education in tonk with AI

education in tonk, rajasthan

first the news, then the comments

padhai with AI to help the students in difficult subjects has extended the benefit of digital learning and has improved the results of the government schools. the initiative has helped the students struggling with tough subjects, especially mathematics, in solving the questions from the text books and practicing new questions of similar pattern.

comments

i am stuck for comments. just remembered a joke where he salesman tells the lady – these are herbal shoes. when she raised her eye brows, he quickly added – madam, that is the fashion now a days to describe everything as herbal. same thing is happening with AI. I recall there was an algebra book by hall and knight in our days. after each formula there were 40 to 50 questions where the formula worked, by the time, you finished them, that formula has become part for the your whole life. imagine AI, moment you find a problem difficult, just press the button. AI is there to solve the problem. no need to exercise your brain. is that learning? next time you come with another difficult problem (and life is full of problems), can you just press the button and get it over with. when do you exercise your brain? and without that, how will it develop. they say what makes the river follow a crooked path is due to finding the least resistance path. finding an answer to a tough question by pressing a button is the easy path. they say india's future lies in research, basic research and it cannot be done with pressing the buttons.

by the way, i am reminded of a predicament when i could not explain to the class, a problem on virtual work. i promised to do it the next day. practiced at home for the solution and did it the next day explaining where my mistake was. as it happened, in the ias examination, that very question was there - full forty marks. could have looked up the key (AI of those days) but did not, and am happy because of that. shortcuts are tempting but of doubtful value.

AI is good, but let us not do it at the cost of learning, experimenting and discovering.