College Comp I Class Blog

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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Block 4, homework

Watch this TED Talk from Salman Khan.  Then offer three ideas from this video that would help improve LHS.  Then offer three ideas challenging Khan's take on "flipping" the classroom.  Please leave two responses to other students' feedback as well.


54 comments:

  1. I agree with the idea of during the homework on the computer it's different and might help some students better.
    But I disagree with have lectures and exams on the computer, I think it would still be a good thing to go to school. Just no paper homework.
    I agree with the software where teachers can keep track of how we are doing and even better students can work at their own pace. I feel some kids are rushed into learning so they don't quite get something and they don't want to ask because they would interrupt the class. This way the teachers know when they are stuck so they can help them.
    I might now agree with the computer keeping track when the student pauses the video, stops the video, and starts the video. That might be a bit much.
    I agree how teacher do spend more time teaching and giving homework rather then sitting down with us and helping us with the things we struggle with. It seems like the teacher could care less of how we do.
    But I disagree with the Los Altos learning with when the teacher spends the entire class with the student. We don't need babying sometimes we just need a little boost. They could split up the lecture, homework, and teacher student time up evenly.

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    1. I agree with most of what you said. I feel the need to defend the recording of when the students pause the video and stuff because that tells the teacher which part is confusing the student. I love what you said about teacher-student time. There should definitely be more of that in the classroom.

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    2. I agree with you. The teacher doesn't have to be hovering over us the whole class time. We just need the teachering thier to help us and guide us along the way.

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  2. Agree:
    -I like the idea of flipping the classroom
    -Tutoring helps both the tutor and the tutee
    -No lecture in the classroom leaves less room for boredom and distractions
    Disagree:
    -He said that we have "swiss cheese gaps" in our learning even though you have good teachers. I think that if you have good teachers there would be no gaps.
    -The only problem with flipping is that, yes we are 1-1 but not everyone at all schools has access to a computer or internet at home.
    -This might not work for everyone. People learn in different ways and this way may not work for them.

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    1. I disagree, I believe that even if you have a very good teacher, there can still be gaps. For example, one student may struggle with something but do well enough to pass a test, but then when the class builds on what the student struggled with, they become lost. If we flipped the classroom, and everyone could learn at their own pace, there wouldn't be anymore gaps.

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    2. I like the idea of flipping the classroom. You bring up the good point that you won't get bored in class listening to lectures and I agree with that.

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    3. I really like the idea of flipping the classroom because it gives me more time to work with the teachers.

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  3. Three things I agree with are the fact that you can go to any topic that interests you, you can learn at your own speed, and it is easy to learn if you are a visual learner or learn from listening.

    Three things I don't agree with are that schools like San Altos are replacing the traditional styles with these videos, I don't believe that students get faster or better but that they memorize answers to the 10 questions they need, also that teachers won't focus 100% on their students anymore they will simply depend on their students to ask for help.

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    1. I also think a lot of students would benefit if they were able to choose what topic they want or need to learn.

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    2. I agree, the classroom shouldn't be completely focused on watching the videos and on students helping other students. It makes the teacher useless, and at some point the students will stop learning.

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    3. I agree with what you agree with, we should have the choice to participate in classes that interest us and we should be able to learn at our own pace.

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    4. I agree considering we probably will chose a job that deals with a certain subject that we like.

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  4. I agree with:
    1. Flipping the classroom
    2. Tutoring students with other students
    3. Having the teachers watch the students on the "dashboard"

    Disagree with:
    Constantly having kids watch the videos
    Not all kids with have the discipline to watch them
    Progress graphs may need some work before being put into learning analysis

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    1. I agree that some kids would not watch the videos on their own time and as a result they would not learn.

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    2. I'm kind of torn. I agree that students won't have the discipline to make themselves watch the video, but I think it would be beneficial too.

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    3. I agree that not all kids would be able to just watch videos because of discipline issues.

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    4. I agree that not all kids will watch the videos. They would do something else like play video games because they aren't disciplined.

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    5. I agree with the fact that they shouldn't be just watching the videos and basing all they know just off of that.

