at the old school in San Francisco kids
sign in with a swipe and alongside
crayons and books are tablets and
laptops but it's how the devices are
used that makes the new school unique am
i old schools um I was in classes of 35
to 40 kids they were really trying to
just get through their curricula but
here you're allowed to kind of make your
own curriculum her sake Zeb curial
Freedman is the first student to
graduate from alt school which was
founded in 2013 by an ex Google employee
the experience is intensely personalized
for each child and that the learning is
taking place not through a screen but
through a physical classroom the
twenty-thousand-dollar a year private
school uses technology to create a
personalized lesson plan or playlist for
each student you're interested in
something they'll push you to get there
and the playlist allows you to do that
teachers create instruction cars for
assignments that can be for one person
or the whole class then teachers build a
playlist for an individual student they
can start the card and then go through
and check off steps as they complete
them with students from different grades
sharing a classroom the personalization
allows students to learn at their own
pace and follow their interests the
system also lets teachers easily monitor
and assess students work we don't have
tests or quizzes or letter grades I
grade them on an ongoing basis the like
feedback loop is is really quick anytime
they submit a card to me I can assess it
right there on the card and when
technology doesn't meet the teachers
needs they can work with an engineer
that they've been paired with we have
about 45 engineers product managers and
designers who builds products for our
schools when altschool started in 2013
it looks more like a start-up with 20
students in one room and engineers in
the other for the upcoming school year
altschool expects to have about 350
students attending eight schools in san
francisco and Cara's Tsuboi cnet.com for
CBS News
laughs