Growing up, Max Ventilla never felt like school was for him.
"School was something I did because I was a kid and it was expected
of me. That's a real shame," says Ventilla, the former head of
personalization at Google. "It's an amazing thing to have this extended
period where you work on yourself and have resources to help you grow."
AltSchool, Ventilla's latest venture, sets out to revolutionize that experience by making education more personal.
The Bay Area-based network of "micro-schools" — which
raised $100 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz,
Peter
Thiel's Founders Fund, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year
— uses technology to cater the curriculum to each child's needs,
and plant the seeds of agency.
I spent the day at AltSchool's Fort Mason location in San Francisco,
California, to see its game-changing teaching style in action. Here are
the 16 most impressive things I saw.
AltSchool
bucks traditional grade levels. Students between the ages of 4 and 14
are divided into lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle school
groups.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
You won't find traditional classrooms here either. Students migrate from station to station throughout the day.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
Kids sign into school on an attendance app for the iPad.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
The
attendance app is one of a dozen or so tech tools developed by the
school's 50-person product team, which includes former employees of
Apple, Uber, Zynga, and Ventilla's alma mater Google.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
Kids receive a weekly "playlist" of individual and group activities to complete. This student writes a blog on coin collecting.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
Meanwhile,
a classmate plays Pac-Man using MaKey MaKey, a simple circuit board
that transforms everyday objects into touchable user interfaces.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
The
classrooms are as tech-savvy as the kids. Each is outfitted with a
video camera mounted at eye level, so that teachers can review
successful teaching moments.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
Headphones are available to drown out distractions.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
And the "smart" white boards double as TV screens. Here, the class watches a short CNN news program made for kids.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
Still, AltSchool values hands-on innovation. This little guy constructs a tower for the class's "dream city."
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
An older student designs an obstacle course for the class rabbit using 3D-modeling software SketchUp.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
A
teacher sent us this photo of a student project. The bundles of tinfoil
represent clouds capable of transmitting wireless internet to the
people below. (Whoa, kid.)
Some of the older kids built a loft, which provides a quiet independent study space.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
Cleaning supplies are kept in places where kids can reach them.
Melia Robinson/Tech Insider
This group of middle schoolers get ready for a surprise field trip ... to a Google IO event!
Melia Robinson/Business Insider
Makes you wish you were a kid again.
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