No, Kids Aren't Learning 10x Faster with AI
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder pushes back against the hype that AI is revolutionizing student learning, arguing that real learning is hard work that requires human teachers.
Key Takeaways
- The '10x faster' claim is nonsense - Learning is a slow, effortful process that technology can't shortcut
- AI can't replace human teaching - The relationship, judgment, and adaptability of a human teacher remain irreplaceable
- Hype serves companies, not students - AI education claims are driven by marketing, not evidence
Transcript
I don't think kids will learn 10 times faster with AI, but that's the kind of claim people are making about Alpha School in Texas and similar approaches that put kids on a computer for, say, two hours a day to learn all of their academics through AI, through software, through technology, and then they do other stuff the rest of the day.
And there's this idea out there that kids can learn a lot faster if we remove human teachers as a bottleneck and allow kids to go as fast as they want.
I think the misconception there that's driving this misunderstanding and this incredible optimism that I think is unwarranted about how fast kids can learn with AI is that human teachers motivate.
It is hard work to learn and school is unmatched at getting kids to learn stuff that they wouldn't otherwise learn.
Think about how much you learn in one course in the span of a year.
Is there any other scenario where you would have learned all of that stuff?
When a lot of people are comparing AI to school, they're using AI to learn things that they are really, really motivated about, right?
Like maybe you have somebody who's really into math and they're using AI to learn math really fast.
Well, you don't wanna compare what you're motivated to learn with a school that is teaching you everything that you actually need to know.
There's a huge difference there.
And I think if we have this hope that AI is going to result in this 10X learning breakthrough, We're forgetting that learning is work and that teachers can actually motivate kids to do that hard work of learning over a sustained period of time, like hours and hours a day for an entire year.
Have you personally sat down with AI and learned things for hours and hours a day over an entire year?
Probably not.
Probably most people are never, ever going to do that, except maybe on one particular topic that they're especially passionate about.
So if we want to develop well-rounded citizens, if we want to develop well-educated young people, we are going to always need human teachers because it's not about just the explanations and the information.
It's about the motivation.
Let me know what you think.