Now THAT's a headline.

[skua@mastodon.social]

@Infoseepage @markhurst
"Fortune reported in 2017 that Maine’s public school test scores had not improved in the 15 years the state had implemented its technology initiative."

Test scores not improving in Maine for 15 years prior to 2017 is hard to attribute to the neuro-disruptive effects of COVID-19.

[rubinjoni@mastodon.social]

@markhurst Brainrot is real.

[infoseepage@mastodon.social]

@skua @markhurst Show me graphs of Maine's classroom teacher to student ratios for the last fifteen years. Show me teacher pay and average educational achievement. Show me child poverty rates. Show me data on kids needing food assistance and whether they are getting it. Show me vaccination rates.

[csolisr@hub.azkware.net]

@markhurst Tablets were supposed to complement textbooks, not replace them entirely!

[infoseepage@mastodon.social]

@skua @markhurst There are lots of confounding variables other than laptops and tablets, yet we always see articles like this and almost never on the other factors. Yeah, a lot of this predates Covid, but there is a general lack of willingness to even consider or acknowledge the effects of this disease on children and the culpability that schools, school boards and society at large have in not making every effort to reduce exposure in an environment they are forced into.

[pizzademon@mastodon.online]

@markhurst imagine being the kid picked for this picture

[jonathankoren@sfba.social]

@markhurst that stock photo looks like it's from 2000 or earlier. There doesn't even look to be a USB port anywhere on that Dell Latitude.

[luc0x61@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@markhurst My totally unfounded opinion is that any tentative to enrich didactics with totally new "special effects", "added interaction", etc., has had the finally effect of disrupting *attention*.
They've lost the basic attention that's needed to follow a (boring) old book, because they've found the /entertaining/ part of the process more interesting.
Who writes educational texts should follow a good course on psychology of communication.

[numodular@c.im]

@jonathankoren We used to give farmers more latitude back then, the farmer and the Dell notwithstanding.

[n_dimension@infosec.exchange]

@markhurst

Wow... So it wasn't AI afterall

[chessert@mastodon.online]

@markhurst

I can't be the only one unsurprised that billions into corporate profits produced far worse results than those same billions funneled directly into local school districts?

[jonathankoren@sfba.social]

@numodular

[budududuroiu@hachyderm.io]

@markhurst why does that matter when Dell and Apple's quarterly earnings looked so good? /s

[sarae@ecoevo.social]

@markhurst I remember complaining about this as a parent and getting nothing but shit

ah well

[anniebuddy@mstdn.ca]

@markhurst

AI will only make it worse.

I joked that we have seen peak human intelligence but now I am convinced it is true.

[burnoutqueen@todon.nl]

@markhurst I think that if kids were encouraged to use computers intelligently, as programmers rather than Internet users, and if kids were encouraged to go deep on their own, this would be less of an issue

[joycebell@mas.to]

@oldoldcojote @markhurst My step granddaughter attends a Montessori school where they teach kids to write in cursive at an early age. I think it is brilliant!

[jmax@mastodon.social]

@markhurst - May I point out that their parents elected Trump. Twice.

[rexi@mastodon.social]

@markhurst

And moving right along from dodgy ed software to AI: next gen bandwidth shrinkage is next.

Eloi for Morlocks?

[tricotfeelya@woof.group]

@markhurst do kids even learn how to write anymore?