Jersey City — Tech leaders in the education sector are envisioning a Jetsons like future for Gen Z and every generation to come after.
Alpha School, a Texas-based, advanced technology, private K-12 institution has gone viral on social media for displaying its students working on core academics for two-hours each day and spending the rest of their time building tech-fueled projects and learning core life skills.
This, according to the Alpha School, allows them to learn at twice as much as what students at standard schools learn in six hours.
The Alpha School model uses AI tutors and cutting-edge technology, in addition to having academic coaches on site to address the lack of joy students face as they matriculate through the K-12 system.
In a post-Covid academic setting, the Alpha School model, per their site, hopes to allow students to get their individual needs met as they advance at different paces through core subjects.
In viral social posts, students are seen building businesses such as AI dating chat bots for teens, designing AP resources, making complex biology documentaries and much more. In terms of physical projects, students at third-grade levels are able to build shelves and experiment with fire.
I stumbled across the Alpha School on social media myself and was sincerely amazed at the approach. As an avid lover of tech and an advocate for equitable education access, this seems to me like the future of education in ways we never imagined.
Incorporating AI and technology beyond the use of computers into a classroom is key to ensuring that the youth of America and the world broadly has access to reach their full potential.
Gen Z is the first social generation, raised on technology and with the growing changes of media. Gen Alpha, which I fondly refer to as the iPad kid generation, is much more advanced and ultimately will require access to a lot more technology to keep their interest in school – and to reach their academic goals.
Keeping it gee, I would love to see the Alpha School expand across the country, but with revolutionary measures, comes resistance. It will take a lot to encourage the country to work against the traditional school model and it will take even more effort to ensure that private education is accessible to those in low-income tax brackets. However, I believe that the Alpha School can help make that happen.
Miranda Perez (she/her/hers) is a Jersey City, NJ-based journalist who covers the tech industry. Follow her on X and Instagram: @mimithegee.
Edited by NaTyshca Pickett