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Arizona School’s Curriculum Will Be Taught by AI, No Teachers (gizmodo.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Stopthatgirl7 to c/technology

152 comments fedilink hide all child comments

By a 4-3 margin, the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools on Monday approved an application from Unbound Academy to open a fully online school serving grades four through eight. Unbound already operates a private school that uses its AI-dependent “2hr Learning” model in Texas and is currently applying to open similar schools in Arkansas and Utah.

Under the 2hr Learning model, students spend just two hours a day using personalized learning programs from companies like IXL and Khan Academy. “As students work through lessons on subjects like math, reading, and science, the AI system will analyze their responses, time spent on tasks, and even emotional cues to optimize the difficulty and presentation of content,” according to Unbound’s charter school application in Arizona. “This ensures that each student is consistently challenged at their optimal level, preventing boredom or frustration.”

Spending less time on traditional curriculum frees up the rest of students’ days for life-skill workshops that cover “financial literacy, public speaking, goal setting, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving,” according to the Arizona application.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

Theoretically, by analysing the exact needs, and being able to address them individually (in contrast to a teacher, who has limited time, and a whole class of students to attend to), it could do a better job. I mean the whole sales pitch of these systems is that they can attend to individual needs, and not just give you the material made for the average, "regular" student.

We'll see if it turns out that way. I have my doubts. It needs to have training data about neuro-divergent students, and knowledge how to handle them. And usually AI reproduces bias and stereotypes. Edge-cases are more rare in the training data, and that makes AI less knowledgeable. And that happens a lot. Plus current AI is very limited. I'm not sure if it's even smart enough to address individual needs. Or feed students with proper facts instead of fiction.

But I don't think analysing the students behaviour is the issue here. If at all, it's going to lead to improvements of those AI models, if they collect data about neuro-divergent people and feed them in.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Honestly the thing I'd be most worried about is that kids at that age are learning important social and language skills. Without an adult in the room to interact with, who are they going to learn that from?

[–] SpacetimeMachine 15 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Seriously. Teachers aren't just some machines spewing out lessons. They are meant to be a trusted adult in a kids life. Someone they can learn social norms from and someone they can go to if they need an adult they can trust that isn't their parents. I can foresee kids who go to this school having a much harder time getting away from abusive parents.

[–] Demdaru 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I get that it's the aim but I am gonna be blunt. I never trusted any tracher. I liked a few, but that's it...and when I grew up, this was mirrored in most of the male group. Girls tended to be more open to teachers, but that's it. Is it any different today?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think that's how puberty works, and not the teachers' fault. I'm also kinda old and I don't know exactly how it is today. We had both, some bad ones, some that were unnapproachable and stuck to their role as a authority figure. But we also had some excellent ones. Also some you could approach with your small struggles as a teen and who'd respect and help you, instead of yelling at you. There is both. And always has been.

[–] Demdaru 2 points 1 week ago

We had great teachers, don't take ne wrong. Simply nobody trusted them anyway. Like, once I had a teacher that whole class was ready to throw hands for, yet still, except for joking around, nobody trusted her.

Maybe it's cultural thing, I dunno.

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