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What Do We Really Know About Teaching Kids Math?

The New Yorker

Earlier this week, I wrote about the history of progressive math education, the culture wars it has inspired over the past hundred years, and the controversy over the California Math Framework. Today, I want to start with a much broader question: What do we really know about how to teach math to children? The answer is not all that much--and what little we do know is highly contested. An American math education usually proceeds in a linear fashion, with the idea that one subject prepares you for the next. Take, for example, the typical path through mathematics for a relatively advanced student.


Best college commencement advice for new graduates

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. In the coming weeks, students around the nation will hear their names read aloud, walk across a platform and move their tassels to signify graduation from high school or college. After years of working toward receiving their diploma or degree, they are now off to start a new adventure in their lives. And, for others, there may be the apprehension of not knowing what is next. As a college president, here are five pieces of advice I have for graduating seniors.


These high school students are fighting for ethical AI

#artificialintelligence

It's been a busy year for Encode Justice, an international group of grassroots activists pushing for ethical uses of artificial intelligence. There have been legislators to lobby, online seminars to hold, and meetings to attend, all in hopes of educating others about the harms of facial-recognition technology. It would be a lot for any activist group to fit into the workday; most of the team behind Encode Justice have had to cram it all in around high school. That's because the group was created and is run almost entirely by high schoolers. Its founder and president, Sneha Revanur, is a 16-year-old high-school senior in San Jose, California and at least one of the members of the leadership team isn't old enough to get a driver's license.


The Role of Social Movements, Coalitions, and Workers in Resisting Harmful Artificial Intelligence and Contributing to the Development of Responsible AI

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

There is mounting public concern over the influence that AI based systems has in our society. Coalitions in all sectors are acting worldwide to resist hamful applications of AI. From indigenous people addressing the lack of reliable data, to smart city stakeholders, to students protesting the academic relationships with sex trafficker and MIT donor Jeffery Epstein, the questionable ethics and values of those heavily investing in and profiting from AI are under global scrutiny. There are biased, wrongful, and disturbing assumptions embedded in AI algorithms that could get locked in without intervention. Our best human judgment is needed to contain AI's harmful impact. Perhaps one of the greatest contributions of AI will be to make us ultimately understand how important human wisdom truly is in life on earth.


Why some high school students aren't ready to go back to school, despite the isolation

Los Angeles Times

High school senior Isabell Diaz has a routine. She rolls out of bed half an hour before her 9 a.m. On breaks, she steps away from the screen to eat breakfast or complete chores. She has learned how to navigate online assignments and virtual club meetings. So when she learned that her school would open in late April, she had mixed emotions.


Elon Musk is recruiting for Tesla: I 'don't care if you even graduated high school'

#artificialintelligence

"If somebody graduated from a great university, that may be an indication that they will be capable of great things, but it's not necessarily the case. If you look at, say, people like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, these guys didn't graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them, of course that would be a good idea," Musk said. Instead, Musk said he looks for "evidence of exceptional ability. And if there is a track record of exceptional achievement, then it is likely that that will continue into the future," he told Auto Bild. Tesla needs artificial intelligence talent to work on its self-driving vehicle ambitions.


Prosthetic legs of California high school wrestling captain stolen from gym

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 24 are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com The prosthetic legs of a double amputee and soon-to-be high school wrestling captain were stolen from a gym closet in California last week, putting his dreams of winning a state championship or even wrestling this season in doubt. Brett Winters, a senior at Pacific High School in San Bernardino, California, was born without tibia bones in his legs. As a baby, his mother was told by doctors that Winters could either spend life in a wheelchair or amputate his legs.


Veterans demonstrate artificial intelligence to stop active shooters before shots are fired

#artificialintelligence

A group of veterans inspired by the need to keep schools and public spaces safer have created a new technology they say can detect guns and send out alerts before shots are ever fired. Active shooter situations have played out across the country โ€“ a gunman opened fire inside a Florida high school, shots rang out at a Texas Walmart and multiple people were shot to death in an office building in Virginia Beach. The nation's most recent school shooting happened Thursday morning โ€“ when a 16-year-old high school student in Santa Clarita, California, opened fire in the campus quad, shooting five classmates and killing two. What if the gun was detected early โ€“ so early, the shooter was never able to get inside to hurt anyone? The technology to do that exists, and only WUSA9 was there when it was tested in Northern Virginia.


AI Goes To High School

#artificialintelligence

Aidan Wen is well on his way toward a career in artificial intelligence. The high school junior already has two semesters of machine-learning courses under his belt. Last summer he competed for a $12,000 prize sponsored by the Radiological Society of North America for the best ML model for spotting signs of pneumonia in lung X-rays. This year, he has entered another competition seeking a system for early detection of earthquakes using audio files. Next, he wants to try his hand at a project using natural language processing.


Opinion A.I. Still Needs H.I. (Human Intelligence), for Now

#artificialintelligence

Fifteen years ago I came to Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, to do a documentary on outsourcing. One of our first stops was a company called 24/7 whose main business was answering customer service calls and selling products, like credit cards, for U.S. companies half a world away. The beating heart of 24/7 back then was a vast floor of young phone operators, most with only high school degrees, save for a small pool of techies who provided "help desk" advice. These young Indians spoke in the best American English, perfected in a class that we filmed, where everyone had to practice enunciating "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" -- and make it sound like they were from Kansas not Kolkata. The operations floor was so noisy from hundreds of simultaneous phone conversations that 24/7 installed a white-noise machine to muffle the din, but even then you could still occasionally hear piercing through the cacophony some techie saying to someone in America, the likes of: "What, Ma'am? Your computer is on fire?"