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Comment by albertshin | Hacker News Reader

Hi, present day (grad) student here that has been seeing this change happen gradually over my academic career. honestly there have been times I wish that technology stayed out of education because I feel like that the clear explanations have disappeared in exchange for cool graphics or videos (maybe a budget reallocation to the design/graphics team on the publisher's side?). or a related thing is I've noticed in class discussion happens less as slides have replaced the whiteboard/chalkboard as the class speeds through pre written formulas or texts. overall, perhaps there's a case for more quantity of info being relayed thanks to tech but I feel like quality has suffered as a result.

of course ymmv according to prof and institution

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Undergraduate here, and I tend to agree. I used to learn a lot of material online using all the sites, blog posts, videos, visualizations, etc I could find... But as time has gone on Ive realized that most flashy materials, are less helpful that just spending some time with a single good book on a topic.

The problem is not the tech but the learning style. With interactive notebooks and ton of other materials available, students can participate in pro-active reading before the class so the actual class time can be used more for discussion, not just lecturing. Sadly, most students and professors still do the old way of passive listening.

I can't possibly see how any student in certain subjects like engineering can do much reading ahead. I listened to the lecture, tried to study notes, did insane amounts of homework which always took hours, worked on projects, and then had to study for quizes and tests. I would've loved to check out a chapter before class, but what little time I had was for sleeping, eating, and a little socializing. Granted there are some people that are way smarter than me or especially if you had an easy program you might have been able to read ahead.

I like the concept of Notebooks a lot, but you have to be careful that students aren't getting slightly flashier presentations that come with confusing installation woes.

I teach econ, although on a break at the moment from doing this. I use Jupyter for this, the way to structure a class I think is to split into a lecture part with work on a board and then a practical part where people work through exercises with Jupyter. Both sessions can incorporate discussion where necessary.Used appropriately something like Jupyter can enhance learning and understanding as well as build skills.

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