Dumbing-down of the educational system?

[TaoPhoenix]

Ahh, xkcd. Most of them are cute little things, then about 1 in 10 must take him hours.

[Renegade]

seen todays XKCD?

-tomos (October 18, 2012, 06:18 AM)

Hahahahah~!

Nice! Thanks for posting it!

[Renegade]

I just read this:

(FAIR WARNING: This is likely to disrupt part of most people's world views.)

http://www.globalres...-schoolhouse/5308822

I didn't know that the Khan Academy was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Anyways, the article has some interesting things to say about the current and future state of education.

[IainB]

@Renegade: I looked carefully at Khan Academy before signing my daughter up for it. I thought it seemed quite good, and she reported that it was of benefit, for her.
However, the fly in the ointment always seemed to be Bill Gates' funding of KA.
I'd be wary of anything that that gentleman invested in.

[TaoPhoenix]

I dunno Iain, just go content by content. The only 4th hand gripe I have of Khan Academy is it's a little disconnected, the items are shorter than reg college lectures, so it might take some work to organize them into an instructional pattern.

[IainB]

I dunno Iain, just go content by content. The only 4th hand gripe I have of Khan Academy is it's a little disconnected, the items are shorter than reg college lectures, so it might take some work to organize them into an instructional pattern.

-TaoPhoenix (October 20, 2012, 09:13 AM)

Yes, that's the approach that I took for evaluating the online KA elementary maths tuition system for Lily, comparing it to the content of another online elementary maths tuition system (Mathletics) that she was already using per her primary school's contract for the service. She said the KA one helped her to learn/overcome some stuff that she had been a bit "stuck" with (had not understood) and that the Mathletics one didn't really cover/help with.
I thought the Mathletics approach was too elementary and annoyingly repetitive in its positive reinforcement of right answers. I think it would have driven me crazy as a kid. I wondered whether the school might be abrogating responsibility for ensuring proper maths education by assuming that Mathletics would magically "do the job" for them.

[Renegade]

I've viewed quite a few videos from Khan, and like them. The Gates thing though... Hmmm...

[Renegade]

More in the education silliness department...

http://www.techdirt....thout-approval.shtml

Old Regulations Strike Again: Minnesota Says It's Against The Law To Offer Open Courseware Class Without Approval

from the oh-come-on dept

Every day, it seems, we hear of yet another story of silly out-of-date regulations, which may have had a reasonable purpose initially, getting in the way of perfectly legitimate innovation. For example, there's been a massive growth in "open courseware" or open education programs, that put various educational classes online for everyone to benefit. They're not designed to replace the degrees of college, but rather to just help people learn. One of the biggest ones, Coursera, recently told people in Minnesota that they could no longer take Coursera classes, due to ridiculously outdated Minnesota regulations:
Notice for Minnesota Users:

Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.

[app103]

In Victory for Common Sense, Minnesota Will Allow Free Online Courses After All

[Renegade]

In Victory for Common Sense, Minnesota Will Allow Free Online Courses After All

-app103 (October 21, 2012, 08:34 AM)

Chalk one up for sanity! (An exceedingly rare event today!)

[Renegade]

Apparently students also need help to cheat now:

http://atlanta.cbslo...theyre-dumb-as-hell/

A former fifth-grade teacher implicated in a cheating scandal reportedly gave students the illegal assistance because she thought they were “dumb as hell.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, math teacher Shayla Smith was accused of offering students the answers to a test they were taking at the time. She had reportedly been responsible for supervising them while the tests were being completed.

Schajuan Jones, who taught a fourth-grade class across the hall from Smith’s former room, overheard her talking to another teacher about the test.

“The words were, ‘I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they’re dumb as hell,’” Jones was quoted as saying about the interaction between Smith and the unidentified third teacher.

Good for a laugh/cry.