I've Been Watching Education Change in Real Time. Here's What I'm Seeing.

One of the things I keep reminding myself as I write LEARNING 3.0 is that the future isn't coming. It's already here. It's just unevenly distributed.

Most schools are still running a model built for the industrial age with learners in the same seat, same pace, same content, same teacher for 30 kids. But, there is a growing wave of programs and tools are quietly rewriting the rules of how learning works. What's fascinating is that they're coming at it from completely different angles. You’ll see a private school network, a homeschool community platform, a curriculum giant, an early literacy app, and a classroom AI tutor. But they're all, whether they'd say it this way or not, moving in the same direction.

They're all heading toward Learning 3.0.

Alpha School is the most audacious example on this list. Their model compresses core academics into two hours per day using AI-powered personalized instruction. The rest of the day is spent on life skills, workshops, and pursuing passions. They claim students grow 2.6 times faster than peers on nationally normed MAP tests. 

The marketing around Alpha is bold and the independent research is limited. But the idea they're stress-testing is working. It’s shown that personalized, mastery-based learning with AI can radically reduce the time needed for core instruction. This is exactly the kind of hypothesis worth looking at and taking seriously. It's Bloom's 2-sigma problem made into a school.

Recess is doing something different, and arguably more human. It's a community for homeschoolers where kids design their own education. They are taking live classes with friends, building projects, coding with AI, and publishing stories. What strikes me about Recess isn't the only technology, but the philosophy. Learning is social. Kids need agency. And the best motivation comes from pursuing something you actually care about with people you like (it’s meaningful and relevant).

Recess is essentially building the social infrastructure that homeschooling often lacks, and wrapping it around learner-driven experiences. The parent testimonials tell you something real is happening there.

Amplify represents the institutional side of this shift. They're not a startup disrupting from the outside, instead they're a major curriculum and assessment company that's been building inside the system for over two decades. Their programs span literacy, math, and science from PreK through 12th grade, and are used by more than 18 million students and teachers worldwide. 

What's relevant for the Learning 3.0 conversation is that Amplify is grounding their work in real research. It’s based on the Science of Reading, evidence-based math instruction all while integrating adaptive and digital tools at scale. They represent what it looks like when Learning 3.0 principles try to move through traditional systems rather than around them. Messier… and slower, but potentially reaching far more kids.

Mentava is one of the most intriguing tools I've come across for early literacy. Their software uses real-time audio, visual, and tactile feedback to teach kids as young as three to read. They are aiming to get them to a second-grade reading level before most kids have started kindergarten. 

You’ll notice that they're not trying to gamify their way to engagement. They explicitly distinguish themselves from "edutainment" apps that optimize for passive attention rather than rigorous learning outcomes. They pair the software with human coaches, which tells me the founder understands that technology is a lever, not a replacement for relationship and guidance. That's a nuance a lot of edtech misses.

Goblins is the one on this list most squarely aimed at the everyday classroom teacher. It gives math students 1-on-1 AI help through voice, drawing, and real-time feedback. It also gives teachers a dashboard of student thinking, error analysis, and intervention recommendations in real time. 

What I love about this framing is that Goblins isn't trying to replace the teacher. It's trying to give the teacher 30 pairs of eyes and improve feedback on both sides. That's Learning 3.0 in the most practical possible sense. When you have AI handling the repetitive, distributive work of checking in on every student, so the human can focus on the human parts of teaching.

So what does this all add up to?

These five programs aren't a unified movement. They don't share a philosophy, a funding model, or even a target audience. But they're all responding to the same underlying truth where the traditional model of schooling (one teacher, one pace, one-size-fits-all) is hitting its ceiling. And AI, done thoughtfully, offers something genuinely new.

The question LEARNING 3.0 tries to answer isn't whether these tools will transform education. Some version of this is already happening. The real question is: who benefits, who gets left behind, and who gets to decide?

That's the conversation I want to have with you over the coming months in preparation of this book’s release!

Know of a program or tool that belongs on this list? Hit reply — I'd love to hear about it.