- A charter school in Arizona will use artificial intelligence to replace human teachers for two hours of academic lessons each day.
- Artificial intelligence will instantly customize courses to meet the needs of each student.
- The company has only previously tested the idea in private schools, but claims it significantly improves students’ academic success.
One school in Arizona is experimenting with a new education model built around artificial intelligence and two-hour school days. When Arizona’s Unbound Academy opens, the only teachers will be artificial intelligence algorithms in a perfect utopia or dystopia, depending on your point of view.
Unbound Academy’s non-traditional teaching methods required approval from the Arizona Charter School Board, which was approved in a controversial 4-3 vote. Students in grades four through eight will participate in the program, where two hours of daily academic lessons will be delivered by personalized artificial intelligence and will rely on platforms such as IXL and Khan Academy. The idea behind Unbound is that it will make students happier, smarter, and have more time to explore life skills and passions.
During these two hours, students will undergo an adaptive learning program. As they study science, math, or literature, artificial intelligence will instantly track their progress. Based on their performance, artificial intelligence will adjust the style and difficulty of the course to help them succeed. This might mean slowing down and spending more time on certain subjects, or upping the ante and making certain parts of your education program more difficult.
While academic classes are condensed, the rest of the day is filled with practical workshops in areas such as financial literacy, entrepreneurship and public speaking. Rather than being guided by traditional teachers, students have mentors who lead these classes and help develop practical skills designed to transcend the classroom.
artificial intelligence academic
Unbound Academy tested the concept in similar programs at Alpha Schools, a private school in Texas and Florida. They claim that students who participate in these programs learn twice as much in half the time. Arizona officials are now betting that success will play out in public schools, albeit charter schools rather than standard education institutions.
This isn’t Arizona’s first foray into artificial intelligence education. Arizona State University (ASU) and Open artificial intelligence arrive Merge ChatGPT As a teacher. The difference is that ASU’s artificial intelligence can help students write academic papers and help professors conduct more complex simulations and research. It doesn’t actually run any classes. What Unbound Academy is doing is closer to a trial run in the UK. The David School of Play in London is running a AI taught courses The program has enrolled 20 GCSE students as part of its new Sabrewing programme, which uses an artificial intelligence platform and virtual reality headsets to guide their learning.
The idea that artificial intelligence could enable hyper-personalized learning and produce more successful students is certainly appealing. Making extra time for life skills workshops is another selling point, preparing students for challenges outside the classroom. But without human teachers, we can easily see the shadow cast by what is lost. Artificial intelligence cannot replace the guidance, encouragement, and emotional support of a great teacher, at least not in any current form.
Artificial intelligence may be able to improve teachers’ ability to help students, but it is objectively absurd to claim that today’s artificial intelligence can be better than human teachers. It might be cheaper for a district to switch to for-profit companies in the short term, but that’s a short-sighted way to think about the value of educators. Current Unbound Academy students will be the pioneers of this new approach. Everyone learns something from the results in some way.