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

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

#71

Post by linuxftw »

kerrsclyde wrote: post #37

My children are 16, 15, 14. They are all currently homeschooling in UK lockdown number 3. All of their lessons are delivered via video (Google Classrooms). The quality of learning seems low, they seem unengaged and only respond to teacher when absolutely forced to. As a parent all I really do is IT support and discourage distraction (put your phone down etc). In UK lockdown 1 in March there was no video learning. Tas…

> They put in about 4hrs each day and the learning experience seemed so much better, even though it took more effort from us as parents.

This describes typical homeschooling in the US before the lockdown. Except in the case of actual homeschooling, you get to pick the curriculum that's appropriate for your children.

Most public schooling is mindless busy work. Often it's poorly designed and confusing. It doesn't need to be this way. Once a child is able to read and write, they should be able to comprehend most instructions with little supervision.

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

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

personlurking wrote: post #70
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, her…

Why verbally?

Would the ability to take an exam without sitting the course satisfy you?

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

#73

Post by yboris »

Just a historical note, from 1964, a book by Buckminster Fuller: Education Automation: Freeing the scholar to return to his studies

Even back then we had the technology and opportunity to do this. The gist: get the best (most captivating) teachers (perhaps coached by the best researchers) and record them / broadcast them to students.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Education-Automation-Freeing-scholar-...

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

#75

Post by joshmlewis »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #54
joshmlewis wrote: post #10

One would think teaching 20 5-year olds online would be an insurmountable task but it's actually been my wife's best year teaching after 6 years of in person teaching at one of the best schools in the county. The parents have been extraordinarily nice and have gone out of their way to share gratitude and one family even sent a bottle of wine. She went from in person teaching kindergarten last year to doing the distri…

That's great to hear but I'm guessing your wife's school is located in an upper class neighborhood where there's plenty of room and time for homeschooling, at least one member of the household can take care of the kids at any time, and in general education problems are no issue. The reality for not-so-well-doing families is a very different one, starting from there being no quiet place in the apartment, let alone for…

> That's great to hear but I'm guessing your wife's school is located in an upper class neighborhood where there's plenty of room and time for homeschooling

Nope. She has a good number of students from low income families and the school where most of her kids came from before virtual is a Title 1 school. All the students doing the virtual program get a Chromebook and access to an internet connection (meaning they worked with Spectrum to get internet to families who didn't have it or they get a wifi hotspot or they have community locations with wifi access). Some of these students are at a daycare, with family, etc. during the day while the parents work.

Now there are definitely inequalities in the school system don't get me wrong but for my wife at least she cares deeply about that subject and tries her best to make sure each student has everything they need to succeed.

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

#76

Post by omginternets »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #22

Different people have different modes of learning, so the key is to listen to the user and ask questions in order to surface the modes they need. I grew up self-teaching myself because teachers refused to try new ways to teach me. If they tried to help me out, it would not help at all, because they didn't know how to use different perspectives or modes. I suggested several times that I would be more engaged if I coul…

>Different people have different modes of learning

The empirical evidence rejects that idea.

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

#77

Post by randomsearch »

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…

Anecdata from major UK university: students _hate_ remote teaching and want to go back to lectures ASAP.

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

#78

Post by personlurking »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #72
personlurking wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, her…

Why verbally? Would the ability to take an exam without sitting the course satisfy you?

I would guess that a verbal one-on-one exam would show the professor who understands the material vs who doesn't, but also who actually understands it vs who just used rote memorization.

The latter comparison might end up being a distinction without a difference, as far as grading goes. But, were I the professor, I'd be interested to see how many of my students are understanding the material on a holistic level. This is my bias, though, because I'm way more interested in knowing why something occurred (and its relationship to other events) vs that it occurred on [insert date] and involved [insert individuals].

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

#79

Post by joshmlewis »

bshimmin wrote: post #36
joshmlewis wrote: post #10

One would think teaching 20 5-year olds online would be an insurmountable task but it's actually been my wife's best year teaching after 6 years of in person teaching at one of the best schools in the county. The parents have been extraordinarily nice and have gone out of their way to share gratitude and one family even sent a bottle of wine. She went from in person teaching kindergarten last year to doing the distri…

There was a learning curve at first but now most of the students are able to login to their correct classes at the right times which blows me away. The fact 5-year olds are able to more or less keep their own schedule and do assignments on their Chromebook should not be a surprise I guess but it still blows my mind. I don't want to doubt you, but... really? My experience of 5-year-olds is they don't have any meaningf…

From what I've gathered it's all about routine. There was definitely a lot of adult help earlier in the year for the first couple weeks but once they got into a routine the kids now are mostly doing things on their own. Their grown up is usually nearby if needed as well. She's even told me some stories about kids being clever and trying to pretend there are issues so they can watch TV (the only problem being while they turned video off they didn't mute the microphone so she could hear cartoons in the background).

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

#80

Post by FuckButtons »

slykar wrote: post #14
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…

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…

My lived experience of pre recorded video lectures is they are a poor facsimile for the real thing for 3 main reasons.

1) I can’t ask questions - dynamically engaging with the material during the lecture is far more important for retention than making a perfect set of notes so not having that engagement really reduces your learning.

2) attention span / investment - taking notes amongst your peers who are also doing the same is easier and more enjoyable than doing the same on your own, something that is easier to do takes less of my mental energy which is my most precious resource when I’m trying to actually learn.

3) lack of peer interaction - most of the learning experience that is really beneficial long term isn’t about you having 100% recall on demand of every detail you were taught but how to use the ideas to solve actual problems. Much of that comes through practice and experimentation with your peers, which simply doesn’t work via zoom.

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