Episode 20 - AI Tutoring & K-12 Education

Today’s disagreement is on AI tutoring and K-12 Education.

Two education experts come together for a longform, productive disagreement about whether AI is going to usher in a new era of personalized learning – and whether that is a good thing.

We recorded this podcast live at the Reach Capital Founders’ Day event at 1440 Multiversity outside San Jose, CA. If video is your thing, check out the full recording on our YT channel.

The Questions

• Will AI tutors replicate or surpass human instructors?

• How will AI tutoring benefit struggling and high achieving students? 

• Will it enable personalized learning pathways for students?

The Guests

Niels Hoven is the Founder and CEO of Mentava, a software company committed to accelerating learning for top-performing students. Mentava’s first product is a software-based tutor, designed to teach preschool students how to read.

Benjamin Riley is the founder of Cognitive Resonance, a new venture dedicated to improving understanding of human cognition and generative AI. Previously, he founded and served as CEO of Deans for Impact, a nonprofit education organization working to improve teacher training through the use of cognitive science.

Mentioned in this Episode

• Marc Andreesson predicts that children will have their own A.I.-powered tutors with “the machine version of infinite love.”

• E. Tammy Kim’s article in The New Yorker, July 10, 2019. The Messy Reality of Personalized Learning. Untangling the mixed record of the latest big-fix educational trend promoted by Silicon Valley

• Dan Meyer’s Mathworlds Substack

• Dan Willingham’s seminal book: Why Don't Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom, 2nd Edition

• Laurence Holt article in Education Next, April 2024. The 5 Percent Problem: Online mathematics programs may benefit most the kids who need it least

• Oprah’s Winfrey’s September 2024 ABC Special AI and The Future of Us, featuring Bill Gates & Sam Altman

• The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Summit Learning program, by Gradient Learning

• Profile of Max Ventilla, Smithsonian Magazine, September 2016. How AltSchool Is Personalizing Education By Collecting Loads of Data on Its Students. 

Show Notes

• Reflections on personalized learning 15 years in [03:00]

• AI and the new path to personalized learning [05:02]

• The risk of moving away from collective learning [06:47]

• Theory of mind considerations [10:10]

• Bill gates and the dream of AI in Ed [15:17]

• The future of ungated learning [17:15]

• The danger of magnifying differences [20:12]

• The 5% problem [22:15]

• Engagement and learning [23:40]

• Balancing AI risks and benefits [30:09]

• Is our current system working or failing [33:05]

• What should we be improving [36:32]

• The joy of effortful thinking [38:01]

• Steelmanning [40:20]

What did you think about this episode? Email us at podcast@thedisagreement.com. You can also DM us on Instagram @thedisagreementhq.

Xoxo,

The Disagreement Team

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