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  5. I think that doing homework during class and having the teacher help you is a great idea. Both teachers and students of LHS could benefit from using this site. Both teachers and students could see how they are doing in the class. Letting students learn at their own pace and on their own time would keep them more interested in the class.
    For this to work in class rooms, the school would first have to go 1:1 I disagree when he makes it seem like any school could use this technique. Older teachers have been teaching their own ways for many years, in order for them to teach in this way they would have to change their ways completely. Not everyone can learn like this and some students that do good now might not well with this new way of learning.

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    1. I agree that not all teachers would be able to handle the whole 1:1 technology.

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  6. One thing I noticed right away while watching this video was that I have used this kind of education before. Mr. H will record lectures like this and put them on his website so that they are available to students who need extra help. Whenever I didn't understand a topic, I would always go to his website before going to the textbook. In fact, I wish more teachers would do lectures like this, especially in math and science courses.

    How he explained education is similar to riding a bike, I agreed with him completely. There have been topics that I haven't understood in class, and even though I passed the classes, I still struggle with anything that builds on those topics. One of the things I really don't like about Lincoln is that if you miss something, or if you don't get something, it is nearly impossible to catch up.

    Do it until you have mastery, experiment, and expect failure. This is what teachers in Lincoln really need to work on. Students only care about getting the A, and they are so focused on that they forget about learning. If teachers were to follow this style, I feel that more students would learn instead of just trying to get the A.

    What worries me most about this style of teaching are the kids that aren't going to do any work. There isn't an incentive to get them to do it other then just for the purpose of doing it. So, for the kids who normally don't do any work, I feel they would take advantage of the entire situation.

    Not all teachers are tech-savvy enough to implement this type of education, and I'm sure many teachers won't want their students to listen to someone else lecture them. If I were a teacher, I think I would see this a the biggest draw back, especially if I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on learning an entirely different teaching style.

    Lastly, this might eliminate the need for teachers entirely, closing schools and cutting jobs everywhere. I believe this will eventually, severely dehumanize education. Perhaps it won't happen right away, but that is what this program will eventually push towards.

    Overall, I think this should only be used as a supplement to education, without taking over the entire classroom.

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    1. I agree that this could take teachers out of the equation all together. In there place would just be educated baby sitters that are able to walk kids through problems, without really teaching anything as much as just guiding them.

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    2. I agree that it would be slightly improbable and really challenging to replace the current teaching style with these videos, but Kahn's style does have great potential.

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    3. I definitely think its dehumanizing education. I'm not comfortable with that idea yet.

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  7. I believe that online lectures at home and the homework in class should be incorporated at lhs. This is a good idea because it allows students to have a more immersive and interactive education. Also students can learn the main material at home at their own pace.
    I think that Lhs should incorporate the software to track how students are doing on assignments and tests because it makes more personalized education possible.
    I strongly agree that many students are left with swiss cheese educations. In most all of my classes I`ve taken at LHS if I didn't understand something and the teacher was unable to help me understand it woulnd`t be a big deal since we`d never need it again after the test. But then as the years progressed and classes touched on remedial topics I realized that this stuff I had written off as unimportant was suddenly important and I still didn`t understand it. So to fix this I think this site does a swell job of making sure the kid understands the material before moving on.

    I disagree that the "flipped school" would be good for all schools because some students may not have computers or internet access, leaving those students in the dust.
    I disagree that making it all a game is a good thing. Sure it teaches the kids to be competitive at something while still learning but once you turn something as a "game" it`s hard to convince anyone to see it as anything else.
    I agree that this could be the future of education, but thats all it is is the future, it`s not happening anytime soon. For this to happen now that would mean all teachers have to completley transform their ways of teaching and I just can`t see many teachers wanting to do that, let alone the ones who oppose technology in the first place.

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    1. I agree that you cannot ignore the fact that a lot of kids don't have the proper resources at home to facilitate this style, namely the internet access and computers. You wonder how this could be avoided; study sessions at the school after the school day? It would be hard to do that though because the kids would be practically living at the school.

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    2. I agree that not everyone will have that access but in todays society the majority of kids do have that access. If they don't I bet they could do what we do now and just watch the video lecture in school and do the homework portion at home.

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  8. I think this could help LHS a ton mainly for the math and science classes. There are many students who end up taking one math class multiple times in a row just because they can't grasp the topics. By giving them these videos, they could, like Kahn said, pause, reply, and practice these videos in the comfort of their home with no embarrassment on how many times they had to replay or how many lessons they had to go through.

