Transcript: News Interview from Non-AI School Transfer Student to Pure Tech
In a CBC News Interview over Zoom+ from February 18th, 2043, a reporter, Ankita Asuman, interviewed a current student at Pure Tech Secondary School, Radha Imani, who was a transfer student from C W Jefferys High School. He shared his experiences attending Pure Tech Secondary for his Grade 11 year and its differences from his previous school:
Ankita: So Radha, how are you feeling about your new school? I understand the first semester is done but the next one is just around the corner.
Radha: This school is a bit weird. I'm used to going to an actual school; instead, I just have to stay at home and do my work. In the beginning, I thought it would be really simple since I didn't have to wake up too early in the morning to commute, but it actually has a lot of challenges. Since I'm doing school at home, I find it really hard to make friends because there are no in-person classes and I just talk online. I can't seem to do it. I also really don't like doing the schoolwork because of the lack of collaboration aspect. Like, I need a friend to tell me, "Hey, did you do your work?” or just sit beside me and work together; otherwise, nothing will be done and my motivation to do school work is sort of low. Since a lot of my classmates have been in the school since it started three years ago, a lot of them have known each other throughout high school, and it's really difficult to break those already-formed friendships. There are some clubs that I have joined, and it seems like I've made some friends there, but I still don't think it's as deep of a friendship as I have made at my previous school. Since that one was in person, I was able to bond with my classmates a lot more and just have a sense of community that I don't seem to get with this online school. All in all, I think this school is a really interesting concept, and I'm glad that I at least got to try it out because I do think that my future career as a computer engineer will be really helpful. I probably just need to continue to try.
Ankita: So I see that you're having difficulties connecting with your classmates, but what about your teachers? It's only been three years of PTSS testing and using AI as a way to teach students. How are you adapting to them?
Radha: They are not actually teachers. It's just a machine that gives me work to do. Yes, the work is personalized so that it's just me doing this type of work and I don't have to compare any grades and stuff with my classmates, but that also sort of disconnects the work and, like, the collaboration that I and other students can possibly have when doing an assignment. We only have collaboration assignments once a year, and it's really awkward to do. But anyway, the teachers don't even really know a certain topic. They know a lot of different subjects, but they only know the basics in all of them, so if I have a specific question on geography, they would only be able to tell me surface-level information and not go in depth. I feel a person would understand my question better, and they would help answer it as well as look for an answer if they didn't know it. Because most of our society is online, there's a lot of misinformation that is spread, and my teachers don't really know how to differentiate between the two, so they'll just say the first thing that comes up when they do their quick search in their information systems.
Ankita: Thank you Radha for your insights into your experiences at Pure Tech Secondary School.