Using virtual reality as an educational tool could transform the American high school experience.
"We've gone from the Model T to the Tesla and from the switchboard to the smartphone. Yet high school has remained frozen in time." That's the theory that underpins XQ, a new nonprofit dedicated to reimaging the American high school for the modern era.
“The use of virtual reality is starting to gain traction in education.”
In September 2015, XQ launched its "Super Schools" grants competition with a full-page New York Times ad requesting "audacious, unconventional, unconstrained ideas to reinvent the American high school." XQ received more than 700 applications that were then whittled down to 348 proposals that received careful consideration. Last month, at a star-studded presentation that included everyone from Sen. Mitch McConnell to MC Hammer, XQ revealed the 10 "Super Schools" across the country that will each receive $10 million dollars to fund their innovative models.
Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is spearheading the effort so it's perhaps not surprising that many of the winners (though, interestingly, not all) are technology-based efforts.
Perhaps the most original and tech-focused of the award winners is the Washington Leadership Academy, a brand new District of Columbia charter school that is...
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Charles Sahm is the director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in U.S. News and World Report