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There are solid reasons to think both decisions harm most Americans while lining the pockets of corporate elites. I discuss some of the technology portions in this column.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a reauthorization and amendment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Big money for technology is specified in Titles I and IV of ESSA. This federal law specifies large grants to promote both “blended learning” and “personalized learning.” It also legally defines “blended learning.”
‘‘(1) BLENDED LEARNING.—The term
‘blended learning’ means a formal education program that leverages both
technology-based and face-to-face instructional approaches—(A) that
include an element of online or digital learning, combined with
supervised learning time, and student- led learning, in which the
elements are connected to provide an integrated learning experience; and
(B) in which students are provided some control over time, path, or
pace.” (From the official PDF of the law page 1969)
The term personalized learning is somewhat nebulous so I will define it. “Personalized Learning” is a euphemistic term that indicates lessons delivered on a digital device. These lessons are often organized with a playlist and come with a claim of using artificial intelligence to tailor the lessons to the recipient. The scheme is related to competency base education (CBE) and normally includes conferring micro-credentials or badges for competencies completed...
Thomas Ultican -Tultican end the article with following, Artificial intelligence is more science fiction than reality. Computer scientist Roger Schank, a pioneering researcher in artificial intelligence notes:
“The AI [artificial intelligence]
problem is very very hard. It requires people who work in AI
understanding the nature of knowledge; how conversation works; how to
have an original thought; how to predict the actions of others; how to
understand why people do what they do; and a few thousand things like
that. In case no one has noticed, scientists aren’t very good at telling
you how all that stuff works in people. And until they can there will
be no machines that can do any of it.”
With no unbiased positive proof of concept, hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars which were earmarked for education are being spent on technology. It’s likely that much of this spending will cause harm and that schemes like “personalized learning” will not deliver benefit to anyone who is not in a hi-tech industry.
These dollars could have been spent on better facilities, smaller classes, and better teacher education. Instead, the money is wasted on dubious theories propounded by leaders in hi-tech industries.
Read more...
Source: San Diego Free Press
