The Robots are Coming (DoD to replace one fourth of soldiers with bots by 2030)

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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The internet has made most teachers useless for any kid who has a bit of motivation and curiosity.
 

iannis

Musty Nester
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That's another one of those good/bad implementation problems.

For a lot of subject matter there is no need to require the sheer drudgery that a teacher has to endure to teach it. Hard science doesn't change. Math doesn't change. It helps a great deal to have a human being available to explain the ideas and to show the student how it works. But actually making it work is up to the student. It'll even help teachers more, I would think, to allow them to spend time with the students who are making an honest effort but just don't "get it" yet. One thing can be explained in many different ways. It is the job of the teacher to know those different ways and to be able to find the one which will work for each particular student. In a perfect world.

But then there are other areas of education where trying to divorce the subject from the teacher/student interaction is harmful. You can read history out of a book. I had a lot of history teachers that did exactly that. And replacing that with online education will be no better or no worse. But I also had history teachers that had passion for the source material (shit, I had a chemistry teacher with that sort of passion), and the "inspiration" that they provide is available in only that one specific way. It's not just liberal arts, even if it's mostly liberal arts. When you start getting into the nitty-gritty of biology (and I assume any deep subject, tbh), you NEED that sort of interaction in order for real education to happen.

Ultimately it's always up to the student, but the teacher still has an instrumental role in the process.
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I've heard people argue that it will actually be better because eventually everyone will be getting lectures from the best of the best and then just having PAs or whatever correcting their papers. Those passionate, awesome teachers you talk about could teach 100,000 students a day instead of 100. Granted you won't be able to interact with them one on one, but you can't do that with a lot of university professors now.

Also, just in case it hasn't already been posted:

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The wars of the future will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today, remember always, your duty is clear: to build and maintain those robots.
 

khalid

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But then there are other areas of education where trying to divorce the subject from the teacher/student interaction is harmful. You can read history out of a book. I had a lot of history teachers that did exactly that. And replacing that with online education will be no better or no worse. But I also had history teachers that had passion for the source material (shit, I had a chemistry teacher with that sort of passion), and the "inspiration" that they provide is available in only that one specific way. It's not just liberal arts, even if it's mostly liberal arts. When you start getting into the nitty-gritty of biology (and I assume any deep subject, tbh), you NEED that sort of interaction in order for real education to happen.
Inspiration is important in any field, not just liberal arts. Mathematics, computer science, physics, all of these I had at least one professor that really made the subject matter more interesting than it would have appeared simply from a straight reading. I would like to hope I do the same for at least some of my students, but who knows!

However, many undergraduate courses simply cry out for online work with a professor in the background to offer help.