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Oh the Places You'll Go! Random Walk on Wall Street @profkeithdevlin @JohnAllenPaulos @timchartier @stevenstrogatz
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I’m actually less skeptical than some others about the *possibility* of trad-aligned, AI-powered education. But it’s very obvious that Alpha, a for-profit company founded by a tech billionaire and engaged in transparent self-dealing, is not a good vehicle for achieving this.View quoted post on X
That’s Hendrick’s biggest argument for Alpha School’s model as a solution: “You can’t scale good teaching”
Incredible
Incredible
@StephenVainker Carl Hendrick is the so-called “senior learning scientist at Alpha School” snake oil on top of pseudo science on top of BS scientificamerican.com/article/alpha-…View quoted post on X
Literacy, made up in 1883? “While reading and writing are ancient practices, the specific noun was coined to categorize a measurable societal state during the rise of formalized mass education systems.”
@PieCorbett Or ‘numeracy’ and ‘literacy’. Those other ugly made-up words.View quoted post on X
Reinventing Progressive Education
Alpha is a collection of schools in the US exploring a different model of schooling.View quoted post on X
Their goal is to help kids love school, learn academics fast, and prepare for an uncertain future.
To achieve this, students spend 2 hours in the morning learning academics via AI-enabled apps and the rest of the day learning life skills with peers. They are held to high expectations throughout.
When I first encountered Alpha, I was pretty sceptical. Edtech hasn’t had a great track record.
However, when you visit the schools and look into the model, things slowly start to make more sense.
You see kids paying attention like never before. You see them actually loving school, full of confidence and character... and you can’t help but open your mind to the possibility that this radically different model might actually work.
(Exactly how many kids will it work for? We don't yet have a clear answer to that, but if I had to bet, I'd say: quite a few)
It’s not long before you find yourself wistful that your own, now teenage, kids didn’t get the chance to go to a school like this...
And then you decide you want to bring that opportunity to others...
And you find yourself leading the Learning Science team at Alpha.
