This sharp departure from “typical school” is a welcome innovation…
And using AI online is a logical next step for a 2 hour academic school structure.
The newest online-only school greenlighted by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools comes with a twist: The academic curriculum will be taughtentirely by AI.
Charter schools — independently operated but publicly funded — typically get greater autonomy compared to traditional public schools when it comes to how subjects are taught. But Unbound Academy’s application, which proposes an “AI-driven adaptive learning technology” that “condenses academic instruction into a two-hour window,” is a first for the model. (Unbound’s founders have been running a similar program at a “high-end private school” in Texas, which appears to be in-person.)
Unbound’s approach leans on edtech platforms like IXL and Khan Academy, and students engage with “interactive, AI-powered platforms that continuously adjust to their individual learning pace and style.” There will be humans, just fewer of them, and maybe not actual accredited teachers: It will adopt a “human-in-the-loop” approach with “skilled guides” monitoring progress who can provide “targeted interventions” and coaching for each student.
Academic instruction is whittled down to just two hours. The remainder of the students’ day will include “life-skills workshops” covering areas such as critical thinking, creative problem-solving, financial literacy, public speaking, goal setting, and entrepreneurship. The online-only school targets students from fourth to eighth grades.
From TechCrunch, ~Kudos to Gary for link.
Each innovation like this helps fill in the imagination gaps for what is possible now and soon.
Prior years identified Community Schools as a viable model for at least for poorer neighborhoods where the public schools are inadequate.
Then recently there’s the sort of “DIY” grassroots startup schools in a recent PSA post…which lend credence to the idea that parents/ some teachers/ some communities, could just “go for it” and start up (with little funding) a version of the 2hr school noted in this link.
Since say 2007 it has seemed self evident that the costs of education could be dramatically different, and yet at the same time, schools are up there with healthcare in top US expenditure. Which implies, if ever there was a financial downturn where we couldn’t afford our current school system, that there may well be viable alternatives available.
Or maybe we’ll just see a large scale grass roots work around.