<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Bear Bryant once said that he thought that he was a better coach of the average player than of the great player. I was the reverse. My usual problem was assuming too much of the students, as I found out on the tests. A colleague of mine had to hand over a class to me - gall bladder operation. They were due for a test on reliability and they flunked very badly. She assumed too much. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">A related problem: I am type A - impatient. Too impatient for the struggling student. Those students I tried to get mentors for.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Are you saying that online education is mostly for the people to the right in the distribution? If so, then different teachers or methods or something could be provided for those to the left. One things about this: the curve has changed along the way, as those to the left are dropping out at every level (you can flunk first grade - "one, two, three, many"). So the whole curve shifts right as time goes on. It, just guessing, probably becomes skewed to the left rather than maintaining a normal shape.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">I tried to 'follow' someone on Quora and never did get anything about her in my email. I am glad you are following and wish you would comment. Do my answers show up in your email. or what?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">bill w - more later maybe on this topic</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 11:19 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="gmail-m_67963138669200821WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] virtual education, was: RE: virtual travel<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:black">'vastly superior' - research studies, please. I will never be convinced that for some topics, some students, a live person is not essential</span>…<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Agreed, no dispute there at all. For subjective fields of learning I do agree collaborative efforts and personal interactions are required (humans in physical contact, eeewww, ick, take me away Calgon.) <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">The fields of study which interest me and those which I know about are mostly solitary vices. Interaction with other humans often involves reading what someone wrote a century ago, such as the marvelous accomplishment of Andrey Markov, which has kept my son and me entertained for the past week:<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS""><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Markov" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Markov</a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS""><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS""><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:black">I answer thousands of questions on Quora</span>…<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">BillW I am one of your followers over there. I haven’t posted anything on your responses, but might eventually do so if I deem myself sufficiently knowledgeable on the topic.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Quora has noted the number of responses to my posts there and have offered to pay me a pittance for each one, if I register. So now I am a professional internet influencer, or would be if I were to follow thru with registration, which I will not do. Reason: I have casually mentioned what firearms I own in that forum. I do not wish the world knowing who I am or being able to figure out where I live: it makes me a burglary target.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:black">I will refer again to the TV-taught psych 101 course I monitored. The students hated it. </span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">If you have ever tried to watch even excellent lectures, such as those available thru Great Courses, <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><a href="https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/" target="_blank">https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/</a><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">you already know why: a video tape of a classroom lecture introduces all the traditional shortcomings of any other course taught in a classroom with few advantages.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>>…<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">the academically rich are getting dramatically richer, the academically otherwise are getting little or nothing. </span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Did you just contradict your 'vastly superior' statement?</span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Not at all. If one’s goal is increasing the average, then online instruction is superior. If one’s goal is reducing the standard deviation of the bell curve inherent in education, then online learning is not only a failure, it is a catastrophe. If one is over on the right side of the bell curve, online education pushes one farther to the right. In that sense it is vastly superior: it is more concentrated and more focused learning.<u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">For psych 101 and some others, most of the A students and some of the B students just don't need to come to class if all you want from them is good test scores. Is that all we want from students?</span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Sure. I am not suggesting I know how to help the unmotivated or under-skilled. In my educational volunteer efforts, I work with the highly motivated highly skilled students only, for that is the only area in which I have anything to offer. I have been repeatedly asked to help struggling students, and have repeatedly turned down those opportunities. Reason: I don’t know how. <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">I justify my existence however, since there are other volunteers who are willing and able to help struggling students, along with many local businesses in tutoring. I modestly claim that there are very few volunteers available who know how to create a Markov Chain, derive a transition matrix from it, calculate an absorbing matrix, take the determinant and find the answer. I might be the only one of the volunteers who knows how to do that. So… I do.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">What about developing the ability to interact with a superior?</span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">I see your point. If my students work at it, they are the superior. They need to interact with inferiors.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">>…<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">Virtual learning has a big place, but it's not the only one for sure.</span> <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">bill w</span><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">For sure. No argument there.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">This loops all the way back to the efficiency available to us in education, at least in some areas.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">spike<u></u><u></u></span></p></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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