The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

If this were written 10 years ago, when MOOCs were the poster child for "technology will solve everything including thoroughly non-technology-centric human problems", it might be forgivable. Right now, this is kinda like evangelizing Zuckerberg's "Metaverse", in a 100% serious vein. If it were written a different way, I might have mistaken it for satire.

With no discussion of prior failures in Education Technology, with not even a nod to the challenges that permeate any meaningful progress in this space, the writing came across like it was a "39 minute write", not a "39 minute read".

For those interested in a more balanced and nuanced take, I urge you to skim some posts from Kentaro Toyama's blog:

https://ict4djester.org/

Re: The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

#5

Post by enjoyyourlife » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 4:34 AM UTC

disqard wrote: post #4

The breathless fanboyism in this piece really hurts it, and made me unable to read through to the end. If this were written 10 years ago, when MOOCs were the poster child for "technology will solve everything including thoroughly non-technology-centric human problems", it might be forgivable. Right now, this is kinda like evangelizing Zuckerberg's "Metaverse", in a 100% serious vein. If it were written a different wa…

With regards to the MOOCs prediction, it is true that most education has switched online

Re: The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

#6

Post by bavent » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 4:35 AM UTC

They discuss the importance of engagement, something CS50 gets right - so how does that have anything to do with short-form content? I think the beauty of things like CS50 is the engagement, but also the longer format of it. A lot of shit just can’t be broken down into a tweet or a 10-second video. I wouldn’t call anything that I’ve seen from TikTok “engaging” - the videos are over before my attention span has time to decide whether to focus on it or not

Re: The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

#7

Post by neosat » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 4:36 AM UTC

It doesn't. In fact, to the contrary, these forms of communication don't lend themselves to certain types of topics and deeper thinking critical for education (read Neil Postman's Amusing ourselves to death for a great exposition). True, they have an important place in education and I'm excited for the changes they can bring, but they are only a small piece of what the future of education will look like.

Re: The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

#8

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 4:36 AM UTC

I feel like in 50 years we'll look back and realize that the loss of frequent, face-to-face, in-person human contact has caused immeasurable damage, along the lines of how we've realized highly processed foods and have caused a health and obesity epidemic. But I suppose it will get worse before it gets better.

Re: The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

#9

Post by crumpled » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 4:52 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

I feel like in 50 years we'll look back and realize that the loss of frequent, face-to-face, in-person human contact has caused immeasurable damage, along the lines of how we've realized highly processed foods and have caused a health and obesity epidemic. But I suppose it will get worse before it gets better.

I think most people have the same feeling. People are doing a lot of social calculus right now.

Re: The future of education looks a lot like TikTok and Twitter

#10

Post by lifeplusplus » Fri, Feb 11, 2022, 5:17 AM UTC

people learn differently and some topics are better suited to certain mediums, but personally I learn best by very concise lesson with interactions (Q/A) sprinkled everywhere, (think of regular conversation), then do concentrated reading/analysis own my own but be able to reach out to an expert with questions at anytime and asking highly articulated questions and get very in depth and unambiguous answers