By Teresa A. Martin
Last week an interesting new concept school opened up in Philadelphia. The School of the Future, designed by Microsoft, is taking a new look at learning.
The West Philly school has no textbooks. No paper. No #2 lead. In a grand social experiment, this school is assigning students digital tablets and laptop computers, using digital multi media content for textbooks, and embedding smart swipe cards for opening lockers.
It is also trying to change the learning culture, bringing to the school a sense of the entrepreneurial culture and drive that created Microsoft and our innovation economy.
"Philadelphia came to us ... and asked us to design a school," said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.
MHS, anyone?
Students are called “learners.” The cafeteria is a “food court.” The auditorium is a “performance center.”
The skills the school is targeted are ones valued in today’s corporate world: organizing and planning, negotiating, dealing with ambiguity and managing relationships.
And yet, yet ... despite the Redmond-speak, the digital aura, and the oh-so-modern spin, there’s something very familiar about this all.
“The goal of the partnership is to create a technology-based educational model that can be replicated in communities around the globe,” writes Microsoft. “The School of the Future is rooted in the vision of an empowered community where learning is continuous, relevant, and adaptive.”
That is, the school wants to use today’s tools to create students who can learn and function in our world today.
The world isn’t static. Why should our schools be? If we can use a networked campus, a handheld tablet, and access the latest textbook information digitally instead of from a 15-year-old worn book – well, what exactly is wrong with that?
Education happens within the context of a society. It reflects the things we value and the things we hope to promote among our next generation. The structure that many of us grew up with – the neat rows and columns and teacher-directed instructions – is very much a part of the industrial age, America-as-melting pot era. Our society needed workers who could follow direction, assemble products, and meld together into a unified one.
But this is a new century. With new needs. And the education we provide to our current young generation needs to reflect that. Why shouldn’t we be embracing whatever tools will take us there?
The number one success factor of the new school is “an involved and connected learning community.” Nothing novel there, either. That’s an important success factor for most schools, and there are many different routes to that end.
The Microsoft-Philadelphia experiment isn’t about daring to be different; its about daring to try something different, if a bit dramatic, to reach the same universal end of developing students with the skills we need to power our world.
Will it work? Only the class of 2010 will know for sure.
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