Posted on 02/04/2014 1:38:28 PM PST by freedom462
I’ve dabbled at learning a little at the KhanAcademy.org site.Salman Khan proposes that his online lessons aren’t a replacement for the teacher, but rather for the textbook. In and of itself, this would seem to offer large possibilities for independence in education - any large institution could create its own video lessons, and evade the constraint of the limitations of available textbooks.
But clearly, a good online course would not require a teacher if a mentor is available to the student. And who is to say that mentoring can’t be online? Khan says he has the ability to track the spots in his videos which tend to hang up some students, and thus can make videos which do not tend to cause hangups.
IMHO, the need exists for a utility which would be the analog of hypertext, but for video. A student hangs up at a certain point in a video, and flags that problem for his mentor. The mentor then has the ability to put a “hypertext” link in the video, and any subsequent viewer of the video can click on the link and either read the mentor's text, or see the video which the mentor has made. Obviously that could get out of hand if too many mentors chimed in, so somebody would have to control the clutter.
The anti-manufacturing education rackets will be broken by the default process.
That could help, but I also know from learning through online communication that having an online mentor does not and cannot replace a classroom instructor who does his or her job properly. One could try having someone explain a concept they are struggling with entirely through email vs face to face interaction and see the difference. Even communicating through something like Skype does not entirely compensate for the drawbacks. I have tried substituting classroom type mentoring with online mentoring entirely and it does not work. Kahn does say that he can track the spots in his videos that cause hangups, but he also says that cannot replace personalized, face to face teaching with someone who is learning the whole subject from square one. He does not have anything close to a method which would allow him to properly address every struggle that those who watch his videos have.
And at the moment, a good online course still requires a teacher to set up the course and write lectures and explain difficult subjects. Some mentoring can be done online but it definitely cannot be done, at least not at the moment, using an automated, non-human system. Even online mentoring would still clearly require a sort of human interaction that cannot be replaced with a sort of robot.
I’m a retired educator that taught with the Dept. of Defense Dependent School system (it’s now called Dept. of Def. Ed. Activity). As someone already posted, there are systems that give individual feedback. We had what we called distance learning teachers, especially for high school students. Say a military parent gets transferred to a more isolated location where the DoDEA high school was small an only offered basic courses or languages or in some cases, the student had to attend a local (German, Italian, French, etc. )school. This is where the distance learning teacher could help those students complete their credits and continue in their chosen language, higher math class or whatever they lacked but needed.
Different learning styles and maturity levels impact these types of on-line education opportunities as has been mentioned. I think what’s needed is some kind of clearing house for each area of the elementary and secondary curriculum. It could be done by the state government or by private enterprise. Either way, the best of the best recorded lessons with different approaches could then be screened and chosen by parents, students and regular schools. This is already happening, of course, as teachers are joining groups that “sell” lesson plans and actual recorded lessons to anyone interested. One of the benefits is that these alternative systems tend to impact the hierarchy of current systems. I think Stanford Univ. offers an on-line course for free on how to program for the iPhone. I see this breakdown or disruption of the current hierarchy as a good thing. It’s still a mixed bag as to outcomes but look at what the computer did for the (desktop) publishing industry. We still have the traditional systems but things just got ramped up quite a bit and ordinary people could do a decent job on their own at a much cheaper cost. To me the students that could benefit greatly by these alternate approaches are the extremes in the student body - the more gifted students and the students that struggle. Both groups tend to be negatively impacted by the traditional school system. My niece home schools her 5 children and does a great job. They’re spread out from college to 3rd grade. Home schooling won’t work for everyone and that’s the thing you have to keep in mind with all these alternative approaches. Most home schoolers don’t have to spend all day to work through that day’s curriculum - as do their traditional school counterparts. Many have small jobs or get to engage in ed. activities that are just impossible in a traditional school. I guess what I’m saying is that I see more and varied opportunities as a good thing for everyone. I think what we’re seeing is very similar to the advent of the internet itself. The information is out there and the cost is getting cheaper and the lessons and systems of delivery/feedback are getting better and better - it’s up to you to use it and take advantage of it. For some… that will be the problem.
Another ping for both lists.
Online teaching and homeschool groups could.
Well, with Obamacare being reported as causing the loss of 2.5 million jobs over the next several months, and the White House trying to spin this as “...people getting to spend quality time with their families.” (Yes, they really said that!)... Then all those people can day sit all the kids no longer going to school, or be at home for their own kids!
Could what? A, B, C, or D from the choices I listed above?
As a home school family, we use online ed. In the future, fedgov will realize they are not getting any money from it and either tax it or outlaw it.
CLEP
Do you think she will be able to pay for all the college costs by herself if she lives away from home in a house or dorm and not with her parents or relatives?
What do you think the state schools and private non Ivies will end up like? Will they have as many professors, but with the professors being held to much higher standards and teaching differently? Do you think non ivies in general will survive?
So when it comes to STEM courses in middle school and high school and college courses in general,d o you think online courses will make them completely irrelevant or do you think it will predominantly be used to complement those types of teaching? In other words, for college and high school STEM classes, which do you think, of choices A, B, C or D I listed in my post at the top, is most likely to happen?
Well, first off I don’t “hate” the government schools. I think they’re substandard and a form of welfare but they do fulfill a purpose for providing some level of education for those who would otherwise receive none. I definitely favor their abandonment by those who have other options, but I don’t favor them closing per se unless and until there is a private sector option that would take care of those kids who would otherwise have no other options.
As for the choices above, I pick “C.” Old habits die hard. I also think that personal interaction with kids is important; a teacher/ classroom setting is not a bad thing for younger kids in my view. While I think that homeschooling is a great option, not everyone can homeschool.
For older kids (say high school), I think electronic means will take on a much greater role and perhaps eliminate the traditional school for some kids. It’s not going to happen overnight, but the trend is already that way.
If a professor was technically challenged, a TA was usually able to get it going. We had an emeritus professor that was all thumbs producing video clips in office. It took him a while for to get the hang of it, but he finally did..
“What do you think the state schools and private non Ivies will end up like? Will they have as many professors, but with the professors being held to much higher standards and teaching differently? Do you think non ivies in general will survive?”
I’m not sure. I think many schools will survive, but only because they will radically adapt or fill a vary particular niche. I think many big state schools will survive because they still offer a “college experience” that can’t be duplicated online: sports, dorm life, fraternities, parties, etc. Many small private schools also offer a special experience: you’re not a number here, we have chapel every day, special housing, etc.
One immediate benefit would be that it has become cheaper.
“Do you think she will be able to pay for all the college costs by herself if she lives away from home in a house or dorm and not with her parents or relatives?”
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Not herself,no,but the family will pay. She will have to work for her own spending money.
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Probably compliment.
The problems will arise when they are overused, when governments set up too many rules, when people figure out a way to exploit them, and when they're used in situations where there is no parental supervision. I'm not going to express exactly what some of those potential abuses are.
I think it should also be factored in that in addition to the college experience, tons of students will still want the classroom type of education for various reasons even as the online courses drastically improve and become more readily available. After all, other posters here have said that online courses have already become much more available, but, as I initially noted, colleges, at the moment at least, remain overwhelmed with students who want the classroom type of education even with the availability of online education. It is not clear that even with increasing availability of online courses that this will fundamentally change until the colleges actually run the risk of pricing themselves out of existence.
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