AUSTIN, Texas — GT School, a digital, self-paced after-school learning platform built to exceed the limits of traditional classroom education, today announced the launch of TeachTap, a cutting-edge AI-powered learning app for advanced placement (AP) exam preparations and high school courses.
Designed to make studying fun and personalized, TeachTap brings historical leaders to life as teachers while tailoring lessons to each student’s needs using artificial intelligence (AI) in a social media-style app. All course material is trained on the exact curriculum set by the College Board and Common Core educational standards. TeachTap does not include access to external websites to ensure integrity in the material presented to students.
“TeachTap is a game-changing learning platform that meets students where they are in their learning journey and guides them to success. TeachTap engages students in a fun way that helps improve comprehension and retention, enabling them to succeed with fewer hours invested than with traditional textbooks,” said GT School co-founder and Head of Education MacKenzie Price.
Customized learning journeys with historical figures
After a student begins a course, TeachTap promptly customizes the learning journey using AI to match the student’s objectives, level and bridge knowledge gaps. TeachTap turns renowned historical figures into animated personal tutors for a uniquely tailored learning experience. For example, interacting in real time, students can delve into the Civil War with Abraham Lincoln or explore the civil rights movement through the lens of Martin Luther King Jr.
“Instead of getting bored and zoning out using textbooks, TeachTap makes topics so much more entertaining. It’s like, all the time I spend scrolling can now be partly spent studying, because it’s actually interesting to use the app,” said Cherlendy Louis, a student and TeachTap user in New York City.
TeachTap currently offers these 11 high school courses:
- Nine AP exam preparation courses: U.S History, World History, European History, U.S. Government, Environmental Science, Biology, Psychology, Macroeconomics, Human Geography
- Two general high school courses: Physics and U.S. History.
TeachTap will continually offer more courses based strictly on specific College Board and Common Core educational standards.
Innovative features and delivery styles maintain interest
TeachTap’s innovative features include:
- Engaging in conversations with AI-generated historical figures such as Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Benjamin Franklin, Gandhi and Genghis Khan.
- Delving into core curriculum subjects in a voice and tone that resonates with students.
- Parental controls that help manage social media time and reward time spent learning.
- Free access with no in-app purchases, making it accessible to all students with access to the internet and a personal device.
TeachTap also features different “delivery styles” that bring history to life and put curriculum into pop culture frameworks. While the delivery changes to make learning fun, the underlying curriculum models are built with strict adherence to specific College Board and Common Core educational standards. For example, Albert Einstein can “rap” a physics lesson, but the underlying lesson would be the same as learning it through a textbook. A history lesson can appear in a cat meme, but the content matches the lesson directly from the AP College Board.
TeachTap’s delivery styles, all delivered by historical figures, include:
- Memes based on popular meme templates
- Raps to the tunes of well-known hip-hop melodies
- Did you know?
- Truth or lie?
- Controversial conversations: Two historical figures debate on the most controversial topics within a particular course. For example, the economic principles of capitalism versus socialism can be understood through an AI-generated faceoff between Adam Smith and Karl Marx.
- Matching: Students pair keys to values across different types, including cause/effect, term/explanation, person/event and event/date
- Multiple choice questions: Regardless of whether they answer it correctly or incorrectly, students are shown a 10- to 20-second “what you need to know” video from a historical figure relevant to the question, telling them everything they need to know to answer correctly the next time.
- Free response questions graded in real time provide students with instant feedback.
TeachTap is built upon decades of learning science
The fundamental core learning model of TeachTap is based on research by renowned educator Benjamin Bloom and his groundbreaking published papers on mastery learning. Bloom found that students learn best in a one-to-one environment with a curriculum that caters to their individual understanding and needs. TeachTap follows Bloom’s core principles and the educational research that followed: Regular quizzing, identifying knowledge gaps, varying time spent on lessons and constant feedback are key to optimal student achievement.
A team of academic subject matter experts (SMEs) has been developing TeachTap over nearly two years to ensure that it includes the same level of style and difficulty as real AP tests.
Furthermore, TeachTap includes many features of GT School’s SCORE Program fee-based curated learning solutions for SAT and AP test preparation and core academic subjects, which produced these results over four years:
- 63% of SCORE Program students scored 5 on the AP United States History test, compared to the national average of only 11%.
- 75% of SCORE Program students scored 5 on the AP World History test, compared to the national average of only 13%.
- On average, SCORE Program students learn AP courses eight times faster than in a traditional school setting.
- On average, SCORE Program students master topics five times faster than in a traditional classroom setting.
TeachTap is currently available for free for the Apple iPhone here on the Apple App Store. It will soon be available for Android phones on the Google Play Store.
About MacKenzie Price
MacKenzie Price, co-founder and head of education at GT School, is a Stanford-educated mother of two who is reimagining education. Before founding GT School and launching TeachTap, she started two groundbreaking ventures that are reshaping the landscape of K-12 education: 2hr Learning, and Alpha School. 2hr Learning is an AI tutor that tailors curriculum for every student, enables personalized, mastery learning for core subjects and enables students to learn faster than standard school, thereby freeing the rest of the school day to pursue their passions and interests. Alpha School is a K-12 in-person school that leverages 2hr Learning for academics, then students learn life skills and do project-based workshops in the afternoons. Alpha School classes perform in the top 2% nationwide.
Price is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and was a featured speaker at SXSW and SXSW EDU. She hosts a top 10 podcast in Apple’s kids and family category, “Future of Education,” where she explores how cutting-edge AI technology is driving positive disruption in education and how students can harmonize their passions with their skills. Drawing from her extensive experience, she examines how this synergy can lead to profound personal and academic growth. Over the past two decades, she has been involved in projects that encouraged online apps for learning and participated in large-scale research programs led by Harvard University that focused on motivating students. Price graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Stanford University. She resides in Austin, Texas with her husband and two teen daughters.
About TeachTap
TeachTap is a free, AI-powered educational app that enables students to dive into courses with an unprecedented level of interaction. With the ability to chat with historical figures in real time through AI-driven characters, the app brings lessons to life and offers a truly personalized learning experience. For more information about TeachTap, visit https://learnwith.ai/.
About GT School
GT School is a digital, self-paced after-school learning platform built to exceed the limits of traditional classroom education. With GT School, learning is designed around the individual needs of each student. The GT School SCORE Program offers curated learning solutions for SAT and AP test preparation and core academic subjects. The company uses top learning apps, an AI-powered coach, and regular one-to-one check-ins to produce results five to 10 times faster than in a traditional classroom. Using AI and cutting-edge technology, GT School helps students unlock their full potential. For more information about GT School, visit https://gt.school/.
