81–90 of 148 posts
This is because "the tech" is just the tip of the iceberg and there's a disconnect between the districts that purchase software and the teachers who are left to try and figure it out on their own.
I wrote in more detail about this issue here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/11/13/wa...
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I'd add Texas Instruments, with their graphing calculators. They have an extremely low tech product whose prevalence actually detracts from kids learning to make effective use of computation. But they've established a monopoly position by understanding what real problems they're actually solving: 1) Moderating development to within a pace that teachers and the curriculum / testing industry can keep up with. 2) Keepin…
I got all the way through high school (AP calculus, etc., high school class of 2004) and through lots of technical courses in college without ever needing a graphing calculator, except once during the AP exam, and possibly once for an in-class exam, for which I could borrow one from the school (the rest of the time I just had a $5 used “scientific calculator” but a slide rule would have been just fine, and in college…
It could even be relevant: I used the projectile equations from Physics class for my Artillery clone.
I've told this story before: Back when I was in college, I had a summer internship at a place that was a service center for the K-12 schools in a large county. Microcomputers were the big new thing. We had a facility with one of each kind of computer (Commodore, Apple, Radio Shack, etc.) and all the software we could lay their hands on. Teachers could come in and try things out. My impression was that the "educationa…
Just look at khan academy. It is literally a guy drawing in something similar to MS paint and explaining stuff.
There is a lot of technology that exists which could be applied to education but it isn't.
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> We've played with Jupyter/Python. My son is learning solid modeling using some free app. Have you seen OpenSCAD? It's open source constructive solid geometry modeling software, and I use it in my math classes. If your son enjoys Python, he might really enjoy this approach to modeling. http://www.openscad.org/
I absolutely love OpenSCAD! (for me, not for my kids yet; in my son's class they're taught 3D modeling with SketchUp -- don't know if it's good or bad but it certainly is more immediately rewarding as one can apply textures, etc.) The limiting thing about OpenSCAD is its inability to import svg; for complex shapes it makes much more sense to draw them in a graphic software, import into modeling software and extrude t…
I also love that I can use it as a core part of my math curriculum, which I couldn't do as easily with most other modeling software. Students are learning measurement, geometry, and most importantly relationships through the use of parameters. It also makes for a great segue into more general programming languages.
I recently started working with polyhedrons for a terrain modeling project. Could you convert svg data to a polygon and then extrude it?
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I got all the way through high school (AP calculus, etc., high school class of 2004) and through lots of technical courses in college without ever needing a graphing calculator, except once during the AP exam, and possibly once for an in-class exam, for which I could borrow one from the school (the rest of the time I just had a $5 used “scientific calculator” but a slide rule would have been just fine, and in college…
The real fun came from writing those low-quality clones :) It could even be relevant: I used the projectile equations from Physics class for my Artillery clone.
I built Textfyre in 2007 and closed in 2011. Gates Foundation put our ideas in their grant program and put all their resources into existing publishers. Later, Pearson was on NPR spouting many of Textfyre’s pitch points. None of these companies have figured out Interactive education or reduced cost or improved quality. I still believe we could have, but we couldn’t convince others. Mostly because a real MVP would hav…
However, I am an optimist and believe that even with well entrenched interest groups (big textbook publishers, school districts, unions etc.) there is still paths to disruption. At a fundamental level, education is simply teaching someone something new. That's it! If you are providing something quality then people will naturally flock to it or share it.
I think the future education startup simply needs to focus on building high quality learning materials. Then either give those products away for free or innovative monetization models (ie. watch 5 video ads to unlock the content etc.). Don't focus on trying to sell to school districts. Focus on going straight to the consumer: students or parents. Every student I know is already going online to get extra homework help, resources, youtube videos etc.
Couple of other causes: - It's very hard to measure to value add of education; people have spent lives working on this - Only half the value of educational institutions comes from educating people; the other half comes from the credentialing where they pick out the 'brighter' individuals, but measuring how much a credential is worth is almost impossible for most individuals
What about companies like The Great Courses (formerly teaching company) that takes out full page spreads in the WSJ on a regular basis? Are they still niche?
Figure out a way to franchise high schools to make them into coworking spaces. All teachers are remote and all teaching happens over skype. The employees on site are there only to make sure the kids dont kill each other. Offer an insane amount of subjects (this is possible since there might be only 30 kids worldwide interested in xyz, now they can take a class on it). The future of education is something along these…
I like the idea. The role of the teacher would be to coach students (like giving them advice, monitoring progress). What was missing from the MOOC formula was real person, in the flesh accountability for learning.
There is another facet to this equation. Think about an investment banker. The skills an investment banker learns in college are largely irrelevant to his job. One could say that his degree was entirely a waste of time, yet in order to qualify for a job in investment banking you need to go to a prestigious school and excel. I see many spaces where education is largely irrelevant and functions only as a filter to redu…