    Another way this could benefit LHS would be for when teachers are gone. This may not be as easy because you wouldn't be able to fully 'flip' the classroom, but it would be a lot easier to make it through lessons with the teacher being gone. For example, with my current math teacher being gone for a week, it is hard to finish each lesson, not only because we haven't been taught these subjects, but also because I know that I have to teach myself by reading the book and suffering through their wordy explanations.

    This could improve LHS's pass rate. I know this is kind of repetitive with my previous two statements, but if the students could go at their own rate like I briefly mentioned before, they would be able to understand the topic more fully, therefore raising their course grade. One last comment is that the fact the you can track your students so closely; this cannot be ignored! So many times, students are stuck on one thing, but by the way they word a question or depending upon the problem areas of the rest of the class, their individual questions don't get answered.

    The could be some disadvantages to this though. One of these would be that not every student has access to a computer for long lengths of time. If the student truly doesn't understand a topic and they need to watch the video more than once, they may not have time to complete the video and the accompanying practice lessons. For example, at our TRF Public Library, you can sign into a computer, but you only get a limited amount of time (30 minutes I think) to be on the computer per a certain length of time. This may not be enough time for people who don't have access to a computer at home. Even at LHS, not every kid is allowed to bring their computer home and even if they can they may not have internet access. Also some may have internet access that isn't practical for watching multiple videos in a night.

    Another argument could be that not every student would watch the lectures at night. They may figure that the teacher will be there the next day an if the student doesn't understand the topic, they can just be retaught the next day.

    One final criticism I have for 'flipping the classroom' is that is slightly unlikely, but still probably is that kids could easily lie about their progress. If they are at home watching their videos and doing the practice problems, it could just as easily be a family member participating instead, and if the homework is truly homework, they could just bring it home and not turn it in or just get 'too much' help from a family member. (I know this last reasons seems pretty unlikely, but you never know...)

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    1. The best thing I got out of your comments was how it could really improve our math classes. I never like when our teachers expect us to learn complex concepts by watching them do one or two problems on the board, and then they blindly throw dozens of problem sets on us expecting us to come in for help if we don't get it. If we were able to get some slowed down step by step instruction until we know we've got it, math would be less problematic for many students.

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  9. I think that we should do the homework in class and the lectures at home in LHS. Half the time kids are sleeping during a lecture so if we did activities and homework in class then kids will be active and working, not drooling all over there desk.

    I also believe that we should use the videos that he makes in math subjects. He proves that they work with younger kids. There are parents that send him emails and letters to thank him for all the help he has given them. So if it works for kids, then why couldn't it work with high school students.

    I think that the third thing we need is the ability to track how students are doing with their math. It would make our math teachers jobs so much easier with this. Kids are way too shy to ask for help. So with this the teacher can confront them and help them with what they are struggling in.

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    1. I would like to believe in Kahn's version of school wholeheartedly, but I feel there is too much of a chance that teachers wouldn't do anything and just coast.

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  10. There are some things that I disagree with too or will need some work first. First of all the whole keeping track of how long they watch the video is a little extreme. Who cares if they watched it, just as ing as they understand how to do the work.

    Secondly, It would be great to have the lectures outside of class, but, there are a lot of kids that wouldn't even watch the video and that would probably be a big problem to fix.

    Lastly, I don't believe that some kids would have access to a computer at night. Unless, like our school ,they have 1:1. That would be the only way that would work.

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    1. I agree that some students won't have access to a computer to be able to watch the video so it would be unfair to them. I also agree with you that majority of kids probably won't watch the video, but then again, lots of them don't pay attention during the lecture in class either.

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  11. I think we should be able to do the homework and ask questions in class, and then go home and watch the lecture.
    I agree that tutors benefits on learning as well as the one being tutored.
    I agree that less lectures during the classroom will be beneficial because lots of kids fall asleep anyway so if we fill that with actual discussion and activities, kids will like school more.

    I do think that watching the videos at home would be good, but some don't have the technology to do that so it wouldn't be fair to them.
    If we had the chance to watch the videos online, I don't think students would make watching that a priority and wouldn't have enough discipline.
    I don't think teachers would be as interacting or they wouldn't know the students full understanding if we could view the video at home.

