Alex Gorodinski Founder/Consultant at Open Mind Consulting, LLC
Excellent! This is one the best article about a real solution Education problems not only in professional area, but in the field of a personal development of students.
Jeff (Yefim) Zhuk Enterprise Architecture, Integrated Software and Knowledge Engineering
Many of the former students are IT consultants now. This transformation has changed their lives. They do not have much experience but today they have a foot in the door. Information Technology is still a growing industry (one of a few). IT is trying to catch up with the growing ocean of data and increasing demands on information processing. Four-to-six months of intensive training proved to be a valid alternative to four-to-six years of college education (maybe not for everyone, but for many students.)
Is this process and approach scalable? I believe it is. The key requirements for scalability are: - Improve educational content, remove information gaps, and provide multiple content levels to match multiple levels of skills - Develop a reliable feedback mechanism, which will provide conversational support to verify student knowledge and student understanding at each point of study - Provide motivational support by taking into account individual preferences How much of this process can be delegated to a computer? Not everything and not all at once, but I am confident that a good teacher would find the assistance of such a computer program extremely beneficial. And then a computer program will learn more from a good teacher and can help even more…
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Rebecca Ramo Special Education/Drama Teacher. Writer. Singer
It seems like most of the world is on the same page in terms of desiring a high quality education for all students, regardless of the circumstances to which they are born. However, the diversity comes in terms of the approach. I would welcome any kind of technological tools in my classroom with open arms. In fact, many teachers, even in the lowest funded schools around, have Promethean Boards or SmartBoards in their classrooms. However, sometimes technology, at least in America's public schools, is a cover-up, a band-aid to disguise huge generational, socio-economic, and cultural (which may or may not refer to ethnicity) problems that cannot be solved with any kind of teacher intervention. Using fun, "engaging" technology in the classroom will not reinforce language at home for children whose parents do not know English. It will not convince them of the value of education or the need to show up to school. Many of my students are really nice kids in the classroom, but they miss school because their parents either physically can't or "don't feel like" taking them to school. Also, the corrupt wave of Common Core education, as is the societal pattern, is to go after unions. Teachers are under massive attack and are being tasked with ensuring that students pass standardized tests on grade level. I often receive middle school students who read and do math at a second grade level. Even if they experience two years worth of growth in one year--a huge success, my "job performance" is at risk when the kids then do not pass the 7th grade standardized test which they are forced by law to take.
Jeff (Yefim) Zhuk Enterprise Architecture, Integrated Software and Knowledge Engineering
Was it clear so far?
Rebecca, You are right. Each student needs individual attention. Technology cannot replace a teacher, but can save teacher’s time and expand teaching power. For example, teachers are pressed to provide more paperwork. (A good idea of measuring the results is poisoned by its implementation.) Here is a great place for computerized conversational tests that would measure individual student’s level and suggest the next step of study or a proper repetition material. Formatted as a friendly game this program saves teacher’s time and still works under teacher’s control.
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Rebecca Ramo Special Education/Drama Teacher. Writer. Singer
When teachers "fail" to make students perform on grade level, even though they received the students when they were far below grade level, the blame is put on teachers for not having enough "rigor" and "technology" in their lesson plans. Absolutely no responsibility is put on parents, students, administrators, or the general society to help our children. Doctors, no matter how advanced their technology is, do not get rated "ineffective" if they are unable to cure a patient in the severe stages of an illness. They are not accused of not using the correct technology and being micromanaged down to every minute of their procedure by people who have never been doctors. Again, I welcome any and every technological source that benefits children. Please, we will take it all. But first, we as teachers, would like less than 35 students in the classroom, supplies like pencils and paper for our students that we do not have to buy, since more often than not kids do not have them, time to teach our children at their level, instead of wasting everyone's time to prepare them for a test that is years above their grade level.
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Парафесь Сергей начальник отдела в ЗАО "ИнСис-интеграция
Jeff! The subject of the article, in my opinion, is very interesting and timely, especially into our ever-expanding world of knowledge. How to deliver this knowledge to specific student effectively? How to select the material that the students understand it? What feedback should we provide to better engage the students in the learning process? These and other similar questions, perhaps, any teacher asked many times. I agree with your statement that traditionally the most effective method of knowledge transfer from teacher to student is a straight talk "one on one". And I agree that this is very expensive. Yes you are right when you say, "We do not have enough teachers, especially good teachers to converse one-o-one with the students." I think it's a fair statement for any country.
Sergey Parafes, professor of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Aerospace Engineering School
Jeff (Yefim) Zhuk Enterprise Architecture, Integrated Software and Knowledge Engineering
Sergey, thank you for the response! As far as I know MAI in Russia is a similar level school as MIT or CalTech in the U.S. Do you have a course on Knowledge Engineering? Any usage of this subject and semantic technologies in education?
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Парафесь Сергей начальник отдела в ЗАО "ИнСис-интеграция
Jeff, you invited academic world and corporate training to use is a combination of conversational approach with semantic technologies to solve this problem. I think it is a good idea. I have some experience in using similar technologies; in particular I'm quite familiar with the technologies of the ontological engineering. I would be interested to get acquainted with the proposed technology in teaching and collaborate on knowledge transfer details.
Sergey Parafes, professor of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Aerospace Engineering School
