@EdTechMuser

Assistant Professor @UCIEducation Interested in [foundations/history/philosophy/equity] of ed tech, ed data science, and learning sciences

education.uci.edu/doroudi
Joined August 2019
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Alpha School defenders have stated that good criticisms of Alpha School are welcome, but @benjaminjriley is not serious and shouldn't be trusted. I'm curious what they think of this critique. Should it be taken seriously or is it just Ben continuing to try to stop edu innovation?
Screenshot from Ben Riley's sixth report on Alpha School Substack post stating, "According to several sources, on the first day of the Survival Challenge, all students were required to turn over their medical supplies to adult guides. These sources inform me that these medical supplies were not returned to students until Sunday at the conclusion of the event. (Several students didn’t get their supplies back until Monday, according to one source.) Why Alpha School did this is unknown. What is known that is some of the medical supplies that students were deprived of over the weekend included epi-pens and inhalers, according to multiple sources."

ALT Screenshot from Ben Riley's sixth report on Alpha School Substack post stating, "According to several sources, on the first day of the Survival Challenge, all students were required to turn over their medical supplies to adult guides. These sources inform me that these medical supplies were not returned to students until Sunday at the conclusion of the event. (Several students didn’t get their supplies back until Monday, according to one source.) Why Alpha School did this is unknown. What is known that is some of the medical supplies that students were deprived of over the weekend included epi-pens and inhalers, according to multiple sources."

Benjamin Riley@benjaminjrileyOct 2
I’ve just published another report on Alpha School’s Survival Challenge.
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Replying to @barbarikon @arab11__
At a zoomed out level, yes, but you lose a lot of the intricacies that make it what it truly is. Compare with e.g., this image. The attention to detail is an essential part of Islamic architecture and exactly what these AI images don't capture.
Picture of Mosque Mir Movsum Agha (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g13993307-d13171756-Reviews-Mosque_Mir_Movsum_Agha-Shuvelan.html)

ALT Picture of Mosque Mir Movsum Agha (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g13993307-d13171756-Reviews-Mosque_Mir_Movsum_Agha-Shuvelan.html)

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It was an honor to be able to give a talk for this symposium on Justice-Oriented Visions of AI and Education at the Northwestern Symposium on Education, AI, and the Learning Sciences. Talk linked here: youtube.com/watch?feature=sh… 1/4
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If you're interested in visual perception, Minsky and Papert's 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘴, or how machine learning might give us insights about human cognition check out my poster at #cogsci2025 in this morning's poster session (P2-D-49)—or virtually below!
Poster titled "What Perceptrons Might Tell Us About Our Own Abilities." Presents an argument that theoretical results from Minsky and Papert's 1969 book Perceptrons might have surprising implications for our own capabilities and limitations in visual perception and learning.

ALT Poster titled "What Perceptrons Might Tell Us About Our Own Abilities." Presents an argument that theoretical results from Minsky and Papert's 1969 book Perceptrons might have surprising implications for our own capabilities and limitations in visual perception and learning.

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I first stumbled upon @peterhreynolds' The Word Collector in a bookstore and it became one of my favorite books to read to my daughter. —— I had seen this drawing of Seymour Papert many times on @garystager's website, but until recently I didn't realize who the artist was... 1/7
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Literacy doesn't seem to be the only factor. For example, this study shows that people in Japan are more susceptible to the illusion than people in the UK. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.… Which orange circle (if any) do you see as bigger? Responses should be varied! (24/25)
A version of the Ebbinghaus illusion where one circle is actually bigger. Which circle people see as bigger is expected to vary.

ALT A version of the Ebbinghaus illusion where one circle is actually bigger. Which circle people see as bigger is expected to vary.

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Voilà! A paper written to suggest that Luria's results don't replicate replicates their results very nicely. Less literate people from the same city are less susceptible to the Ebbinghaus illusion! (19/25)
Results from Arunkumar et al. (2021) for the Ebbinghaus illusion (not included in their paper) that shows the high-literate, low-literate, and illiterate groups had different levels of susceptibility to the illusion (~75% for high-literate, 70% for low-literate, and 42% for illiterate; confidence intervals for high-literate do not overlap with illiterate).

ALT Results from Arunkumar et al. (2021) for the Ebbinghaus illusion (not included in their paper) that shows the high-literate, low-literate, and illiterate groups had different levels of susceptibility to the illusion (~75% for high-literate, 70% for low-literate, and 42% for illiterate; confidence intervals for high-literate do not overlap with illiterate).

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They then zoomed in on one illusion that the literature has focused on: Müller-Lyer of course. And the results here agree with those of Luria/Vygotsky, Koffka, and Amir, and Firestone. (17/25)
Results from Arunkumar et al. (2021; Figure 10) that shows the high-literate, low-literate, and illiterate groups were similarly susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion (> 80% of participants in each group; overlapping confidence intervals).

ALT Results from Arunkumar et al. (2021; Figure 10) that shows the high-literate, low-literate, and illiterate groups were similarly susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion (> 80% of participants in each group; overlapping confidence intervals).

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Here are the results for the Ebbinghaus illusion where the numbers show the % of participants who saw the circles as different sizes. There's a clear trend: participants who were less collectivized or literate were less likely to be fooled by the illusion. (11/25)
Luria's (1976) report on their expedition results for the Ebbinghaus illusion. The results show for each of five groups of participants the percentage that claimed they saw the circles in the Ebbinghaus illusion as different sizes: Ichkari women (n=9, 33.3%), peasants (n=25, 20.8%), women in preschool courses (n=25, 64%), collective-farm activists (n=40, 85%), and women at teachers' school (n=38, 92.1%).

ALT Luria's (1976) report on their expedition results for the Ebbinghaus illusion. The results show for each of five groups of participants the percentage that claimed they saw the circles in the Ebbinghaus illusion as different sizes: Ichkari women (n=9, 33.3%), peasants (n=25, 20.8%), women in preschool courses (n=25, 64%), collective-farm activists (n=40, 85%), and women at teachers' school (n=38, 92.1%).

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I think culture *does* shape the way you see the world. But for that, we should look to the Ebbinghaus illusion. I think Müller-Lyer has been a bit of a red herring in the history of cultural psychology. (2/25)
The Ebbinghaus Illusion. The left shows an orange circle surrounded by six larger grayish-blue circles. The right shows an orange circle surrounded by eight smaller grayish-blue circles. The orange circles are the same size, but for many people, the one on the left appears larger.

ALT The Ebbinghaus Illusion. The left shows an orange circle surrounded by six larger grayish-blue circles. The right shows an orange circle surrounded by eight smaller grayish-blue circles. The orange circles are the same size, but for many people, the one on the left appears larger.

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I thought @Google was trying to be responsible about its use of AI. Blatant misinformation for common and basic queries... By the way, 8am PDT is 4pm in UK.
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