Imagine a school day where students spend just a few hours learning math, language, and science using AI-driven apps without the support of a certified teacher, while spending more time learning life skills, traveling, and exploring passion projects.
Some Canadian education experts see the unconventional model promoted by American private school network Alpha Schools as combining existing learning approaches with new AI technology. This may work for some students, but issues such as student privacy, welfare, and what children are actually learning need to be carefully considered.
How does it work?
Alpha School aroused curiosity and both praise and criticism for its claims to be able to revolutionize traditional schooling. According to the school’s website, students “grow beyond the classroom” by “smashing up academics” by boiling down core subjects to a few hours of intense study each day and devoting more time to hands-on learning, field trips, and workshops that build life skills like public speaking and teamwork.
The company says that adults in the field (not called teachers) provide support by providing motivation, guidance, and coaching.
In general, this is a common model for homeschooling, and one that is familiar to students enrolled in certain alternative schools, says Stephanie Sewell, an alternative education consultant based in Chelsea, Kenya.
In this case, the blocks of academic research conducted through online learning platforms are based on the concept of “mastery,” said Sewell, a former teacher in both public and private schools.
“They want you to do X number of problems to prove that you are knowledgeable about the subject, and if you don’t get them all right…keep going. [drilling]”It’s a really special way of learning,” she said.
what’s new?
The novelty lies in the use of recent AI-driven technologies to form academic blocks such as adaptive and dynamic learning found in platforms such as IXL and Khan Academy, perhaps combined with customization to reflect individual student interests.
Technology-enabled personalized learning has been around for a while. For example, Beyhan Farhadi, assistant professor of education policy and equity at the Ontario Institute for Education Research at the University of Toronto, said New York state launched a school initiative like this more than 15 years ago.
Farhadi called this a “boutique” approach for a select few and said the model has struggled to scale. A former high school teacher, her expertise includes online learning, educational technology, and educational technology policy.
“This technology allows for the rebranding and remarketing of things that have been attempted but have failed to deliver on the promise of providing public school education in particular, or any type of mass instruction,” Farhadi said.
A method for all children?
Sewell believes the time-integrated, “highly efficient” and technology-based learning approach could work for some high school students, such as those who want to quickly ramp up prerequisite courses before entering college. On the other hand, she said, some people need a slower pace to better absorb the content and feel less stressed.
Sewell also questions whether elementary school students, especially kindergarteners, should be learning through screens for long periods of time.
“Kids at that age are still very much learning how to interact with other people in this world,” she said. “Bringing key things like early math, early writing, early reading into the context of AI online raises some concerns.”
Chris Kennedy, superintendent of the West Vancouver School District and an early advocate of Canadian schools incorporating AI literacy and tools, believes “self-motivators” can address this, but they are only a fraction of the student population.
“Some students thrive with little contact with teachers…while others require much more intensive and ongoing support. [AI] “Technology can quickly adapt to children, but it can’t encourage or support them and can’t do those things the same way humans can,” he said.
Are there any risks?
Farhadi said he is very concerned about student privacy and surveillance, such as webcams that record students and apps that track scrolling, eye and mouse movements to prove students are paying attention, because Alpha School’s model, like other technology platforms, incorporates online surveillance and data collection.
Kennedy also said student safety, security and privacy are top considerations when considering AI in schools.
Another key concern for him is the knowledge base that underlies any platform. For example, will using apps and tools cause students to lose Canadian and local Indigenous context and references during their learning?
Diana Maliszewski, a library teacher in Toronto, described how she worked with artificial intelligence in her sixth-grade social studies class, choosing an AI-generated photo of a “typical Canadian.”
Kennedy welcomes AI as a way to expand and enhance learning, but not just to speed it up.
“Computer-based learning is part of school today, but it’s not the whole story,” he said.
“Quick to the question: Are you actually learning? Does checking those boxes mean going to school?”
Is AI-driven education a given in Canada?
Alpha Schools, which has locations in more than 20 U.S. cities, did not respond to a request from CBC News about bringing its model to Canada.
Kennedy said he supports giving students access to different learning methods and innovations. Children are already using AI, but the most impactful use in Canadian schools right now is teacher-led, he said.
He noted that West Vancouver educators are using AI to support lesson planning, such as quickly adapting or translating written texts for classes of students at a wide range of reading levels.
If you ask children about artificial intelligence, chances are they’ve heard about it, used it, and may already have an opinion about it. But how is it used in the classroom? CBC visited one school in Winnipeg to investigate.
Kennedy, who just returned from a recent conference in Quebec, said approaches to AI still vary widely across Canada. What is needed, he said, is a coordinated national policy that shares principles, guidelines and a vision for the use of AI in K-12 schools, ensuring that students are not just consumers of today, but build the knowledge that will help drive AI in the future.
Farhadi said: “We are still not fully sure what effective use of AI in education means.” While some schools are certainly innovating – she knows of schools where students are training their own chatbots – she said success in the public system doesn’t necessarily get noticed.
Joel Henn-Hartze, who oversees the academic literacy program for new students at Simon Fraser University, explains why he doesn’t expect the perfect essay.
Sewell said he believes AI-driven education will inevitably expand in Canada, but he hopes it involves careful integration, widespread learning and preserving some “old-fashioned” learning processes.
“Kids being taught to write by AI may not have started with a blank screen and an idea. [or] I have writer’s block. Do we value the authentic human experience enough to allow younger humans to experience it?” asked Sewell.
“If we only use that machine, what happens if at some point it stops working for some reason? We have to remember how to do it.”
