Brian Eno has spent decades pushing the boundaries of music and technology, but when it comes to artificial intelligence, his biggest concern isn’t the tech — it’s who controls it.
100% agree that education focuses way too much on test scores. I went through alot of college realizing that “I dont have to actually learn this stuff, I just have to know what questions will be asked on the test and have good answers for those”. When you approach it that way as a student, you dont actually go through the process of really learning the material and cultivating your mind. After spending alot of time out of college and reading alot more, I realize that true education is having the space to acquire knowledge and wrestle around with it until you really understand it, and socializing with others about the material. You kind of do this when studying for tests, which is why I guess tests have been around for so long. In my time though there was the internet, which was just kind of like an extended library that was easier to search, and I realize that it saved me the hassle of needing to socialize with people about the material, which I think is pretty important when learning. LLM’s are probably going to result in worse outcomes, though maybe test scores will remain the same.
I had a friend in college who I thought was very intelligent, because he would basically take every assignment or exam and distill it down to what needed to be done to fit in with the grading system. I realize now just how harmful that approach is to truly educating yourself, yet it seemed right at the time because that is how the education system is designed (and it relates to capitalism because people want to use education to get a job and to get a good job you need good grades etc.)
It’s also pretty telling whenever I ask someone if they ever studied for a test and forgot all the material on the subject right after. That is contradictory to the whole purpose of education.
It’s also pretty telling whenever I ask someone if they ever studied for a test and forgot all the material on the subject right after. That is contradictory to the whole purpose of education.
Yeah. I immediately think of gamified language learning apps here, cause it’s something I’ve been into in recent years. I get what I can out of them, but a lot of them have the same formula of basic answer correct/incorrect and either keep trying until they’re all correct to complete the lesson, or get high enough % correct to complete the lesson and move on. Whether you are actually comprehending it and integrating it as knowledge into an understanding of the particular language is a whole other question. And personally, I often feel like I’m understanding just enough to get by. I don’t feel like those apps tend to spend even close to long enough on any given concept and generally cram too much into one lesson. But also, the impersonal nature of it (not unlike the impersonal nature of large classes where the teacher doesn’t have much time for personal attention, but even worse than that, cause there’s zero personal attention) means there’s no way to “check in” and see how a person understands what they’re learning. And without that, you’re just sort of hoping that they’re getting something from it.
I remember some time back, someone I think in early childhood education talking about methods they used for understanding what the child was learning, so they could adjust if need be. I don’t remember the details now, but that kind of thing seems very important for education at all ages. And it’s something more organically present in tutoring from a human teacher, but doesn’t automatically come with the mass education setups.
In my experience this was more common 10+ years ago than it is today. Memorizing things temporarily can only get you so far. The problem is that grade inflation means you need to make an A or A+ or you just don’t get it at all. Getting a B means you are very mediocre and getting a C means you need to retake the course or explore a different field imo. If you are only really able to articulate that you understand 80% then you only know enough to be wrong in new creative ways.
I’m worried enough about good students falling into a state department trap, but these mediocre students will destroy us all one day.
100% agree that education focuses way too much on test scores. I went through alot of college realizing that “I dont have to actually learn this stuff, I just have to know what questions will be asked on the test and have good answers for those”. When you approach it that way as a student, you dont actually go through the process of really learning the material and cultivating your mind. After spending alot of time out of college and reading alot more, I realize that true education is having the space to acquire knowledge and wrestle around with it until you really understand it, and socializing with others about the material. You kind of do this when studying for tests, which is why I guess tests have been around for so long. In my time though there was the internet, which was just kind of like an extended library that was easier to search, and I realize that it saved me the hassle of needing to socialize with people about the material, which I think is pretty important when learning. LLM’s are probably going to result in worse outcomes, though maybe test scores will remain the same.
I had a friend in college who I thought was very intelligent, because he would basically take every assignment or exam and distill it down to what needed to be done to fit in with the grading system. I realize now just how harmful that approach is to truly educating yourself, yet it seemed right at the time because that is how the education system is designed (and it relates to capitalism because people want to use education to get a job and to get a good job you need good grades etc.)
It’s also pretty telling whenever I ask someone if they ever studied for a test and forgot all the material on the subject right after. That is contradictory to the whole purpose of education.
Yeah. I immediately think of gamified language learning apps here, cause it’s something I’ve been into in recent years. I get what I can out of them, but a lot of them have the same formula of basic answer correct/incorrect and either keep trying until they’re all correct to complete the lesson, or get high enough % correct to complete the lesson and move on. Whether you are actually comprehending it and integrating it as knowledge into an understanding of the particular language is a whole other question. And personally, I often feel like I’m understanding just enough to get by. I don’t feel like those apps tend to spend even close to long enough on any given concept and generally cram too much into one lesson. But also, the impersonal nature of it (not unlike the impersonal nature of large classes where the teacher doesn’t have much time for personal attention, but even worse than that, cause there’s zero personal attention) means there’s no way to “check in” and see how a person understands what they’re learning. And without that, you’re just sort of hoping that they’re getting something from it.
I remember some time back, someone I think in early childhood education talking about methods they used for understanding what the child was learning, so they could adjust if need be. I don’t remember the details now, but that kind of thing seems very important for education at all ages. And it’s something more organically present in tutoring from a human teacher, but doesn’t automatically come with the mass education setups.
In my experience this was more common 10+ years ago than it is today. Memorizing things temporarily can only get you so far. The problem is that grade inflation means you need to make an A or A+ or you just don’t get it at all. Getting a B means you are very mediocre and getting a C means you need to retake the course or explore a different field imo. If you are only really able to articulate that you understand 80% then you only know enough to be wrong in new creative ways.
I’m worried enough about good students falling into a state department trap, but these mediocre students will destroy us all one day.