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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: 0.417s | source
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brainwipe ◴[12 Nov 24 15:54 UTC] No.42116539[source]▶
IMO education is still built around Victorian structures and needs to be reworked from examinations downwards. Examinations are an exercise in being good at examinations, not proficiency in the subject. Once you strip that away the you wind back all the structures that feed it. You can see this working at schools designed for the neuro diverse. Those students simply can't sit and listen to a teacher all day, so each student learns in their own way and are better of for it.

Arguing about the effectiveness of edtech is like complaining there wasn't a viola on the Titanic's band.

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LargeWu ◴[12 Nov 24 15:58 UTC] No.42116594[source]▶
What, specifically, is an example of an exam not measuring proficiency? If an exam is well designed, the student will need to figure out what is being asked and use their mastery to provide an answer.
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1. Retric ◴[12 Nov 24 16:26 UTC] No.42116935[source]▶
“Well designed? is doing heavy lifting here. You can get very good at specific test formats in terms of time management, common tricks, etc.

Actual tests include things like: Multiple choice questions were providing answers aids answering the question. Short responses / fill in the blank generally mean people can just regurgitate answers they don’t understand. Essay responses sound great, except you can’t answer many questions and essays writing is a separate skill which heavily influences final scores.

More broadly tests are time limited so can’t test skills that take long periods of time to demonstrate a major issue for say programming.

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2. margalabargala ◴[12 Nov 24 16:44 UTC] No.42117109[source]▶
> More broadly tests are time limited so can’t test skills that take long periods of time to demonstrate a major issue for say programming.

Every programming class I've taken, in high school or college, was project based where the main source of grade were actual programs I wrote which actually did something.

The one exception perhaps being the AP test for AP CS.