Andrew Moseman and Carl Davis write,
Frankly, learning to play a song the Rocksmith way is exhilarating. If I (Carl) had looked up the chords online, I could have played the song just as easily. But I might have stopped to scroll down on the computer screen or to relearn the first half of the song until I got it down pat. After a few progressively more difficult play-throughs on Rocksmith, I’d memorized the song without even thinking too hard about it.
First of all, I always wish I had been a teenager at a time when you could learn guitar from YouTube, or from something like this.
Second, isn’t this the way a lot of learning could be? Teaching equals feedback, and what this product attempts to do is greatly accelerate the feedback process. My guess is that the biggest advances in education will come from something like this rather than from a MOOC.
I think the link was meant to be this. Good point about the importance of feedback to quick learning.
As a guitarist whose musical skills predate the internet. Just the ability to bring up chords and tabs of almost any song instantly is amazing to me.
Plus the price of equipment has fallen dramatically. Well not at the top end but the quality of the cheap stuff is so much better. A $100 amplifier today sounds like 10k worth of equipment from 25 years ago. Plus, the guitars themselves are better, especially the mass produced ones. Top notch stuff is still hand made, but the bottom of the line stuff is 10x better than it was only 15 years ago.
I think you are right about software being a better teacher than people eventually. Software gives better feedback, and a consistent experience. That experience can be continually tested and improved. If the first version people learn 20% of the material, we can start changing things and get to 30% with A/B style tests. With software teachers we have real feedback about how they are working, as well as the feedback the students get.
“Second, isn’t this the way a lot of learning could be? :
No. Well. From your standpoint, where “a lot of learning” is done by smart people looking to acquire new skills, sure. But for the past 30 years, that’s about 10-15% of all learning (I made that number up).
“Teaching equals feedback,”
How would you go about learning a language? How would you learn math? How would you learn to analyze literature, write grammar?
You’re equating teaching with the delivery system. Again, if you define “learning” as a motivated individual looking to acquire a skill with which he has passing familiarity, then yes, feedback is what that person needs.