Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#61

Post by jrumbut » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:08 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #42

slykar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from a different country I don't really know why remote is not the default option. Listening to a professor speaking to himself from a distance of 10 meters is an awful experience compared to a video recording that you can stop/rewind. Heck, you can even take some proper notes that you will actually understand! For labs it's not like you get any help either. You just have to follow some instructions point by p…

> Listening to a professor speaking to himself from a distance of 10 meters is an awful experience compared to a video recording that you can stop/rewind. Heck, you can even take some proper notes that you will actually understand! My wife is a professor. What you say is true for some students. But for some students it appears that paying attention is much harder when it is a video vs the same material presented in a…

Can't pay attention to video lectures at the best of times is part of it, but I also think being consistently understimulated causes people to shut down the learning process.

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#62

Post by AlwaysRock » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #13

I'm a professor at a US university. The honest answer (at least at the university level) -- probably we don't. From what I can tell, there's very little enthusiasm for online education, on the part of either professors or students. Pretty much everyone is eager to get back to normal, and I'm fairly confident that this is exactly what is going to happen. For a dissenting perpsective, read Joshua Kim's columns at Insid…

> That said, it seems that startups like edX, Coursera, etc. have not really been successes. So I'm skeptical that big changes are coming soon.

In what way are you measuring success here? They have not replaced traditional education/colleges but its very likely that a larger percentage of the people on this site have purchased and learned something from a online technical course.

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#63

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

Kinrany wrote: post #26

onion2k wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For labs it's not like you get any help either. You just have to follow some instructions point by point and if you do not understand something, tough luck, the professor has already moved to the next exercise. People shouldn't just accept this sort of thing as normal. You're paying (in the US or UK anyway) a lot of money for a degree level education. That means it needs to be fit for purpose, and if you're not learn…

> Learning to stand up for yourself and ask for what you need is a big part of the university experience. You're not graded on standing up for yourself. In this area universities are not different from standing in line or negotiating a job offer.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#64

Post by modzu » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC

similarly ive been wondering how we fix online dating so it can stay online permanently. im in a serious (virtually sexual) relationship, but so far we have not been able to virtually conceive. im personally really excited to meet our virtual child (virtually of course) when that magic day does finally come!

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#65

Post by artificialLimbs » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

qsort wrote: post #8

If remote or partially remote education is to become the default, you have to scrap the teacher-students-classroom model; it hardly works in real life and it's even worse when not happening in a physical space. Moving to a fully asynchronous model is the only way you can maintain any semblance of educational standards. Put content online, have the students access it at their own leisure. Use the saved time to arrange…

Much of this is the premise of 'unschooling', Sandra Dodd's conception of learning wherein students set the curriculum. I'm not a fan of a lot of her ... ways ... but the idea does have some attractiveness and seems to work well in at least some instances.

https://www.sandradodd.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#66

Post by OldHand2018 » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:29 PM UTC

All children are different and all children learn differently. Schools have a mandate to educate all children. Teachers instinctively make small (or large) changes to work will the children in their classes. Good teachers are good at this, not so good teachers are not so good at it. But at least it is happening.

In observing online educational things for my kids, I have noticed that this doesn’t happen at all. We supplement with multiple services, and each of my kids gets something different out of each of them. No single service would work for even one of my kids, let alone all of them.

If you want a new remote education system, you have to have one that is flexible and adjusts to each student. Not the other way around. I don’t see anyone willing to do that. It’s hard.

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#67

Post by AchieveLife » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

By breaking down the old system. When an innovative competitor enters the field and grabs a large amount of "market share" by meeting the demands of the users (students, parents, etc..) then the education system will crumble.

Problem is - the education system is no longer about learning. It's about institutional recognition. Any innovation for learning will be dismissed unless it caters to institutional recognition.

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#68

Post by lordnacho » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

> Yet my recently hired collegue insists he spent more time learning from Youtube than from lectures at "proper" university.

There's a world of difference between learning from your own initiative vs being given a curriculum.

If you're already in a field like coding, online stuff is absolutely the best way to find things out, because you already have structure. Once you have that, it's really only motivation how many topics you end up learning about.

For kids, especially little ones, they don't know where what they're doing fits in. They're literally being told they need to learn the sounds for these shapes, learn how to count, and so on. They have no perspective on it for a good long while.

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#69

Post by NDizzle » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

I moved my family out of California to avoid remote education. I don't have confidence that 2nd grade can be effectively taught remotely.

I think that the socialization aspect is as important as the education aspect.

Re: Ask HN: How do we build the new remote education system

#70

Post by personlurking » Wed, Jan 13, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #13

I'm a professor at a US university. The honest answer (at least at the university level) -- probably we don't. From what I can tell, there's very little enthusiasm for online education, on the part of either professors or students. Pretty much everyone is eager to get back to normal, and I'm fairly confident that this is exactly what is going to happen. For a dissenting perpsective, read Joshua Kim's columns at Insid…

Personally I've always wanted to see two things in education, or rather one thing in two parts: to be able to verbally "test out" of a written exam or even an entire semester-long class. This can be handled over Skype/Zoom, if need be.

That is, allow students to have a discussion with the professor to see if they know the test material. If so, "great, here's your grade". Same with entire semester classes ("great, here's your 3 credits").