Doesn’t anyone else have issues with the idea of putting education in the hands of a hallucinating parrot?
Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
351–360 of 418 posts
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
I definitely had advantages in that I knew tools like Khan Academy existed, was not battling depression, and also had talked to people who I admired and saw they were not so different than me. I also had a mother who loved me and a step-father who came into my life a bit later who cared, but they were dealing with some pretty big challenges of their own, including mental health, bad relationships, debt, children who…
Wow, this is a personal Top 100 post on this board for me. What a great story. This part was really touching: > Keep it up. We are cheering for you.
Thank you! I would literally make sure my back was to a corner so no one could see what was on my screen haha.
Needless to say, I spend a lot of time on math with my oldest (who just turned four!). She does not need to be great, she just needs to not be intimidated and understand she can learn anything.
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. I don’t doubt that it’s true in OC’s case. But I don’t think it’s representative of the impact of technology. It’s the example that will get Bill Gates’ attention and end up on the stage at TED, but it might not be representative of 90% of how people are affected by technology. It might, and the story of how videos will change how people relate to each other (…
> I have significant concern about this—that it is a story. Your concerns are very correct but while you are willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt, I am very very skeptical of their story; it sounds "too pat" and made up. If you look at their other replies there are too many incongruities and "movie plot tropes". I have a better chance of winning the lottery than "learning mathematics starting from long di…
My info is in my profile, it’s not hard to figure out who I am.
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#354Generative AI works by selecting the most likely next words. But students misunderstand in many different ways. How would it be tailored instead of another way of delivering lesson plans? Even assuming you already had the topology of the problem space, you'd have to interrogate the student with all possible ways for each question to determine what's missing for them. But part of the problem is impedance matching: fai…
As someone coming from a Tech background and has become deeply involved in education recently, I cannot agree more. There is just so much difference in terms of understanding education among people who have worked with children and people who have not.
For majority of the time the active 'response' from the student is 'no response'. Teachers are amazing at understanding silence and building conversation on silence.
Knowing the social background of the a student, and hence knowing realities of their hardships is the begining point of starting to enable a student who is laggning behind.
AI-tutors are(potentially) great, much like how videos are way better than reading books from a childs perspective, but it is far from innovation in education that few influencers are trying it to be.
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#355I never found the Kahn academy videos good. His teaching style was just totally off. I found some videos by a company called The Teaching Company. Really old school, very early 2000s or late 90s. Incredibly high quality truly gifted teachers—-just less well known online.
I am glad somebody mentioned "The Teaching Company" and their offerings - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Teaching_Company I used to checkout their "The Great Courses" dvds from the local library (in the USA) long time ago. They were a set of presentations each a full lecture length and delivered by respected professors in their fields. No flashy animations/music/narrative distractions but sedate multimedia in supp…
I learned calculus there and in a way that gave me an advantage when I studied it formally with a much much lower quality teacher.
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
I genuinely don't know why you have a hard time believing that chain of events. It's really not that uncommon. What "movie tropes" are you talking about that aren't just... extremely common real life things? Sleeping on an air mattress? Working at Home Depot? Teaching yourself a skill and working your way up to a respectable position?
Each event by itself may not be uncommon (but some like learning mathematics from absolute basics to AI/ML requirements via just Khan Academy is well-nigh impossible) but all together happening to one person which led to the claimed outcome is very very highly improbable. Real life doesn't work that way; time, energy(i.e. effort), money are all finite and wax/wane with context/environment and defines success/failure.…
Lots of people have done it.
I went to college but I resent the implication that the only way to make it into one of these fields is through college. It is incredibly difficult to learn advanced math outside of an academic setting, but it is absolutely possible.
Where I work we have invested in programs that take people just like me and give them an opportunity to go through a pretty rigorous 6 month program that teaches them how to develop software, work in a corporate environment, etc.
There are people FAR more impressive than me who have done more with less, and when they have come out of that program many have been able to go toe to toe with our college grads.
We’ve got a LOT of people who have similar stories, and we’re doing the same thing in accounting now. And it works.
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#357I am a high school dropout and who learned math using Khan Academy after never having completed more than pre-algebra in middle school. Sal Khan’s work changed my life and allowed me to build a foundation in not only math, but also finance and economics, that allowed me to feel confident enough to go to college. I did not have a support system or people in my life who could teach me these things, but I had the intern…
I love such stories. Thanks for sharing. I'd be super glad to read about your process, your note-taking techniques, etc if you ever write a blog post about it!
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
Khan Academy is a treasure of a service. Probably my favorite non-profit out there. High quality information with low barrier to entry. It got me through Calculus, Calc 2, and Linear Algebra.
I tell basically every parent I meet about it with the enthusiasm of Tom cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch.
So does my wife; she's a high-school guidance counselor.
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
I genuinely don't know why you have a hard time believing that chain of events. It's really not that uncommon. What "movie tropes" are you talking about that aren't just... extremely common real life things? Sleeping on an air mattress? Working at Home Depot? Teaching yourself a skill and working your way up to a respectable position?
Each event by itself may not be uncommon (but some like learning mathematics from absolute basics to AI/ML requirements via just Khan Academy is well-nigh impossible) but all together happening to one person which led to the claimed outcome is very very highly improbable. Real life doesn't work that way; time, energy(i.e. effort), money are all finite and wax/wane with context/environment and defines success/failure.…
Out of curiosity, what "evidence" would you request of GP to convince you of their story?
Re: Sal Khan is pioneering innovation in education again
#360The environmental cost of AI is cost prohibitive when each prompt is equivalent to dumping a 16oz bottle of water on the ground. The only ethical usage of AI is revolution, including the revolution to stop AI. And only then if it's used immediately and effectively for it, not a few years down the line.