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Why not be deeply invested in hiring high quality math tutors?

BurningFrog 2y ago
Why not be deeply invested in hiring strong rickshaw pullers?
kristopolous 2y ago
Because with an AI I'm only wasting My time with all my dumb questions. I kinda love how it doesn't lose patience with my stupidity
Nevermark 2y ago
I am reminded of a grad school friend with a rich extended family, who was bent on persuading me that the super high quality luggage he acquired was more than worth the price. What I would have had to give up to get that luggage, if that was even possible, or where I was supposed to store it in my tiny apartment, were not concerns that computed for them.
jyunwai 2y ago
Recent research in education has actually explored the question. The Center for American Progress published a summary of research findings [1] in January that noted: "High-dosage tutoring is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated significant positive effects on both math and reading achievement," so it's a viable solution—if there's funding. The limitation is price. Many listings for reputable math tutors are greater than $60 USD per hour. If you go by the CAP's minimum for "high-dosage tutoring" of a 30-minute session three times a week, that sums to at least $360 USD per month. Many parents do pay for this for children, but it's an unaffordable expense for many people. There is an initiative to provide free tutoring (via the "Schoolhouse" project founded by Khan Academy's Sal Khan to have volunteer tutors, who are often university students), but it's not yet clear to me whether the quality of volunteer tutors will be sufficient to make a difference in the success of students. I've also read elsewhere that one of the most important factors in tutoring effectiveness is the frequency of consistently meeting with the tutor. An AI tutor would help with frequency via lowering the price—though then again, there may be more feelings of accountability with meeting a human person at a scheduled time, versus using a software tool consistently. [1] https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-scaling-up-high-dosage-tutoring-is-crucial-to-students-success/ https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-scaling-...
dghlsakjg 2y ago
The whole point of Khan academy is democratizing education. Hiring math tutors for the millions of kids around the world that use Khan academy materials is impossible (so far). There are tons of situations where it is not possible to hire a human math tutor, for reasons of cost, access, time, resource constraints, etc. If a kid in a remote village in Alaska with no math tutors can have access to a world class education through AI whenever they need it, then this is a pretty good solution. The origin of Khan academy was Sal Khan filming lessons for his younger cousins, it was easier to host the videos on YT than anywhere else. When he realized that other people were watching his videos and learning from them he took a leap of faith, and quit his job to start a non-profit with the goal of providing free educational materials to anyone. If you find a way to hire and fund thousands or millions of tutors worldwide to provide no charge education, get in touch with Sal Khan, since that's what he has been trying to do for the past 2 decades.
- jyunwai 2y ago
  > "If you find a way to hire and fund thousands or millions of tutors worldwide to provide no charge education, get in touch with Sal Khan, since that's what he has been trying to do for the past 2 decades." To add on to this, this is actually an existing project founded by Sal Khan in 2021 called "Schoolhouse" at https://schoolhouse.world/about https://schoolhouse.world/about. There was a recruitment drive to try and encourage undergraduate students at my university to volunteer as tutors, in exchange for a letter of reference and tutoring experience. I suppose that the program was effective at recruiting volunteers at my university, as it had official support from my university's administration—students received recruitment emails from a faculty member, rather than from an external email address. But I'm unsure about the quality and effectiveness of the program with tutors as volunteers, as I wasn't involved in the program myself. I also predict that it's hard to retain talent, as professional tutors can earn a very high hourly rate—I've seen many independent tutors charge more than $60 per hour.
oldpersonintx 2y ago
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Why not be deeply invested in hiring strong rickshaw pullers?

Because with an AI I'm only wasting My time with all my dumb questions. I kinda love how it doesn't lose patience with my stupidity

Nevermark 2y ago

I am reminded of a grad school friend with a rich extended family, who was bent on persuading me that the super high quality luggage he acquired was more than worth the price. What I would have had to give up to get that luggage, if that was even possible, or where I was supposed to store it in my tiny apartment, were not concerns that computed for them.

jyunwai 2y ago

Recent research in education has actually explored the question. The Center for American Progress published a summary of research findings [1] in January that noted: "High-dosage tutoring is one of the few school-based interventions with demonstrated significant positive effects on both math and reading achievement," so it's a viable solution—if there's funding. The limitation is price. Many listings for reputable math tutors are greater than $60 USD per hour. If you go by the CAP's minimum for "high-dosage tutoring" of a 30-minute session three times a week, that sums to at least $360 USD per month. Many parents do pay for this for children, but it's an unaffordable expense for many people. There is an initiative to provide free tutoring (via the "Schoolhouse" project founded by Khan Academy's Sal Khan to have volunteer tutors, who are often university students), but it's not yet clear to me whether the quality of volunteer tutors will be sufficient to make a difference in the success of students. I've also read elsewhere that one of the most important factors in tutoring effectiveness is the frequency of consistently meeting with the tutor. An AI tutor would help with frequency via lowering the price—though then again, there may be more feelings of accountability with meeting a human person at a scheduled time, versus using a software tool consistently. [1] https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-scaling-up-high-dosage-tutoring-is-crucial-to-students-success/ https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-scaling-...

dghlsakjg 2y ago

The whole point of Khan academy is democratizing education. Hiring math tutors for the millions of kids around the world that use Khan academy materials is impossible (so far). There are tons of situations where it is not possible to hire a human math tutor, for reasons of cost, access, time, resource constraints, etc. If a kid in a remote village in Alaska with no math tutors can have access to a world class education through AI whenever they need it, then this is a pretty good solution. The origin of Khan academy was Sal Khan filming lessons for his younger cousins, it was easier to host the videos on YT than anywhere else. When he realized that other people were watching his videos and learning from them he took a leap of faith, and quit his job to start a non-profit with the goal of providing free educational materials to anyone. If you find a way to hire and fund thousands or millions of tutors worldwide to provide no charge education, get in touch with Sal Khan, since that's what he has been trying to do for the past 2 decades.

jyunwai 2y ago
> "If you find a way to hire and fund thousands or millions of tutors worldwide to provide no charge education, get in touch with Sal Khan, since that's what he has been trying to do for the past 2 decades." To add on to this, this is actually an existing project founded by Sal Khan in 2021 called "Schoolhouse" at https://schoolhouse.world/about https://schoolhouse.world/about. There was a recruitment drive to try and encourage undergraduate students at my university to volunteer as tutors, in exchange for a letter of reference and tutoring experience. I suppose that the program was effective at recruiting volunteers at my university, as it had official support from my university's administration—students received recruitment emails from a faculty member, rather than from an external email address. But I'm unsure about the quality and effectiveness of the program with tutors as volunteers, as I wasn't involved in the program myself. I also predict that it's hard to retain talent, as professional tutors can earn a very high hourly rate—I've seen many independent tutors charge more than $60 per hour.

oldpersonintx 2y ago

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