[ExI] re-post: covid revolutionized education

[spike at rainier66.com]

I heard gmail crashed yesterday so this post didn't go to gmail users.
Retry:

 

Perhaps one of the biggest lasting technological changes brought about by
the shutdown is a forced adoption of online learning.  A laptop isn't
necessary: a 300 dollar ChromeBook will do: it has a camera in it for
controlled testing, a microphone, a receiver for the broadband available
free from the school.  The county supplied those, not the state, not the
feds.  

Suddenly educating the next generation took a quantum leap downward in cost,
because real-time instructors are no longer necessary, even for grading
purposes really.  Software is proving to be adequate, even if not ideal, for
grading written essay-style assignments.  It isn't great at evaluating
content, but one might argue that carbon-based teachers are not necessarily
any good at that either.

Plenty of students have discovered how easy it is to arrange an online
meeting to get a project done.  I myself participated in one, a software
project for the local superintendent, using six selected students.  It came
together quickly and efficiently.  We may never go back fully to face to
face meetings.

New content isn't needed.  Look at how much excellent material is available
free from Khan Academy.  A student can get one hell of a good primary
education just by exhausting that material, and every bit of it can be done
from home with a minimum of bandwidth.  Now everyone on the planet has
access to that.

Covid revolutionized education.

spike

 

 

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