from the boys-have-a-Wheatley,-girls-have-a-Cortana dept.
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Using VR, students can learn about the cells in the human body while “travelling” into the bloodstream, or “explore” the degree of plastic pollution in the oceans. They can also conduct complicated experiments using expensive lab-equipment and dangerous chemicals, just by putting on a pair of VR-goggles that immediately offers very realistic and lively experiences.
[...] But the rapid growth of VR-technology in teaching is a new and relatively un-tested field, and at the University of Copenhagen Associate Professor in Psychology Guido Makransky investigates how, why, and in what settings VR-learning provides an advantage over traditional methods and media, so society´s investments in VR-technology can be used in the most beneficial way.
[...] In a study with 66 7th and 8th -grade students (half boys, half girls) at a Danish science talent school, Makransky and colleagues found that the girls learned most in the VR-simulations, when the VR-teacher there was a young, female researcher named Marie, whereas the boys learned more, while being instructed by a flying robot in the form of a drone.
Not mentioned in the article: What other "teacher" figures were tested. Did they try male teachers? Anthropomorphic rabbits? Disembodied voices?
A Gender Matching Effect in Learning with Pedagogical Agents in an Immersive Virtual Reality Science Simulation DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12335
Source: https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2019/virtual-reality-research/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @05:59AM (4 children)
So, VR not living up to the overblown expectations that formerly teenaged boys hoped it would? Well, immediately we go to "education"! Yeah, that's the ticket! We can teach biology with the Magic School Bus on Acid, just like Ken Kesey and Wavy Gravy [wikipedia.org] did back in the day! Will not someone think of the children? Is this yet another failing tech, like Apple or Microsoft, that attempts to insert itself into children by focusing on education and controlling mind-space? The first one is free! But, if the drugged out Hippies of the Sixties taught us anything, they taught us There ain't no such thing as a free lunch [wikipedia.org], which strangely enough, relates to one of the current sci-fi lit picks on SoylentNews. What are the odds? And perhaps, the odds are the true normies, and the alt-right is just the old straights? Far out, persons!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by qzm on Friday January 11 2019, @06:32AM (3 children)
Well, that ACC rant was a big... random, but unforutnately somewhat on target.
Computer based learning has proven itself very solidly to be a very poor performer (lack of material depth, poor retention, slow rates of learning). Its only 'upside' seems to be WAY lower work required for the teachers.. I wonder why its so popular.
VR learning? I would only imagine it would dumb things down another few notches, as it gets much harder to create the virtual 'worlds' to represent actual facts, so everything will just become a nice happy cartoon.
It is truly sad that there is so little critical thinking and results based process evolution in teaching these days - in fact it seems almost the opposite.
Not to mention the gender gap in teachers, which administrators are actively working to INCREASE at a fast rate.
Obviously our children are worth very little to us these days. Sad really.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @06:53AM (1 child)
The answer is clear. We must double down on porn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @11:01AM
They have that covered. They do. They really do.
Foursomes too. And more! much much more
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @07:30AM
Like Camelot, it is only a model.
signed,
ACC Ranter
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @06:02AM (11 children)
But when I was in 7/8th grade (age 13), having Chucky the VR animated robot give a lesson in (formal) school would have made me cringe.
Why torture innocent kids with this gender bullshit?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Friday January 11 2019, @06:06AM
The traditional methods of torturing kids at school have been outlawed. So they need to invent new ones.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Friday January 11 2019, @06:23AM (9 children)
How is this "gender bullshit"? Drones don't even have gender.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @06:59AM (8 children)
Look at the title of the paper.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Friday January 11 2019, @08:39AM (7 children)
Yeah, it's referring to matching the gender of the child with a teaching agent. It's like saying "studies with children show children learn best with a teacher of their own gender" except here you can control all the variables of teacher behaviour exactly. Children already come with their own gender, so how exactly is this torturing children?
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 11 2019, @11:25AM (6 children)
Well, I dunno about y'all but I would have strongly objected to having my wicked hot biology teacher replaced with hokey-ass VR bullshit. It's one of the great disappointments of my life that she wasn't interested in sleeping with her students. Thankfully she was at least interested in wearing a Tinkerbell costume on Halloween that didn't cover any more than the one in the Disney cartoon.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @12:18PM (1 child)
Maybe she just thought you were ugly
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 11 2019, @01:07PM
Nah, she might not have dug my fashion sense or my height but my face is apparently somewhere above average going by the amount of sex I had as a teenager. Going by most anyone's measure my body was incredible. I took up skateboarding at twelve and weight lifting at fourteen. By the time I took biology I could bench sets of over two hundred pounds and leg press sets of over six hundred pounds. Max bench was a little over two fifty and I have no idea what my max leg press was since the machine only went up to eight hundred and I could press that half a dozen times in a row. Which is mostly to say I was possibly in better shape than any nerd in history.
