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Comment by eesmith | Hacker News Reader

Have you considered that it might be because computer-based education doesn't really work?

There's a long history of technology which promised to revolutionize education - records, radio, film reels, TV broadcasts, VCR, microcomputer software, the constructionist faith in "One Laptop Per Child", MOOCs, and more.

Add this to the pile.

There are always some students who can learn on their own, and who will, for example, learn Latin from a book at the age of 6.

Most kids are not thing way.

I think most kids need someone to be there for the long-term emotional connection. Ideally (in my view), someone who respects them, and encourages them to learn, which the student can reciprocate by success in class and personal growth.

Technology cannot make that connection.

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PLATO based lessons seem to have helped as an augment to normal style education.

I don't think revolutionize is particularly on the horizon, but "doesn't really work" really depends on what you're defining your success condition to be.

Sure. Thing is, every one of those technologies I listed also "helped as an augment to normal style education."

Including a copy of a book like "Introduction to Latin".

I have to be hand-wavy because the full analysis has to include factors like the cost of licensing, the cost of hardware and maintenance, the time to integrate into the curriculum, how often the UI and content changes, and the loss of space for and access to other resources.

Like, our local elementary school got rid of its staff librarian to have money for more student electronics, and now they are talking about bringing a librarian back.

I've only ever seen PLATO-based systems used at the college level, which is where we also expect students to be more self-motivated. That would be another factor.

One person talking in front of thirty kids is not much of a connection.

It's still more than with a computer.

I don't think I had any teacher who only talked in front of us. Not only did that do more than that in class, and via marked papers, we also had teachers who helped out in school clubs, and attended bake sales, and set up the room for parent visits, and lead field trips, and organized sports days and fire drills. One teacher went the same church as my family, and I bumped into teachers a few times around town.

1 to 30 is higher than average for most of the US. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/tables/ntps1718_fltable06_t... and https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/estable/table/ntps/ntps2021... tell me it's more like 1:25.

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