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The EdTech Revolution Has Failed

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346 points obscurette | 2 comments | 12 Nov 24 14:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.475s | source
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donatj ◴[12 Nov 24 15:41 UTC] No.42116365[source]▶
I work in EdTech, I have for a very long time now, and the problem I have seen is no one in education is willing to ACTUALLY let kids learn at their own level.

The promise of EdTech was that kids could learn where they are. A kid who's behind can actually continue to learn rather than being left behind. A kid who's ahead can be nurtured.

We had this. It worked well, in my opinion at least, and the number of complaints and straight up threats because kids would learn things "they shouldn't be" was just… insanely frustrating.

Now in order to keep schools paying for our services, every kid is banded into a range based on their grade. They are scored/graded based on their grade level rather than their growth. It's such a crying shame.

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Fin_Code ◴[12 Nov 24 15:46 UTC] No.42116428[source]▶
Customized skill based education should be the future.
replies(1): >>42116552 #
jerf ◴[12 Nov 24 15:55 UTC] No.42116552[source]▶
The problem is that it should be the present. Oh, I've been an engineer for a while and I know the system can't turn on a dime, it would take some time.

However, we should be seeing visible progress towards this goal, and frankly, if anything, the system continues to be moving in the other direction, lowering bars to try to get everyone into the exact same level long after it should be clear that lowering the bar still isn't even achieving that goal, even as it destroys everything around it in the process.

The system isn't even trying to customize skill-based education, beyond a bit of clearly-ineffectual lip service.

replies(2): >>42116879 #>>42117095 #
1. Vegenoid ◴[12 Nov 24 16:22 UTC] No.42116879[source]▶
Large bureaucracy wants people to be as fungible as possible, so that systems can be designed that interact with fungible units instead of complex, multifaceted individuals.
replies(1): >>42117766 #
2. throwaway2037 ◴[12 Nov 24 17:44 UTC] No.42117766[source]▶
I reject this kind of thinking.

To be clear, most engineers at FAANG would describe their own companies as a "large bureaucracy", yet, the engineers at these places are highly skilled, "complex, multifaceted individuals". Their hiring strategy has demonstrated this time and time again on HN discussions. It is insanely hard to get hired into these places. There must be at least 10 qualified candidates for each role. And, weirdly, I would say that almost all of the most highly skilled software engineers that I have known in my career are also the most dynamic. By definition, that makes them fungible because they can learn new skills so quickly.