Educational agent

There are other methods for teaching that teach more efficiently than the Prussian classroom method currently popular. They don't look anything like it, and the teachers' union will toss a hissy. Every academic parasite from here to Hell will tell you that you suck and are wrong, and suck. That method is called the Educational Agent.
The educational agent is a computer program that learns how you learn. It takes the lesson curriculum it is given and tailors it to your interests and best way of learning. The more you 
use it, the better it understands you and the easier things get, to a point. 
Educational Agents are intended to work on the agent/student model. Each student has their own agent. Teachers, if any, become mentors. They assess, guide, and lead the team exercises. Students use the educational agent to aid learning at the rate they best work and with the methods they best need. No one is held back, forced to catch up, or need adapt to the classroom environment. 
==Learning Center==
The first model for the use of the educational agent as set up by Steven Ashby and the Corps of Discovery is the Learning Center, or UnSchool. This is an open form "school" where teachers are mentors and each child has access to an agent at all times. Ane moms are available to monitor emotional education and answer questions. The core principles of these centers are "there is no such thing as a stupid question". "I don't know" is a valid answer and should be followed with "Let's find out". Curiosity and creativity are never to be stifled in the name of order.
Order isn't an issue in any case because the methods keep kids too busy to think about being bullies or disruptions, at least while at the center. Busy involved children are not trouble makers because they are not bored.
That scream you heard was school boards the nation wide watching their budget shrink.
==The Agent==
Educational Agents require high end computers. A good one is in the $4500.00 US range. $10,000.00 can set up a five child Educational Center with a server and five smart terminals.
The agent and its data base can be downloaded from the CoD data center. A spare terabyte and a 5 gig tri-logic processor will run the basic agent. It will run on any so equipped Penguin machine, or a Winders machine with twice the resources. iFruit computers can handle the Penguin kernel with an interpreter available as well for download. The iFruit hardware will run you twice as much for the same performance.
The whole shooting match is GPL and free to run on as many computers as you care to. The protocol for establishing a Learning Center is included as well as instructions how to use the educational agent at home.
==Reaction==
The main point for teachers that get it, when a Student says "What about this?" to say "I don't know, how do we find out?" and then help students find the beginning thread of their line of inquiry.
Children are for the thing. Some kids will just dive into the computer and explore the information they like. Some kids want to go through it as a group, laughing and joking as they go. Other kids want to go to the hands on lab and start putting things together that shouldn't go together. And most of those kids will change their approaches with the phases of the moon, what they ate that day and what the most popular band is. It looks utterly chaotic And worse, FUN. Hot damn children enjoy learning. Stop that fun at once. Education is a grim, humorless process!
Teachers' unions are tossing a hissy. The Educational agent obsoletes the whole Prussian model classroom. Tax money has actually been spent on fighting Learning Centers in court over how well they work. Therilan has been defending it as required with ruthless use of Ane Diplomacy. "Your Honor, the plaintiff is objecting to the educational agent because it would force them to do something different, upgrade their education. and get off their ass for the first time since they got tenure. They are not objecting because it doesn't work. It demonstrability does work to educate, by any method you wish to use to measure it."
College adapts to this model better. The classroom model is something they don't really like. No one thinks lectures are a great way to do things. Lab doesn't change. Hands on is still hands on. Professors have more time for research. The school pays less for Teaching Assistants.
==Schools using the Agent==
A growing list pf private schools are using Educational agents. Among them are: 
*Bay Area Learning Center -- San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose, Livbermore. On the Long Beach model. 
*Blackmane Academy -- A national teleport in K-12 serving a gifted and unusual population. The school can handle magical and meta students.
*The Carl Sagan Home School -- The first in the nation log in Learning Center for the home schooler. As the name would suggest a firm science based education.
*Long Beach Learning Centers -- The first and still largest, it is becoming a system unto itself with many physical locations.
*The New York Learning Center -- Greater New York area. Taking a cue from, Long Beach. Popular with everyone but the City and Teacher's Union.
*Salem Academy -- This magic oriented boarding secondary school jumped all over this. It leverages their limited faculty.
*St Louis Academy of Education and Magic -- A deliberate attempt to spread the ideas of Salem Academy to the center of the country. Run by Salem Alumni.
*Topeka Learning Centers -- A magic oriented learning center smack the middle of the Bible Belt. It has greater security than average. They get at least one protest a month. As much for the science as the magic. With Kansas turning their back on real education they are sucking the life out of the Topka Public school system.
Category:Education
Category:Technology
Category:Lexicon