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    1. I disagree with you. I think if the option of the videos were there I believe kids would use them. They could be used as extra help or even something to refresh your mind.

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    2. I agree with you on that there should be less lecture time in the class room because most students get bored right away or just fall asleep. Teachers could record the lecture for students who learn better that way and they can watch it later. I think teachers should be doing more hands on activities because kids will learn more.

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    3. I agree that the videos would be a problem for kids that have no way to watch them at home. But we don't have that problem with our 1:1.

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  12. I like how some of the schools use videos as homework. When they do this I think its more beneficial than having teachers lecture the whole time. This way, the student can learn at their own pace and get one on one help from the teacher with the work that they do not understand.

    I think it is a creative idea to be able to track your students data. They are color coded. Green means they have done it and understood it, blue means they are working on it, and red means that the student is stuck. I like this idea because it also allows students to work at their own pace and the teacher can see exactly where they are struggling.

    I agree that students can help other students. Teacher might not always teach the way you understand, but if a peer explains something, you may completley get it.

    When teachers teach the 'snapshot' way, the scores judge kids on how fast or slow they worked. Some students jump way ahead which teachers call the 'gifted students.' Others work slower which teacher may think they need to be put in another class. But, it was shown that the kids who were thought to need an extra class actually were now considered 'gifted students' as well. They just worked at a different pace.

    Most classes have a continuous cycle of homework, lectures, and a 'snapshot' exam. After the exam the class moves on. What if the student doesn't understand some areas of the lesson? Even if a student got a 95% on the test, he/she is still missing that extra 5% of information.

    I dont believe that videos should take or textbooks or lectures, but I do think it could be a good substitue at times. I also think that they should be there because we a learn differently.

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    1. I like what you said about how our classes have exam after exam and then we just move on, even if some kids don't know what's going on. I think that schools should aim for students to fully understand everything rather than just enough to get by. But when you have 30 students and only one teacher, they can't make sure every single student knows all the material, an online classroom could help with that.

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    2. I agree with Sylvias first paragraph about the videos. I feel if we used the videos to work at our own pace we wouldn't be as rushed to get our homework done and actually try on our homework instead of going through the motions with it.

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  13. Agree: Teachers can track students performance, this way students who are scared to ask for help can have the teacher come to them.

    The "flipped" classroom lets students go at their own pace. This helps eliminate the problem of kids falling behind and never catching up.

    Whenever I have missed a day in math class, or there is something I just don't understand, I sometimes go to Khan Academy, or just look up tutorials on youtube, and it is actually very helpful. Watching multiple videos from different teaching styles on the same subject can give you a great new perspective.

    Disagree:
    Having students do homework in class I think would take away from the vital skills that homework can teach. Even though nobody enjoys doing a bunch a work outside of school, it teaches responsibility and time management.

    I think that although having an internet based curriculum is a god idea, it wouldn't be good if teachers became more like homework helpers than actually instructing the students. When done right, in class teaching/lecturing can provide an engaging and interactive environment that you cannot get from watching a screen.

    The main flaw is participation. If you have the actual learning being done at home, your good students are still going to do just fine, perhaps even better, but this will widen the so-called learning gap that is present in American schools. Plus, if students have to go home and watch two, three, four hours of lectures, it will seriously detract from other interests and leisure time. Perhaps if the school day was shortened it might work better, but still hard to orchestrate.

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    1. I agree, making teachers "homework helpers" seems like a stupid idea. They wouldn't really have to have much training besides telling them about other videos that would help them.

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  14. I think three things that Lincoln could take from Kahn, would be homework in the classroom, letting kids learn at there own pace, and being able to track students progress.

    One thing I don't agree with is just having kids watch videos to learn. There should be teachers that lecture for smaller amounts of time to wrap up and answer lingering questions. Also, some people don't learn that way. Take me for example, if you give me a textbook and a video, I'll probably learn more from a textbook. Making learning more automated would cause people like me to struggle. Kahn makes the whole automated lessons thing seem like a wonder cure for education. It may work in some places but may ruin some others. There may be a teacher that just sits back and reads the paper and assumes that the kids are watching videos. Meanwhile they have no idea whats going on and don't do the work they should be doing.



