The GSV Big 10: What A Bot China?
Six-year-olds taking up AI Arms, Better Late than Never in Texas, and Prison Blues...
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The Big 10:
China’s six-year-olds are already being offered AI classes in school in a bid to train the next generation of DeepSeek founders | Fortune
The AI Revolution is in full swing with China requiring elementary school students at least 8 hours of AI training a year. Given what we had seen and experienced with our own eyes, it struck us as wrong that that USA was light years ahead in the AI race…DeepSeek was a shot across the bow and what China and other governments are doing to get their citizens ready to compete is truly game on.
Texas Poised to Pass Universal School Choice | The Daily Economy
It was bizarre that Texas—being Texas—had not been out front on school choice. More bizarre, the largest obstacle was House Republicans…despite 80% of the Lone Star State Republicans supporting choice. The good news is, with 10% of K-12 students in the country, the $1 billion of funds set aside for 100,000 students gets Texas in the game. The bad news is, it’s only 100,000 students out of 5 million and at $10k per student, it’s far below the $17k per head that “normal” students receive. More bad (but not surprising) news, most of the opponents of the Choice legislation send their own kids to private schools.
I Used to Teach Students. Now I Catch ChatGPT Cheats | The Walrus
Two schools of thought…#1) Winners never cheat and cheaters never win. # 2) If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying hard enough. Funny enough, I kind of subscribe to the combination of the two seemingly incongruent maxims. The obsession with how generative AI helps students “cheat” is boring. A certain number of students since the beginning of time have looked for ways to beat the system. If in that process, a student doesn’t learn anything, the person they are hurting most is themselves. AI enables a way to enhance and accelerate learning so a redefinition is required…the goal of learning is to acquire knowledge that can be applied to fulfill ones purpose in life. Cheaper, faster and better is a winning formula allowing us to learn at the speed of light.
AI chatbots can cushion the high school counselor shortage — but are they bad for students? | Cal Matters
25% of high schools in America don’t have an academic counselor. Even in California where the numbers are better, there is still just one counselor for every 464 students. A personal AI mentor can provide a part of a solution to that crushing problem, but the article warns of the shortfalls of having just a mentor in your pocket. As become the mantra in our new drinking game, it’s not “Man vs. Machine, it’s Man and Machine”.
The Reading Wars Go to Court | Education Next
Who could argue with the concept of “Balanced Literacy” save the fact that only 1/3 of 4th grade students in America are proficient in reading. The power of the podcast is evident by Emily Hanford’s “Sold a Story” exposing the obvious truth that one can’t learn to love to read if they can’t read. Here comes the judge and not a moment too soon.
How COVID Shaped a Resilient Generation of Kids | Scientific American
We are all well aware of the many damaging effects of Covid on students. Falling math and reading scores, even more pronounced amongst the most disadvantaged communities. Nearly 50% of students at least one academic year behind grade level versus 36% before the pandemic. Chronic absenteeism and of course an epidemic of social and emotional issues. A small silver lining is studies have shown a resilience that was gained amongst many of the students.
8 out of 10 college students and administrators welcome AI agents | ZD Net
Welcome to the future…perhaps most surprising is that 20% of students are fighting gravity. The issue isn’t how to outlaw AI agents—that’s not going to happen—but how they can used to have students and administrators be more effective. It’s not about outsourcing ones brain to a bot, but how to accomplish objectives more efficiently to be more productive.
Local vocational schools are getting twice as many applicants as they have room for | Telegram
The beat goes on. The market is speaking and vocational schools are on the rise and traditional college is under attack. The ROI for learning a trade and earning a good wage is compelling for many that historically may have gone to a four-year university. We predict that this accelerating trend will force many high education institutions to rethink their model.
Prison labor, an invisible workforce of the U.S. economy | CBS News
With nearly 2 million people incarcerated in America, there is a huge need to make prisons into “prep schools”. More than just making license plates, the $11 billion prison economy is made up of a variety of goods and services that prisoners are often paid for in “points”. The opportunity to turn skills developed in prison to marketable and legal in the outside world is critical.
🎙️ Ep 39 · Ronnie Screwvala | Ed on the Edge | Dash Media
Check out this fireside chat between one of India’s top entrepreneurs, philanthropists and Upgrad Chairman Ronnie Screwvala and yours truly at our All Eyes on India event.
🎙️ Ep 39 · Ronnie Screwvala: Big Time Entrepreneur, Social Investor, Film Producer 🇮🇳 | Ed on the Edge
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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.
"#1) Winners never cheat and cheaters never win. # 2) If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying hard enough. Funny enough, I kind of subscribe to the combination of the two seemingly incongruent maxims. The obsession with how generative AI helps students “cheat” is boring"....Cheaters "only hurt themselves"
So much to unpack there.
"boring" maybe. But the hand-wringing and worry are certainly not misdirected. Trying to evaluate student learning without any valid way to is (lowkey) frustrating and (highkey) despairing.
1. AI has totally changed the value & measures we've used for a long time to evaluate and assess
2. It's supercharged access to answers (some times with explanations, but almost always answers)
3. Cognitive offloading and its risks are starting to come into focus
4. Inertia of large systems (with embedded large edtechnology systems) is real
On the one hand: AI is an amazing accelerant for learning.
On the other, it is a teleportation device to answers (learning not required).
A few clicks, as ever, ≠ learning.