It’s no secret that a large part of the boom in homeschooling is a result of a desire for personalized curriculums.
This Forbes article offers insights and anecdotes that elaborate. Personalized curriculums can benefit many, if not all, students; the challenge, of course is in creating a curriculum that is appropriately personalized. This is where artificial intelligence can be a tremendous boon: AI applications that can create personalized curriculum are well on their way.
This is, in fact, a part of the long-term mission of ours here at Pallas, where we are starting with courses on under-covered areas of post-World War II US history. Whether or not we achieve this end goal of personalized curriculums for everyone, some organization surely will — and I feel confident in saying this will occur within the next decade, perhaps even much sooner.
Start With a Prompt
In fact, one can get already start this process themselves with many of the leading AI solutions. I asked Claude, my preferred general-purpose AI at the moment, to generate a syllabus for a high school teenager interested in learning about space exploration. Specifically, I fed it this prompt:
- create a curriculum for high school students who wish to learn about space exploration
I published Claude’s reply here. Parents, or perhaps even students themselves, can drill down on each point, generating more reading material, study exercises, and other ways continue learning about the subject at hand. This technique may be especially prudent for students who excel in independent learning, and naturally gravitate to an inquiry-based approach to their education.
Concerns About Use of Artificial Intelligence
A natural concern parents may have about this type of learning is in the information the AI is presenting: is it accurate? Does it reflect the depth and quality you would like for your student? One of the ways to get the most out of an artificial intelligence system is to have it guided by an individual who is an expert in a given topic.
For instance, suppose you are an expert in space exploration — but you are NOT an expert in curriculum development, nor do you have the time or desire to draft large amounts of reading material for the student. You could still give a detailed prompt exploring the kinds of subjects you would want included in the course.
Another example may help. Suppose your student is interested in basketball, and perhaps is considering a career path involving some aspects of coaching or sports commentary. A generic prompt might be:
Create a curriculum for a high school teenager who wants to be a basketball coach or a basketball journalist.
Here is the curriculum generated.
Refine and Improve Your Prompt
An actual basketball coach might find the curriculum to be a bit too generic, and not particularly likely to inspire They might guide the curriculum development with just a small bit of information they know, based on their experience, to be valuable and likely to inspire students.
Consider this prompt:
Create a curriculum for a high school teenager who wants to be a basketball coach or a basketball journalist. Discuss how the game has evolved; in particular, discuss why the pace of the game has changed, why the three point shot has become so vital, and how teams think about spacing the floor. Discuss the changing nature of the pick and roll, and how defenses scheme against it. Prepare the student to think creatively about where the game may be headed, and how teams may wish to position themselves as a result.
I think this might help some of the coaches of tomorrow increase their basketball IQ! And it should be noted this prompt was created by myself, an enthusiastic fan of NBA basketball — but certainly not a coach, sports journalist, or high level player. A true expert in this subject could likely come up with a far more compelling prompt, allowing their expertise to become more broadly available via the power of AI.