AI Part 4: One size does not fit all

And then a student, Jake, (name changed), reached out to me. He had a D in math. Mom was desperate for him to get support. He had struggled with the teacher, and with authority in general.  

I spoke to him about Khanmigo. He didn’t like it. Too wordy. Too inauthentic.  

I went back to Tutor.com. I suggested not doing the chat. I suggested he use the microphone and speak with a live tutor. Jake is confident in his interactions with others. It is something that separates him from many other middle school students. He is not afraid to talk to a stranger. 

I facilitated an introduction with the tutor. We, Jake, the tutor and me as the facilitator (only), agreed to do a 30-minute tutor session. The teacher had given Jake the math standards so he could reference. He showed a problem to the tutor and off they went.  

Now Jake uses Tutor.com independently.  

So... did I just do a full circle from Tutor.com, to Khanmigo, and back to Tutor.com? 

No. I realized the truth of education as we accelerate out of 2024 toward 2025 and beyond. If we truly are going to personalize education... if we are truly going to do equity (meaning we give every single learner what they individually need), we may need all of it, as a menu of options that we explicitly, and repeatedly, teach students to use. We teach students to empower and give them agency to access what they need when they need it. 

In this way we may be onto something:

1. Well-structured classrooms facilitated by highly qualified and engaging teachers that can guide diverse students through productive struggle and thoughtful peer-to-peer dialogue
2. Trained access to and usage of Khanmigo (or other AI platform) for those students who find it helpful to get immediate feedback without needing to wait for the teacher 
3. Trained access to and usage of a live digital tutor that a student can speak with because the AI chat, or even AI voice, is just not human enough 

The right combo potentially leads us down the path toward actual personalization (true equitable differentiation) in the classroom that educators dream of... we may be closer than ever to finally having a structure to address each individual learning need in a classroom at the same time. 

*Tutor.com is being replaced by the district with another platform for live tutor help:
https://my.nicheacademy.com/tacomalibrary/course/5840