Slashdot Mirror
Melinda Gates: Facebook Engineers Have Solved One of Education's Biggest Problem
theodp writes: Asked by the NY Times if Silicon Valley is saving the world or just making money, Melinda Gates replied, "I can say without a doubt — because I've seen it — that some of them [SV companies] are innovating in ways that make life better for billions of people." As an example, BillG's better half suggests that a handful of Facebook engineers have solved one of education's biggest problems with their 20% time project at billionaire-backed Summit Public Schools, a small charter school operator. Gates writes, "One of the biggest problems in American education is that teachers have to teach 30 students with different learning styles at the same time. Developers at Facebook, however, have built an online system that gives teachers the information and tools they need to design individualized lessons. The result is that teachers can spend their time doing what they're best at: inspiring kids." Some people — like the late Roger Ebert — might not be quite as impressed as Melinda to see Silicon Valley trying to reinvent the 1960's personalized-learning-wheel in 2015!
I just looked at their job postings and it seems that a teacher will only have between 16-24 students in a given school year. So, this would be very manageable for a teacher. This is a great model, but it will only educate a few. This is not novel in anyway. There are plenty of small, learner-centered schools, but they are expensive. As some pointed out, this has been done since the 1960s. There is no away to economically educate the masses with this educational model.
This would be great, but it is likely not true. According to more recent research kid's learning styles is not true. This theory has been reported as fact, but is not backed up by science. In fact it is better to get a kid out of their comfort zone for them to learn more.
https://thinkneuroscience.word...
-Matt
It's amazing we are still paying for algebra and physics books. These subjects haven't changed up to the undergrad level in many decades. Textbooks should be getting simpler and more streamlined, but they're actually getting way more complicated. The books are crazy thick with thousands of practice problems that contain errors and most don't look anything like real world problems. Let's slim down and create a small set of GOOD problems that are error free. Won't happen though. The book industry is too big.
You can't do that in the "PC" America today, no sir...
You'll get hit right off to bat with shouts of "discriminaiton".....then classism, elitism...and just about any other -ism you can think of.
No, in the US today, we really are trying to not even give merit to those that do excel despite todays education system. I think I read the other day about a high school that had something like 50+ valedictorians...?? WTF? Afraid to hurt someones feelings that they didn't make the cut?
No, today int he US, you can't have any programs that single out folks for success, or even remedial needs...it might hurt Suzy or Johnny's self esteem and we all know that would be the end of the world. No, we have to keep them all together, and teach to the lowest common denominator.
Any separation of the kids by merit or ability...could potentially lead to an imbalance in the racial or socio-economic mix of kids, and once that happens, the SJW's and other types will scream bat shit bloody murder that this is just another example of the man keeping people down and stripping them of opportunity.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The biggest problems in the school system can't be solved with technology. Technology won't make parents care about their kids. Technology won't stop politicians from playing games with school system tax money. Technology won't stop the textbook publishers from price gouging schools. Schools aren't screwed up because of lack of good algorithms. Remove all technology from schools and revert to pen and paper. The good schools will still be good and the bad schools will still be bad.
Reflecting back over my years of schooling, I find that some of the teachers I learned the most from were cynical, demanding, cantankerous bastards. They were the hardest to please, the hardest to pass, and the ones the average people didn't like. The average person in school is all about the easiest teachers so they can maximize their GPA doing the minimum work.
One thing did happen with those teachers, I learned. I had to, because otherwise I was going to fail. We build robust systems by making them fail fast, as it identifies the problems quickly which then (hopefully) get fixed quickly. Hard teachers do that too, they force your weaknesses to the surface, and if you have learned the life skill of accepting criticism where it is due, you work on your weaknesses and later find a place where you can thank them for pointing them out. Sure, you might not like them for pointing them out, but one doesn't have to like a person they are grateful toward.
Sometimes a teacher can be your friend, but often they have messages we don't like to hear. We don't like to be told we don't know something, even when we are in a class to learn it! I'll take a teacher that doesn't gild the lily (without delving into abuse) over a person that makes me feel good any day.