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Exams getting easier??
Aug. 21st, 2010 05:22 pmThere was something in the Bad Science column about 'Are Exams getting easier?'
The article is about the paucity of research vs the abundance of annual rhetoric, which is indeed notable. Nobody really knows, everybody keeps going on about it.
But I think only one of the comments skimmed close to one of the most important things: they talked about watching on YouTube a presentation by a Professor at Yale, and how most people now would understand it.
The important thing: Most people in the educational districts discussed would have access to it.
Online education is still just out of the bud, but it's there. If you don't understand the way your teacher explained things, or you're stuck with some dud who mostly hands out a worksheet and ignores while you run riot, you can go looking for other teachers with a few mouse clicks. There's entire channels on the television that run, all day every day, documentaries on subjects that, when I was at school, you'd be lucky if your teacher had one old copy on VHS of something the Open University ran in the 70s. Cutting edge magazines are no longer the preserve of the weird corners of the library, they're as easy to get to as your friends list (though not always open access, I know, which sucks.)
I don't know if exams are easier or teaching is better or kids are brighter, which are the most argued options every year.
But by many orders of magnitude access to information has never been easier.
And even the most casual interest can just soak it up.
The article is about the paucity of research vs the abundance of annual rhetoric, which is indeed notable. Nobody really knows, everybody keeps going on about it.
But I think only one of the comments skimmed close to one of the most important things: they talked about watching on YouTube a presentation by a Professor at Yale, and how most people now would understand it.
The important thing: Most people in the educational districts discussed would have access to it.
Online education is still just out of the bud, but it's there. If you don't understand the way your teacher explained things, or you're stuck with some dud who mostly hands out a worksheet and ignores while you run riot, you can go looking for other teachers with a few mouse clicks. There's entire channels on the television that run, all day every day, documentaries on subjects that, when I was at school, you'd be lucky if your teacher had one old copy on VHS of something the Open University ran in the 70s. Cutting edge magazines are no longer the preserve of the weird corners of the library, they're as easy to get to as your friends list (though not always open access, I know, which sucks.)
I don't know if exams are easier or teaching is better or kids are brighter, which are the most argued options every year.
But by many orders of magnitude access to information has never been easier.
And even the most casual interest can just soak it up.