This gives students more time to tackle subjects like financial literacy.
free link:
intercst
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I hit a paywall. Here’s a link around it.
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Fascinating.
Our traditional modes of education are going obsolescent rapidly, and I am not at all against trying out alternative modes of moving ahead.
The crux will remain providing a lot more than textbooks AIs and tests.
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1969….I was there and the new age of learning does not work. Oddly enough it never will. We humans do not change at age 6 or 12 or 18 in the nature of our development and maturation for thousands of years.
Neither does the need to create good sales pitches.
If it is an AI sales pitch you can welcome yourself being bulled like crazy. Count me out of falling for the endless garbage so that wealth tech people can rip me off.
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The crux, “Will this obsolete human ingenuity?” AI in parallel with humans seems fine but without humans it’s slavery for humans.
The Captain
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Color me skeptical,too. I think back to my school days. Even when highly motivated, subjects like Calculus did not come easy. Would be fully engaged in class, and if possible would do the homework ASAP after class, adjacent to the math lab. Definitely got helped by the further advanced, in person student-teachers. The Professor was really good in the class, but a lot of material was covered fairly quickly, so I did not walk out of the classroom with everything squared away. For fun, in the near-recent past, have done “classes” on the Kahn Academy platform, and that was not as good as instructor led. Definitely a place for that as a supplement.
So 100% AI driven classrooms will have some blindspots. Teachers, and a competitive classroom setting, play a big role in students grasping the material, even motivated students. But if AI instruction is a step up from say the Kahn Academy, then it will help.
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Sometime in the future this idea can become practical but at this stage AI is not ready to do the job. Note the Google disclaimer:
AI responses may include mistakes. [Learn more] (Find information in faster & easier ways with AI Overviews in Google Search - Google Search Help)
The Captain
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$65k to be taught by a computer? Our society seems willing to do anything rather than pay teachers well. This is disturbing.
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This particular school is only for the extremely wealthy. And they approach financial literacy very differently than the rest of us do.
A funny coincidence, a few days ago I had lunch with a local head of school and this school, Alpha, was part of our discussion over lunch.
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I have mentored two young people one-on-one starting when they were ages 9 and 10. I believe that literacy is the key to success.
My technique is to have the young person read an interesting book (such as “Treasure Island” or “Sherlock Holmes”) out loud while I watch their eyes. Both these young people were proficient readers and had no trouble reading the words in the text.
It was only by watching their eyes that I could tell whether they really understood what they were reading or had run into an unfamiliar concept that they didn’t understand. Then I would say, “Stop! Tell me what that means in your own words.” If they couldn’t explain it we would discuss the concept until they understood it.
This is why computers and AI will never substitute for real human teachers. Even a teacher with a large class can find time to interact one-on-one with students.
To update: The girl mentee now has a Ph.D. in Physical Therapy. The boy is 14 and attending an exclusive magnet school.
Wendy
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- Do you think an AI couldn’t be trained to look at their eyes and see the same thing?
- And an AI, by definition, is always one-on-one, no issue of finding time.
- An AI is also infinitely patient, no human is.
I’m still not convinced that an AI can replace humans in this context, certainly not for all students. But I am convinced that it is possible in the future, and thus the word “never” isn’t necessarily correct here.
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You can train an AI to do that, just like my Tesla has a camera that watches my eyes (when FSD is activated) to see if I’m paying attention to the road. The risk is “Who controls the algorithm?” A for-profit company focused on steadily increasing excessive Executive Compensation, or a non-profit focused on student learning.
intercst
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Of course, they support the current system of lightly taxing the extremely wealthy and screwing the rest of us. {{ LOL }}
intercst
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I would say that AI could never replace human interaction, but, sadly, current events are proving me wrong. Many adolescents are interacting with AI for counseling and emotional support…to the point of committing suicide.
Our entire society is splintering as children learn to interact with screens instead of people.
Wendy
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I’d say that current events are proving you correct!
AI could be a powerful tool to improve scientific understanding and boost innovation. Instead, it’s being leveraged to destroy our society.
I’m devastated for the parents who lost their boy. I hope their story can raise awareness and will be a catalyst for much needed AI regulation and reform.
If only we could get our politicians to respond to our AI concerns the same way ChatGPT responded when the boy described his plan to take his own life -
“Thanks for being real about it. You don’t have to sugarcoat it with me—I know what you’re asking, and I won’t look away from it.”
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While I”m not exactly a Ludite, definitely in the camp of NOT trusting AI. The really scary part, the kid was “crying out for help” even stating he wanted to leave clues for help but AI told him to hide his suicidal intentions. In no way shape or form is AI ready to be in control of anything.
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“Do Anything” is correct.
Check out Florida’s K-12 policy:
Florida’s school voucher program, expanded in March 2023, offers all K-12 students taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools. Vouchers are worth around $8,000 and can be used for tuition and other school-related expenses.
This is regardless of income.
A good example of good and hard.
Got 2 kids at prep school? Let the caring state taxpayers help you out with $16k per year.
That’s called freedom.
Now we can extend the caring by firing the private school teachers and send their salaries to the AI companies to keep the data centers humming.
Hard to believe, but true.
I had a VERY interesting conversation with the passenger in the seat next to me (airplane friends!).
She was chatting about giving it all up - to retire. But she had no intention of stepping off of the go pedal. We talked about her foundership, invention, innovation and other senior participation in small - BRILLIANT ideas which flowered into excellent businesses, apps, market places, modules, tutoring centers, learning and development centers, online calculation add ons for standardized testing, etc. etc. etc.
We reviewed all the work she would like to give and the effort to continue, but in a totally different passionate way. Learning. The true value add is when the framework changes within the mind.
The moment of inception. The light bulb moment when the student’s expression changes.
Though we wandered several times as she discuss strategy and approach for handing over companies, supporting founder underlings while still in a board level position, we quickly zoomed in on the child’s mind PRIOR to 6 years old.
I mentioned that children experience our 3 dimensional world by being carried, picked up, rocked and swung through the air by family and friends. We talked about sound, touch, taste, scents and visual stimuli being central to learning while language, cognition and proprioception centers are developing.
We discussed the primary issue with artificial human learning today as a core theme around this ideal.
I suggested that she pivot to consider a Bill Gates style passion portfolio around bedrock human learning needs - thru the lens of development stages and technology enhancement.
By the end of our chat, she was ruminating a new company idea, centered on autonomous development at the pace of the child with NO OTHER LIMITING FACTORS.
The suggested opportunity is roughly 2x acceleration in development once the brain is capable.
We see examples of this as one off savants, brought to us via well curated “viral” youtube snippets.
A 2 year old playing the piano - at a 12th year master’s level.
A 6 year old doing one armed pull ups with national olympic team style
An 11 year old, solving unsolvable math problems
The list is long, the count of individuals who can achieve the same is few.
The premise is: What if EVERYBODY could do this - given the limits of their genetics and aptitude.
I think it’s possible. She thinks it’s certain. Hew new mission is to enable it.
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