Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm • Hacker News Board

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#81

Post by juvenn » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 2:13 AM UTC

eob wrote: post #79

juvenn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a good self-teacher would be better a teacher than who just hold some fancy degrees. Since good self-teachers always know what students need, and where they failed to grasp the essential, and most importantly how to get them out of obstacles. And I bet you must be a good self-teacher. I wish I have ever had you as my teacher!

What is a "self-teacher"? The advantage of holding "fancy degrees" is usually that you have been exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints and insignt that self-taught people might have. People tend to study what they are interested in. Unfortunately, this can produce self-taught academics with horse blinders on. Imaging you only got your news from Reddit & Huffington Post, saying you were becoming a self-taught news c…

Completely agreed, providing the system works. I'm not a native En, I mean self-taught teacher? Sorry.

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#82

Post by seanb » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 4:39 AM UTC

wsprague wrote: post #63

btilly wrote: post #2

In grad school I managed to take advantage of the pacing effect in an educational setting. I was teaching linear algebra. What I did was make the homework incremental - 1/3 of homework on today's material, 1/3 on the previous week, and 1/3 anything in the course. Those thirds were in increasing order of difficulty. I also started every class with a question/answer period. The rules were simple, the questioning will l…

The question of why is there so much crappy education is interesting. I think part of the answer is that society is well-served by the failings of the educational system in that widespread educational crappiness helps support the class system. I think it would be fairly straightforward to turn 90% of the population into well educated upper middle class types, using techniques like btilly describes... ... But if we di…

Interesting idea.

"But if we did that, who would drink Coors and drive forklift for Walmart and not complain about it?"

Robots? If the education system elevated more of the population, there would be a shortage of blue-collar workers, more pressure for system automation, and more well-educated minds to develop the robots. Of course, there would be no shortage of immigrants to fill the blue-collar positions, but perhaps in the long term, a "better" equilibrium would be reached.

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#83

Post by gila » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 6:18 AM UTC

kiba wrote: post #10

btilly wrote: post #2

In grad school I managed to take advantage of the pacing effect in an educational setting. I was teaching linear algebra. What I did was make the homework incremental - 1/3 of homework on today's material, 1/3 on the previous week, and 1/3 anything in the course. Those thirds were in increasing order of difficulty. I also started every class with a question/answer period. The rules were simple, the questioning will l…

This remind me of a drawing book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It teaches people how to draw realistically using techniques like contour drawing among other stuff. However, middle school art teachers seem stuck in their little art project. I am not sure about high school, but it doesn't look like they teach the skills.

I took art in high school and my teacher used this technique, although getting kids to adhere to the style wasn't very easy at first.

I guess my teacher had an advantage with a psychology degree though.

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#84

Post by jwecker » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 6:25 AM UTC

klipt wrote: post #12

There's at least one maker of language courses (Pimsleur) which use the pacing effect. Unfortunately they're audio only, which at least for me isn't nearly as effective as a combination of audio and writing.

I've used these- really brilliant. Takes the pacing effect but makes it conversational so it really seems to flow. The trade-off, of course, is that it has no idea how well _you_ have memorized various things (i.e., being prerecorded audio, it is generalized).

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#85

Post by pw » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 7:58 AM UTC

btilly wrote: post #2

In grad school I managed to take advantage of the pacing effect in an educational setting. I was teaching linear algebra. What I did was make the homework incremental - 1/3 of homework on today's material, 1/3 on the previous week, and 1/3 anything in the course. Those thirds were in increasing order of difficulty. I also started every class with a question/answer period. The rules were simple, the questioning will l…

I'd suggest the book Why Don't Students Like School? (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Dont-Students-Like-School/dp/04702...) to those interested in applying the findings of cognitive science to their own learning. I'm finding it very useful in that regard.

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#86

Post by araneae » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 10:16 AM UTC

btilly wrote: post #2

In grad school I managed to take advantage of the pacing effect in an educational setting. I was teaching linear algebra. What I did was make the homework incremental - 1/3 of homework on today's material, 1/3 on the previous week, and 1/3 anything in the course. Those thirds were in increasing order of difficulty. I also started every class with a question/answer period. The rules were simple, the questioning will l…

I'm wondering what type of university you were at that let you write a final. The most flexibility given to grad students in introductory courses I've seen is, at most, to write a quiz or two. Most don't even let you write homeworks.

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#87

Post by hyperbovine » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 1:16 PM UTC

morphir wrote: post #59

btilly wrote: post #2

In grad school I managed to take advantage of the pacing effect in an educational setting. I was teaching linear algebra. What I did was make the homework incremental - 1/3 of homework on today's material, 1/3 on the previous week, and 1/3 anything in the course. Those thirds were in increasing order of difficulty. I also started every class with a question/answer period. The rules were simple, the questioning will l…

I recently heard that newly educated teachers come to schools with a strong desire to teach their specialties. And to transmit some of their true passion over to their students. But since being a teacher (here in Norway) means they have to administrate and organize the kids so much, they have little energy left for teaching. Meaning the teacher appears as a boring, pale fuck (not very inspiring). This is of course a…

Otoh I have always assumed pretty much everyone is pale in Norway. :-)

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#88

Post by yummyfajitas » Sun, Sep 13, 2009, 3:17 PM UTC

eob wrote: post #78

yummyfajitas wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear about it as soon as possible (i.e., early enough in the semester for me to act on it). I'm already updating webassign to follow your suggestion, current material + old stuff each week. Anything else you did (beyond SRS) would also be useful to know.

You don't need someone to tell you what to do -- he/she already gave you the general idea. Why can't you be similarly creative with your class and run with it?

I'm implementing all of btilly's specific suggestions.

As for why not "be creative"? I don't see how that suggestion is helpful. Btilly wasn't creative, he implemented proven techniques. I want to do the same, I just don't know what those proven techniques are (beyond the ones he mentioned in his post).

Re: Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

#89

Post by jedliu » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 8:09 PM UTC

araneae wrote: post #86

btilly wrote: post #2

In grad school I managed to take advantage of the pacing effect in an educational setting. I was teaching linear algebra. What I did was make the homework incremental - 1/3 of homework on today's material, 1/3 on the previous week, and 1/3 anything in the course. Those thirds were in increasing order of difficulty. I also started every class with a question/answer period. The rules were simple, the questioning will l…

I'm wondering what type of university you were at that let you write a final . The most flexibility given to grad students in introductory courses I've seen is, at most, to write a quiz or two. Most don't even let you write homeworks.

Actually, at my department (a "top-10" school for CS), for each course we TA, we're expected to write at least one problem set and come up with at least one question for each exam given. There are also half-courses on intro to Unix or intro to C++ that are taught entirely by grad students.

I suspect the OP was teaching an intro-level course, designed to get freshmen up to speed on basic linear algebra, filling any gaps they might have had in their high school curriculum.