wouldn't be wasted doing unnecessary repetition. As the course progressed the program would occasionally retest older material to see if it was still being retained and do refresher modules as necessary.
Over time, course material would be adjusted to each students learning preferences; we know that not all children learn the same way. Priority would be given to areas where children were struggling so that their ability to learn other subjects isn't hindered.
The computer wouldn't just tailor the course to each individual student either, each module would also be ranked for performance by looking at how well the student body did after taking it. Underperforming modules would be revamped to make sure that they were more effective in the future.
Photo by NEC Corporation of America with Creative Commons license.Multimedia and games would also be incorporated to keep learning interesting for the students. While I am not a big fan of screen time for children, they wouldn't be on the computer all day. Over time the algorithm would become more efficient at teaching all students. Eventually, only 2-3 hours a day would be needed to get far superior results to what we are seeng now.
I cover this concept in more detail in this rant as well as talk about other side issues related to this idea. Hope you enjoy the video!
Thanks for reading everyone! Please upvote, follow, and resteem to support this work. As always, comments are welcome.
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I really like the idea because I was one of those students who was bored to death during repetitive lessons in English and history but really struggled in higher math and could have used more repetition there! I would have really benefited from being able to take all the time I spent twiddling my thumbs in the former classes, and applying it toward remedial time in the latter. A program that recognized that would have been awesome.
I was the same but opposite. I was good at math and science but poor at English (Language Arts). My punctuation and spelling mostly. I have actually become much better at spelling since finishing high school just by spending time on forums and stuff. When I would get one of those red lines under a word I would respell it myself until it went away rather then looking at the suggestions.
I would've driven you crazy in math class. I was that person raising their hand and saying "I didn't understand a thing you just said, can you explain it again?" lol. Sitting at a computer and having a program analyze my responses would've been a whole lot more preferable--for everyone!
I remember one math teacher we had was gullible and certain students would say that they didn't understand something just so he would explain it over and over and waste the whole class rather then moving on to new material. It was rather entertaining!
Over the years, while contemplating why I found my own education frustrating and ineffective, I have designed a simple method of improving it. I call it stereoscopic education.
In situations where we were instructed to read from a book, if I came upon a passage I didn't fully understand, I usually was unable to have the teacher clarify it for me because there was one teacher to thirty students.
So I had to just move on, compounding misunderstanding upon misunderstanding unless I was able to later work out the intended meaning on my own.
My solution leverages the same principle whereby our two eyes, each seeing its own individual 2D image, discerns depth information from the differences between those two images.
Likewise, by providing two concurrent explanations of each concept, if any part of explanation A is confusing, the alternate wording or explanatory approach in explanation B will clear it up, or at least have better odds than a single explanation.
What's more, even if neither explanation is enough, the differences between the two will have illustrative properties which may enable the student to suss out the intended meaning.
In this way, we could prevent students from becoming "stuck" on a concept they don't understand, or worse, being forced to move along in their education which builds upon ideas they never got an adequate explanation of.
I have had similar experiences myself. I usually did really well in math but in grade 12 there was one concept I didn't understand and it really hurt me because they continued to build on it.
Like you mentioned it is hard for teachers to give struggling students the time they need. It is also embarrassing for students to have to ask for help over and over in front of everyone else.
I think your idea would fit right along with mine because the algorithm could be programmed to teach the same material from different perspectives if a student was struggling with something.
i agree on your comment about multiple choice because I am a chatty person with a lot to say and a lot to write, but I was such a whiz at multiple choice, that when I had to write out an answer in school, it was uncomfortable for me! I've gotten half way through and I hear my toddler waking, Hopefully I can hear the rest tomorrow. You're right on point with all the videos I've seen so far. I need to get my hubby, @guntotnhippie to check out your posts.
Btw, I think it's pure genius that you & Aimee share a page. It's insane with us trying to each maintain a page, but then again our posts are sometimes so different, that we might alienate each other's followers if we were together. Ha!
Yeah it is a bit of a juggling act. I think if we had a bit more time we would each have our own. Probably at some point in the future. So far it seems to be working well though.
^^^ Hahaha this is why the Husband and I couldn't share a page if he ever decided to join Steemit. Let's just say we have different filters...he'd cause people to ditch me!
great education!
It's definitely an interesting concept. I've taken lots of oilfield courses like the one you did. I've also done lots for guys who couldn't work a computer, but I assume the one you are proposing would be able to tell that the same person was doing multiple courses or there was supervision of some sort to prevent cheating in that way.
We had a receptionist that would do the PST course for $20 and the guys could bill for four hours. She knew all of the answers, so could whip them off in no time while sitting at her desk.
I'm not advocating cheating, but it's something that would have to be monitored.
Cheating is more of a concern now because the course materials are always the same for each student. What I am imagining would be a dynamically changing curriculum that the computer tailors to each students strengths and weaknesses.
The purpose of the questions after each module and any additional tests would only be to assess how the student is doing so the computer can adapt, not to assign a grade which would reduce motivation to cheat also.
Now that I think about it, cheating might backfire because the more perfectly the questions are answered the harder the material would get. On the flip side if a student intentionally answered questions wrong to make the course "easier' pretty soon the computer would be recommending extra help and tutoring by a real teacher, so that probably wouldn't be appealing either.
Maybe once a year or every 6 months a real tests would be done.
Right on. That was what I meant. Like if there was a smart kid, the algorithm would work against a kid who got the smart kid to answer for him.
Now you just need to get coding.
It is an idea but I definitely don't have the skills to implement it. There are people who do though. Thanks for your thoughts!
As you said, while we'reliving in the 21st century we re not aware of the usage of a computer or what benefits we can get from, the problem is -at the main time- only few who wants to learn and few who seeks for the knowledge, any your suggestions were amazing, I hope someone/some organization consider your suggestions :)
Thanks, I think it would work well.
Like I mention in the video I think the public school system will collapse on its own eventually. Right now it seems to benefit the teachers and administrators more then the students.
Good luck my friend, happy weekend
really inspiring writing sir... you made very amazing point... keep going sir...👍