Description:
Entrepreneur Max Ventilla, who used to work for Google, started Alt School. A school that works with a personalised teaching program for each individual student. In a short BBC video, you’ll learn about the concept, its benefits and potential drawbacks.
What is it?
Alt School is all about the individual. At 10 years old students sometimes differ about 5 years in their best and worst subject. But in an ordinary school, everyone has to work at the same level. In Alt School computers and close monitoring of the students makes it possible to give each kid an own playlist with lessons catered to its needs.
Why is it interesting?
We all understand that not every kid is the same, but schools simply can’t provide individual lessons. It’s beyond the teachers’ capabilities. Alt School is different. The students are monitored closely with cameras all during the day and provided with customized lessons. A team of tech engineers and educators work together to optimize teaching material in order to get the most out of each student. The data that are collected are used to build algorithms that suggest the teachers what each individual student should learn. A very nice approach, but at the moment only available for the rich. One year at Alt School costs 30.000 dollars, but Ventilla hopes to sell the platform so that it will be used at State schools.
Key take away/Quote
“You’ll see ten-year-olds who are five years different in their worst subject vs their best subject. As the norm.”