Fear not the competition though, once I got out of the Army and discovered the Internet, I returned to a more average physique. I still can't wear any kind of tube socks though. They're tight enough on my calves that they inhibit circulation and even if they didn't one or two wearings would ruin the elastic at the top. It's fairly unpleasant in the winter.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @01:49PM (3 children)
Perhaps that's why males don't learn as well when their teachers are females? Maybe they're too distracted by how those females look, especially if they look good.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 11 2019, @02:33PM
No idea. I had like a 99 average in that class but when we were about to start a new chapter I'd go home and learn the whole next chapter (or two if it was especially interesting) that evening so I could use it as an ogling or napping period as the mood struck me. I expect it's probably an issue for other pubescent guys with attractive teachers though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @03:07PM
It's because the entire primary and secondary education systems have been redesigned to boost female achievement without caring about the consequences this has on boys. Roughly 90% of teachers in primary and secondary education are women, and we've taken away things like PE, research, art and music from the students, subjects that are especially important for boys and replaced it with a bunch of sitting around listening and behaving.
And then we're somehow surprised that the boys aren't doing well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @10:50PM
This was in Denmark where I suspect the school system might be better.
In America worrying about what VR avatar is the best teacher for boys and girls is like wondering wondering what color bandaid* looks most natural on your gangrene.
*(Colour plaster for limeys)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @06:15AM (11 children)
https://samf.ku.dk/nyheder/virtual-reality/pedagogical-agents-496.png [samf.ku.dk]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @07:19AM (2 children)
I like how the hand is reaching out for her. Every class just became sex ed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Friday January 11 2019, @08:07AM (1 child)
And possibly they can learn a lot from Marie the Robot. But certain lessons, you want to have a real woman for those things. If they're trying to teach "sex" and they don't have a woman there to practice with, that's a very sad situation.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @11:04AM
Monty Python much?
https://vidpick.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/sex-education-monty-python-style/ [wordpress.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @07:47AM
omfg mai waifu
(Score: 4, Touché) by theluggage on Friday January 11 2019, @12:25PM (6 children)
The fire extinguisher in that picture would distract some of them: they're teenage kids living in a society where their gonads develop nearly a decade before they're allowed to use them, and they're expected to sit and concentrate for 8 hours a day when nature would have them out in the fresh air fighting and wanking. We used to keep them subdued by thrashing them into submission - and while its a good thing that's no longer acceptable we haven't come up with an alternative solution to the underlying problem.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 11 2019, @01:13PM (5 children)
We also used to allow them recess, sports, and a tolerance for boys-will-be-boys fighting in that the punishment was licks, detention, or at worst a couple days off school. Taking away nearly all avenues for physical activity and behaving like a male during the school day has done extreme harm to a couple generations of men now.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 11 2019, @08:11PM (4 children)
Ah yes, Buzzard years from the days of old. Back, when there was lead in gasoline.
Mostly, because lead exposure retards brain development and therefore, more people agreed with him.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @12:07AM (3 children)
No, he's right.
When I was a kid my mother became obsessed with my ADHD and always made sure to get me as much "special help" as possible and made sure everyone involved knew that I was a very special boy.
I had to be extremely careful because any sort of violence, verbal altercations, hyperactivity, etc would push me further and further into the system. Believe me it gets ugly deep in the system. Drug cocktails that would impress Tommy Chong, "Time out" rooms that resemble solitary. The few teen girls that were there all had stories about 'fooling around with' (getting molested by) various grown male authority figures. You'd think these kids would end up in insane asylums, group homes, prison, disability, etc. But no most of them went on to go to college and become productive or even successful members of society.
You don't hear about this because all the teachers and counselors never see what happens when people get away from them so they probably have no idea how awful they are. The former students bury this shit in their past because it's so bizarre.
Now days you don't need idiot parents. A little bad luck and a single fight can mean charges and an IEP. If you live in a district with a special education system like this. You are basically fucked.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:21AM (2 children)
You'd be amazed how much morning exercise can help with even a pretty harsh case of ADHD. Less than an hour of physical activity in the morning has completely replaced all meds and their wonderful, exciting side effects for me. And it's actually a bit more effective than they were.
No placebo going on here, by the way. I found out by accident. I started going to the gym last year and thought to myself "Self, it's probably a bad idea to take Adderall right before heavy exercise," so I started taking it after I got back. Only a lot of the time I'd completely forget to take them because of the change in routine and then evaluate if I was having a day that warranted taking one much later than I should be. After a few months of doing that, it became apparent that if I didn't skip going to the gym, I could skip the pills with none of the symptoms that had me willing to take them in the first place.
Your mileage may vary of course but it's worth talking to your physician about.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:18PM (1 child)
ADHD is probably over-diagnosed in the USA. It's actually normal for kids to lose focus after 30-45 minutes of receiving "teaching" (or even many/most adults - we just get better at hiding it?) especially in topics they have no interest in and don't seem relevant to their life.
And the solution/workaround has been known for a long time:
https://newrepublic.com/article/82329/education-reform-finland-us [newrepublic.com]
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/ [theatlantic.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 14 2019, @01:26AM
I lose focus after 30-45 seconds to people droning on about something. It's just too slow. I can read so much faster than they talk, so they're doing nothing but wasting my time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bobs on Friday January 11 2019, @07:42PM (1 child)
With a max sample size of around 33 kids in each gender group, and apparently no control group, it doesn't what matter the "researchers" claim as it is statistically invalid.
Even one family with 2+ kids in the class that had experiences that impacted the results could blow out your statistical findings.
It is quite possible there are other limitations in the implementation of the experiment.
Odds are they wouldn't be able to replicate the findings if others tried.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @12:02AM
Its been peer reviewed by experts in the field, once you get a peer reviewed paper on the topic published you can have a valid opinion.