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The EdTech Revolution Has Failed

(www.afterbabel.com)
346 points obscurette | 5 comments | 12 Nov 24 14:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.919s | 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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1. johndhi ◴[12 Nov 24 16:52 UTC] No.42117190[source]▶
can you give an example of someone being upset and what the thing they'd learned that they "shouldn't?"

as a parent I find it confusing that I'd consider getting upset if my kid was learning 6th grade history as a 3rd grader (or 2nd grade art as a 3rd grader). what actual examples are there?

the only examples of parents being upset about learning I'm aware of lately is, like, critical theory and marxism

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2. red_admiral ◴[12 Nov 24 16:58 UTC] No.42117248[source]▶
Sex education? Not in the sense of the kids watching porn, but learning about contraception and STIs and that kind of thing.
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3. johndhi ◴[12 Nov 24 18:27 UTC] No.42118198[source]▶
fair enough but is that really the reason edtech has failed?
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4. red_admiral ◴[13 Nov 24 11:19 UTC] No.42125046{3}[source]▶
IMO, EdTech has failed because it's BS. I'd sooner buy GameStop stock than the next EdTech-in-schools startup. (EdX, Khan etc. are playing in a different market, and doing ok.)

But sex ed and the like is definitely something that gets parents upset, as is the general concept of "they're teaching my child things they're not telling me about", whether that's critical theory, sex ed, evolution, or anything with the word gender in it.

5. snowfarthing ◴[14 Nov 24 18:30 UTC] No.42139458[source]▶
This is a problem that has been around for years, perhaps decades. One memorable example comes from "To Kill a Mockingbird", where the teacher complained about the main character Scout having learned to read before her 1st grade -- when Atticus had nothing to do with it, because she learned how to read on her own at the age of 4.

Others have given their own experiences in this thread -- some teachers are encouraging, others get frustrated.