New methods of education for young children and youth is a topic that is in constant conversation as parents try their best to find new educational tools to keep their children engaged. In the age of social media, artificial intelligence (AI), rampant technology, and education, experts Nhon Ma and Ed Kim suggest, with data, that kids can potentially learn faster through the use of AI and short-form TikTok and Reel styled videos.
Nhon Ma is a STEM education expert and founder of an LA-based edtech company called Numerade. He spoke to Our Weekly and shared his insights.
“There’s a lot of research that has concluded that video content does drive higher levels of knowledge retention. For example, there have been studies that look at cognitive processing where they showed drastic differences in how people recall information—when folks are using text alone, information retention recall is only 10 percent, whereas video is [a little over] 90 percent. Studies have also confirmed that having this richness of video, sound, sight, and imagery helps with that learning process.”
Ma references research from Inisivia, a company that conducts video marketing statistics. According to a Rewo report, “studies show that viewers retain 95 percent of a video’s message compared to 10 percent when reading text. Also, according to HubSpot, 80 percent of customers remember a video they viewed in the past month.
He further explains how teachers can effectively use short TikTok-styled videos for effective teaching by saying that Numerade, along with teachers, parents, and professionals in the education space, wants to make sure that students are actually learning. According to Ma, teachers struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, where teachers had to manage 20-30 students online over Zoom, hindering students’ learning experience due to each student having to learn at their own pace.
It is an example of why videos and AI may be beneficial for youth, despite the multiple conversations of how society should not use AI, as research also shows that the data centers used to power AI are harmful to the environment and consumes horrifying amounts of water.
“We’re at this pivotal point in education where video can be personalized to the student in the way that student learns best in a pedagogical way. Our platform, which is a STEM-focused video-based learning platform, actually leverages a network of 6,000 educators to create videos for us.” He continues, “And that video content are walkthroughs of ‘how to’ videos on approaching specific STEM problems. We’ve also trained our AI models so that the content that we produce from our AI is pedagogically aligned, but it can also be automatically created in a way that the student learns best.”
Ed Kim is the vice president of education and co-founder of Code Ninjas, a company that gives kids the skillset to develop their own video games, app designs, and robotics. There is a growing trend of tech-driven education technology emerging, especially as a new year begins.
“TikTok, it’s short video clip-based information. And it’s the same format that I even use when we do teacher training or employee training when we’re trying to show them how to use a certain platform or an operating system that works in our daily business. We’ll play 30-second, five-second, and six-second videos and show [the youth] so they can actually try it along with it. I think in the right format, if the content’s structured and built the right way, it can be very helpful.”
Kim then spoke about the importance of kids learning various generalized skill sets vs. niche skills, as in the future—10 to 15 years from now—companies may not want employees who are only capable of one skill or niche like it currently is today within the job market. Parents often ask him what they should do to best prepare their children for the future as technology advances.
“I think what the next generation of students right now are going to have to do is know enough… more generalism. “Instead of focusing primarily on becoming specialists, I believe students should be better prepared to become generalists,” said Kim.
“[Parents] have to give their kid exposure to as much as possible and not worry so much if their kid’s not finding their passion.” Kim shared those insights and also noted that he is an older millennial who has noticed how Generation Z aged people focus on niche skill sets, millennials focused on mastering multiple skill sets, and Generation Alpha should become generalists, obtaining general knowledge of multiple skill sets, as they one day will be adults in the workforce.