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▲ voakbasda 6 hours ago

I worked for an education tech company in the 90s. Seemed to clear to me even then that computers in the classroom were not going to be a positive influence. The way things have gone since then, it is no wonder that kids’ brains have turned into pudding.

▲dghlsakjg 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I think that computers in the classroom can have a tremendous positive influence in specific areas when see with correct guidance. I think where we went wrong is replacing the classroom with ChromeOS and iPads.

▲9x39 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is that a strategy for the 99th percentile or the 50th?

The winner of classroom tech is classroom tech vendors, not students, not collective test scores.

▲pstuart 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Those digital devices should be an augmentation of their education, not a replacement for what has already existed.

Teaching kids is incredibly challenging -- if they view school as torture or a prison then we have failed them.

I have three kids who've gone through K12 public schools and have been lucky enough to do so in well-funded school districts. Adding to that, we did our best to augment that with a parent organized weekly sessions with a host of different teachers hired to give lessons on things that the school curriculum did not cover.

We also had them participate in Odyssey of the Mind for many years (it's a really cool program worth checking out: https://odysseyofthemind.com/)

Even with all of that, it was clear that while much of their education stuck, other parts were effectively just tolerated.

I think there are really two core factors that lead to educational success:

1. A good teacher who can connect with students and inspire them to learn

2. A curriculum that can be understood by the student as having value and aligns with their life needs.

Teaching anyone is effectively futile unless they are curious or can find value in the subject material. Good teachers are the foundation of that, and outsourcing that to some sort of "educational platform" is doomed to failure.

▲falserum an hour ago | parent [-]

0. children that listen to the teacher (depends on factors outside the classroom, like how parents raise the child)