Gadgetory

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