I like this analogy between different kinds of rendering and education. As a counterpoint to speedrunning education though, I'll note something Jean Piaget observed, which I think about all the time. When Piaget gave talks in the US, he inevitably got questions about how to speed up a child's progression through stages of cognitive development. He found the question baffling and thought education shouldn't or couldn't be sped up. He called this "the American question." He was talking about early childhood education, and I think it might be different in college, and certainly for adult learners. But as a parent and educator, I think often about Piaget's perspective and what American assumptions about efficiency that I bring to the value of education.
I cannot help but think that speedrunning education with AI boost is yet another great example of this JPEG progressive rendering phenomenon that you described, and as evidenced by others here, we are likely surrounded by many more scenarios. The one I had in mind was language learning... at any age. My own journey of learning English as my first language was hard enough (Chinese at home but not taught, English at school but no friends). A sense of progression is what kept me in the game so that by the 4th grade, I was no longer self-conscious about not being able to read since I could by then (what a progression that was, especially since I never let on to anyone that I did not know how to read). My 6th grade teacher (whom everyone hated) taught in such a way that I learned to love the structure and usefulness of language, and therefore continued from then on to keep building my knowledge of the language far beyond formal school. Now I'm going through a similar process, though now in my 60s, with Japanese. The only meaningful progress I've made in 12 years has happened because I stopped expecting myself to know and speak everything perfectly and instead clung to the few important nuggets that I needed for real conversation. With only just those few basics under my belt (and wow, that took forever to develop), I am finding it ever so much easier each week in my online class to add more and more detail (words, grammar, idioms et al) to the picture, and every now and then, I'm surprised that I remember the new details enough to use them in a pinch. Japanese Progression Exceptionally Gradual... JPEG!
This piece realy resonated with me, the idea of GenAI as a change of basis for learning is so clever. How do we make sure people dive deeper after that initial understanding?
Thanks. Figuring out how to get them to dive deeper is the million dollar question. I think the answer has a lot to do with intrinsic motivation and curiosity.
I like this analogy between different kinds of rendering and education. As a counterpoint to speedrunning education though, I'll note something Jean Piaget observed, which I think about all the time. When Piaget gave talks in the US, he inevitably got questions about how to speed up a child's progression through stages of cognitive development. He found the question baffling and thought education shouldn't or couldn't be sped up. He called this "the American question." He was talking about early childhood education, and I think it might be different in college, and certainly for adult learners. But as a parent and educator, I think often about Piaget's perspective and what American assumptions about efficiency that I bring to the value of education.
Thanks for mentioning my work! :)
I cannot help but think that speedrunning education with AI boost is yet another great example of this JPEG progressive rendering phenomenon that you described, and as evidenced by others here, we are likely surrounded by many more scenarios. The one I had in mind was language learning... at any age. My own journey of learning English as my first language was hard enough (Chinese at home but not taught, English at school but no friends). A sense of progression is what kept me in the game so that by the 4th grade, I was no longer self-conscious about not being able to read since I could by then (what a progression that was, especially since I never let on to anyone that I did not know how to read). My 6th grade teacher (whom everyone hated) taught in such a way that I learned to love the structure and usefulness of language, and therefore continued from then on to keep building my knowledge of the language far beyond formal school. Now I'm going through a similar process, though now in my 60s, with Japanese. The only meaningful progress I've made in 12 years has happened because I stopped expecting myself to know and speak everything perfectly and instead clung to the few important nuggets that I needed for real conversation. With only just those few basics under my belt (and wow, that took forever to develop), I am finding it ever so much easier each week in my online class to add more and more detail (words, grammar, idioms et al) to the picture, and every now and then, I'm surprised that I remember the new details enough to use them in a pinch. Japanese Progression Exceptionally Gradual... JPEG!
This piece realy resonated with me, the idea of GenAI as a change of basis for learning is so clever. How do we make sure people dive deeper after that initial understanding?
Thanks. Figuring out how to get them to dive deeper is the million dollar question. I think the answer has a lot to do with intrinsic motivation and curiosity.