Schools and universities are embracing technology that tailors content to students' abilities and takes teachers out of the lecturing business. But is it an improvement? http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v309/n2/full/scientificamerican0813-62.html
I sent an email to Obama one time suggesting a lot of scientific courses could be taught on line as a way to reduce tuition costs for millions of americans. No answer back.
âThere is a sea of people we're trying to educate that we've never tried to educate before,â says Al Boggess, director of the Arizona State math department. ----------------- What does that statement mean?
It's a whole new world these days. Schooling today, in many ways, is little more than a money making scam. Teachers are needed in the classrooms to serve as little more than assistants to the students; with the possible exceptions being grades 1 through 3. Computers as teachers? I like it. A lot. Solves a lot of controversies. Allows the student to open his mind.
"Meanwhile enrollment is rising, with alarmingly high numbers of students showing up on campus unprepared to do college-level work. âThere is a sea of people we're trying to educate that we've never tried to educate before,â says Al Boggess, director of the Arizona State math department. âThe politicians are saying, âEducate them. Remediation? Figure it out. And we want them to graduate in four years. And your funding is going down, too.ââ "
None of that article (no, don't need to read it) addresses the real purpose of education, which is to learn how to learn. The rest is trivia, and these programs if institutionalized usually do not distinguish the abilities of genius from above average because the curriculum is not hard enough and unfortunately our society will put you in your place by not allowing you to go further than your peers even though your IQ is probably used to the environment I found dealing with retarded kids who were mostly everybody in the class really didn't let me go to where I wanted. Anyway, education is about teaching people how to learn, and without teachers the questions of right and wrong do not enforce good long term memory at all. The process of how you learned your information is just as important as getting the answer right. As far as answers right, on tests and quizzes there's nothing but straight A's from 7th to 12th grade for me, and only by the end of it when in 8th grade I knew that schools employed English teachers to weed out folks that the school didn't like to present as "distinguished scholars" because ultimately in 8th I knew by 12th that my attitudes would be looked down on because I was never challenged at all. So, anyway, 8th grade, knew the English teacher would prevent any academic distinguishment, and maybe that is about the only argument I can see for the removal of teachers. The only department needing refinement is English. Teachers are political, especially in college, and unless you're wary of your professor's views or those of your high school teacher, you should take that into consideration when planning where to attend to educate yourself. Anyway, every other classroom emphasizes the correct answer, which is fine, if it's not English. In English, you can screw up if you have political disagreements and the lectures were summarily read from a book so to expect teachers not to have to do their job I would agree let's get rid of them, but don't expect any more knowledgable people from the US to come out because it is so rare that anybody who does choose to identify these achievements simply appears like someone who rose to the top simply through luck like everyone on this site but then you come down to it and anybody I talk to who really wanted power would not have been able to get it without following the strategies to ignore a lot of the fact that in my private schools in 6th-8th we were encouraged to try to help others but not forced to through group projects. I did not like any of the ideas about theocracy and society espoused by the entire literaturalist regime and this is probably in no small part to the overwhelming majority of English teachers being female.
One day, going to school will be fun. Computer games are fun and they teach you stuff too. Now modify those games that they teach useful stuff and there you are.
Think of how many kids sit in the classroom feeling left out. Now think of how constantly, directly involved they would be in the learning process if computers were employed. No more over paid teachers to deal with. And, no more teacher's unions.
In the computer teaching environment, you don't have to raise your hand and wait to ask a question. All students can ask different questions at the same time and get near instant answers.
You also don't need to learn inflection or how to speak about the topic. A B C or D '? Sorry, that's not education, a combo would be best but removes the teachers ability to distinguish how the student can gain a better understanding of what they've learned than A B C or D