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A comment on Silicon Valley and the Edtech Revolution.

Re:Silicon Valley and the Edtech Revolution by WalterBright on Tuesday June 24, 2014 @09:59PM (#7941855)
The thing is, there is no way to automate learning. Learning is a lot like exercise - it takes work and effort to get stronger. Nobody has succeeded in making effortless exercise, and nobody has or will succeed in making learning effortless.

The Khan Academy and Coursera do not automate education, they simply are the modern version of correspondence courses.

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Re:Silicon Valley and the Edtech Revolution by jshute on Wednesday June 25, 2014 @02:43AM (#7942589)
It's a bit more nuanced than the no-pain-no-gain attitude toward exercise, too. We are fond of the saying, "worksheets don't build dendrites" around here.

I think many institutions are set up as human proof-of-work verification machines, when they should be set up as human brain debuggers. Debuggers show you counter-examples to your mental model. You set the goals and drive the process.

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