[hunterpayne]

There is no correlation between better educational outcomes and higher teacher pay. Washington has the highest teacher pay and the smallest classrooms yet is below average in educational outcomes. Stop this canard, it just isn't true. US Schools have plenty of money, they just don't spend it wisely. In fact, both Mississippi and Louisiana have better outcomes than Washington state despite the fact they have half the spend per student.

[WalterBright]

The Washington schools constantly ask for more money so they can teach. I don't see what monetary resources are needed to teach arithmetic beyond a blackboard and chalk.

Projectors, videos, computers, tablets, calculators, are all completely useless in teaching math.

[freeopinion]

Walter,

I have a great deal of respect for you. Your math skills are much greater than my own. But you have stretched your statement too far. Flash cards can be very helpful in teaching math. Timed tests for math facts can be very helpful. Both of these can be facilitated with computers or tablets. Animations can be a very useful instructional tool. Even taking a picture of the chalk on the blackboard and putting it online can help students (and possibly helpful parents) review the in-class lecture from home while they do their homework.

I don't dismiss your overall point, but don't be too flippant. A video of the lecture can be very helpful.

[WalterBright]

I tried various methods on myself.

What works:

1. having a lecture on a chalkboard

2. taking notes by hand. Yes, by hand. Something about the act of writing it by hand fixes it in my brain

3. using pencil and paper to do the problems.

4. and what really works is giving an in-person lecture on how to do it

What doesn't work:

1. everything else

I've watched many instructional videos. Poof, none of it sticks. I've audited classes. Poof, none of it sticks, because I didn't do the homework.

I've never known anyone who learned arithmetic from a calculator.

It's like wanting to be strong. You have to do the work to get strong. There is no substitute.

[thaumasiotes]

I mostly agree with you. However, if you imagine yourself sitting down with a set of exercises that you need to figure out how to do, it is true that some well-chosen animations / models will be helpful in that process.

You have to do the exercises. But it might be beyond your ability to start doing them straight from the textbook. Crafted didactic material can walk you through initial exercises to the point where you have a theory of where to begin on another one. Or it can let you investigate a structure until you have an idea.

In your analogy, if you want to be able to bench 150 pounds, at some point you'll have to bench 150 pounds. But a nonconfigurable 150 pound weight isn't the best way to get there. You can have a set of weights that let you start with easier tasks. You can have a set of exercises that aren't bench pressing. Those things are helpful, and generally required.

[WalterBright]

I watched "The Mechanical Universe" videos on newtonian mechanics. They used lots of animations. I found the animations to be too fast and too distracting to be of any use.

The series was created by Dr Goodstein, who was my freshman physics prof. I understood the same material via him scribbling on the blackboard.

I've seen other animations of mathematics, with the same result - confusion.

I suspect the problem is that an animation does not build a mental model in your head. Carefully examining the diagrams and the equations does.

[Rohansi]

What you've discovered is your learning style. It's not the same for everyone so it's an important thing that everyone should discover about themself.

There are visual learners out there. Being a visual learner doesn't mean you don't need to do the work, it means you typically need some visualization for things to click, and then you practice applying it like everyone else. Some people can even manage with just lectures.

This causes some students trouble in school because their needs may not be met by every teacher. It's especially worse if the student hasn't learned what their learning style is yet.

[WalterBright]

> What you've discovered is your learning style.

I have difficulty believing that my learning style is uncommon. Consider trying to build muscle. There are techniques that are proven to work best. There are no individual "muscle building styles" that work better, unless the person has a disability.

And I don't believe that in general the kids in classes are mentally disabled.

Yes, I know about ADHD, autism, and dyslexia.

[Rohansi]

It's definitely not uncommon.

I think it's more of a motivation problem. Not all students are eager to learn. They may not be interested in the subject for whatever reason. It's hard to teach someone who isn't open to it. Learning styles can help bring some of those barriers down by shifting the material into a form that they are more open to.

The same applies to building muscle. Not everyone is self-motivated to do it. There are different ways to motivate people to work out. But in the end they all need to do the work/practice.

[kurlberg]

"Learning styles" might be a myth. Eg, see

Learning Styles: VAK Doesn't Exist (Here's What Research Actually Shows)

https://www.structural-learning.com/post/learning-styles-myt...

Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental (by American Psychological Association)

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/05/learning-sty...

[cheesecakegood]

All good examples but all relatively low cost as well (and don’t require 1:1 student-laptops). However I’m pretty darn sure that videos do more harm than good - too easy to zone out during them, and providing them to students only allows them to slack in class with the attitude “I can just watch the video again later.” Despite being horribly inefficient this is true for students of virtually all ages. Providing videos to those who ask only might help.

The real problem beyond all this is that the educational spending goes to the wrong spots. If you ask me, teachers should be empowered to select their own curriculum using a budget and most of the rest of the money should go towards paid tutors, better teacher-student ratios, etc (and probably way fewer administrators). I am firmly convinced that a lot of kids act out because they can’t grasp the material, not in spite of it.

[WalterBright]

I cynically suspect that most people just cannot stand the idea that a teacher and a blackboard works better than all those technological crutches.

I remember when "educational" CD-ROMs came out for classrooms. The pitch was that at any time, a student could go look up the corresponding text on the CD-ROM.

You know, like a book.

Sigh.

[WalterBright]

Once I was at a presentation, and the presenter didn't show up. The organizer asked if anyone in the audience was willing to substitute. I raised my hand, and asked for nothing more than a whiteboard and markers.

It was the best presentation I ever did. It was a lot of fun, and the crowd was very engaged.