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    1. I agree. This program could work great for some kids but terrible for others. I've watched Kahn Academy videos and they work for me but I understand that you learn from textbooks better.

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  15. Agree
    -Flipping the classroom
    -I like that with the videos you can learn at your own pass.
    -Im a visual learner so I would love this.
    Disagree
    -If your not a visual learner then this could be bad for you
    -Not all kids would watch the vids on there own
    -The kids might just rush though them all

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  16. Agree:
    1) The ability to watch at your own pace. Pause, rewind, or quit if I get bored.
    2) If the student gets an 80%, what is the 20% they don't know? Even if they don't understand the class still continues on where if you were to watch videos you can re watch them until you understand the lesson.
    3) The Los Altos database, if a kid has red on their name the teacher intervenes. If the kid is green the teachers excel them on.
    Disagree:
    1) If the students watch the videos and go to class the next day knowing what to do, the teacher just assigns them homework and help when needed. What is the teacher really teaching then? They get paid to teach, not to assign videos to watch and put homework about it.
    2) Khan Academy is for the individual learner. Not all kids are individual learners.
    3) Sometimes in classes you need to actually do the work instead of just watching someone else do the work

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    1. I like the idea of quitting when your bored. Students aren't really paying attention when they are bored, so if they could learn when they weren't bored, it would provide a better education. I think watching vides all the time is bring, but it could be a good extra resource for students.

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  17. I like the idea of doing homework in the class room and lectures at home, letting kids learn at their own pace, and watching videos. I think we need to do a lot more learning through technology, because thats how its going to be when we are out of school. People who continue to learn while in their job, mostly learn over the internet. Teachers within our school even admit to this. Technology is always changing and I think the best way to keep up to it is to use it a lot.
    I think some trouble with flipping the classroom would occur right away. You would need to start with a kindergarten class as the first one, because I think the transition between the traditional learning and the new learning would be too much of a difference to do with everyone. Im also not sure that i like the tracking peoples progress thing. I feel like it invades students privacy. If a child doesn't want to learn, they shouldn't be forced to. I ale think that kids should have to take a certain amount of core classes while they are still young. If they only take what they are interested in, they wont have well-rounded knowledge.

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    1. I agree with you on that we need to do a lot more learning through technology because thats how it is going to be after we graduate. We need to know how to learn in all these ways. Otherwise we will be falling behind and will be even more behind other schools.

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  18. I agree with that kids need to learn at their own pace. With the videos at least the students are able to pause and go back if they need to when they want. I also like that teachers can track the students so that they know where they are at in the class. I also like that the students can help other students. This was they might learn better instead of the teacher explaining something because it could be in words they understand better.

    I disagree with the fact that not all kids are individual learners like the Kahn Academy. I also think that we need to be more hands on and actually do the work instead of just watching or listening all the time. Teachers also need to break it up and get out of the routine of learning something studying a lot for it and then taking an exam. We are getting nothing out of it and most of the time we forget what we learned after we take the test.

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    1. I think we still need to be hands on too. Not all kids are going to be able to learn from just watching videos, or who's to say kids will even watch the videos. Its a good idea but i think it needs to be thought out more. We should definitely incorporate technology more into schools though. We might as well just do online schooling if we were only going to do homework in the classroom anyways.

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  19. I agree with the fact that learning is like riding a bike. There may be ups and downs, but you have to get up and try again until you get it right. At lincoln I think that we could do a better job with using technology to record lectures so that if a student misses a day then he/she could catch up quickly. I also think that teachers need to get kids to focus getting kids to learn instead of just passing the course. The last think to improve Lincoln would be to have a type of study hall that you could go to to get help during the day in any area of curriculum.

    Some things that I disagree with is that kids can just watch videos and learn. A lot of kids don't have the attention span to sit in front of a computer and just listen, just like they don't like listening to teachers drone on about some boring lecture.

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  20. Agree:
    1. Flipping the classroom
    2. Students tutoring each other
    3. Students can learn at their own pace
    Disagree:
    1. People learns in different ways, so it won’t work for everyone
    2. Not all kids would have enough discipline
    3. Not everybody would have access to a computer

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