Are you paying attention?

Andrew George
3 min readJul 26, 2019
Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash

Artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive the future of personalized learning.

Note: This story was originally published in Jumpstart Magazine’s July 2019 issue available here.

“Are you paying attention?” Every student has heard the question. Now, imagine if a teacher no longer had to ask. Thanks to an electroencephalography-enabled (EEG) headband system from BrainCo, which is currently being tested in Chinese classrooms, this scenario is now a reality.

Yes, a headband that reads minds. Or more accurately, a device that determines focus and attentiveness by measuring brainwaves. Awesome, right?

As a teacher, I look past what’s advertised and at the real potential of the new device: truly personalized learning.

In North America and Europe, classrooms are changing; student choice, project-based instruction, and ‘genius hour’ dominate the trend toward personalized learning. For instance, instead of having a class novel, students can pick their books. After learning the basics of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and…

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