I have hope that technology can change education for the better and not necessarily in the classroom itself, but increasing the efficiency of the administration and tracking of student progress.

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Improving education is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and yet, less than 1% of education-related expenditures are allocated to the kind of research and development that could bring primary education into the 21st century.

I saw a few articles about this yesterday and just the thought of a startup that is looking at the process of education as a research and development project seems really hopeful. The founder (from Google) has a strong background in big data, machine learning and personalization. I am curious to hear what other people think about this.

The "micro-schools" are all meant to be small with 8:1 student to teacher ratios that combine ages and abilities. They use iPad minis for weekly playlists for the students to decide what they would like to work on for the week. Every student gets a personalized learning plan.

It sounds amazing for all kids and might be able to address some of the issues we see with gifted kids. They use "child-centered" learning to use a child's interest to engage them in learning. One example I read somewhere was that some kids like Minecraft, so they started building San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. That incorporates history and engineering in a really cool way.

AltSchool gets $33 Million

More about AltSchool



Mom to DS9 and DD6