Emiliano for Education's blog | Knowledge Avatars™

Emiliano for Education's blog

The Day AI Arrived

Until ChatGPT arrived on the scene, AI still seemed like a distant possibility – a thought experiment that was still in the realm of science fiction. ChatGPT changed all that by slapping us in the face with content so human and profound that we began questioning our writing and analytical abilities.

Knowledge Avatars Tell You What You're Missing

Just released a new feature of Knowledge Avatars that highlights your knowledge gaps. They tell you what you don't know.

Using Knowledge Matrix™ technology, Knowledge Avatars robot tutors can now specify which concepts are prerequisites of other concepts. This feature allows learners to immediately evaluate what they need to know to understand or master a particular topic.

Knowledge Avatars are expressive individualized robot tutors that know how to teach.

Gaming the System: EscapEDX

Man with a torch looking aty a wall in a dark dungeon.

Like most of my teachers growing up, when I started teaching in 1998, I relied heavily on practice drills and textbooks. Not surprisingly, I struggled to keep my students engaged. Why couldn't I get these kids to love learning as much as I did? Then I remembered. When I was their age, I spent most of my time daydreaming and doodling in class.

Just as I was beginning to recognize the problem, the late education luminary, Sir Ken Robinson, had already discovered the solution. As early as my first year of teaching, Robinson realized that to encourage greater engagement in schools, the world's Industrial Era teaching model would have to go. Rather than moving all students in herds on the same assembly line designed to produce compliant workers, Robinson called for personalized curricula that targeted individual interests and skills.

I soon realized that I didn't develop a love of learning until I graduated from college. Only then could I choose to learn anything I wanted on a whim, work at my own pace, pick my learning materials, or change "course" if I lost interest. Only then did I start to love learning.

The most important challenge in education

What is the most important challenge in education today?

It is being able to teach students when they have some free time, when they are not distracted, and only what they need to know at the moment.

Studies show that people forget 70% of what they learned 24 hours after training. So, it is essential that people only learn what they are most interested in learning at the moment. Usually, that is to solve an immediate problem.

Those Darn Knowledge Gaps!

Climber reaching across a chasm.

One summer, when I was in elementary school, I was terrified! You see, by the end of the school year I had not yet memorized the Times Table and I knew that I'd be entering the upcoming school year clearly disadvantaged. I imagined a disappointed teacher and my embarrassment and humiliation amongst my schoolmates. That is pretty much what happened!

Jack & Jill Go Back To School in 2020

Vintage image of Jack and Jill falling down the hill.

Jack and Jill are working on a physics problem. Their teacher asked them to calculate the force needed to hurl a 500 pound projectile from a spot on Earth to 20,000 miles in low earth orbit. They don’t have any idea of what they need to know to solve this problem and they don’t want to dig through numerous articles or videos on the subject. They want to learn what they need for this problem as thoroughly and rapidly as possible.

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