The city of Philadelphia fronted $63 million to have Microsoft design a school in a west-philly working district back in 2003. Well, after 3 years, Microsoft’s “School of the Future” opened it’s doors for the first time to 170 teens from the area.  The students were chosen from a lottery, and now enjoy learning with laptops and school wide wireless internet.  Each student has a “smart card” which they use to access their lockers, track attendance and even monitor their caloric intake. The students aren’t the only one’s with new gadgets either.  The teachers have new “Smart Boards” allowing the teachers to write, zoom in and out, and even link to the internet.

But the school isn’t just gadgets and gizmos for the students and faculty, it also incorporates a whole new learning process.  This new process is derived directly from Microsoft’s management techniques.  Students are called “learners” and teacher’s “educators.”  There’s no longer a library, but an “interactive learning center.”  There are all sorts of ideas employed here that both remove stress from the “educators” while still looking out for the “learner’s” best interests. Using software to track students’ progress and automatically assigning them help if necessary as well as incorporating current events and real-world data automatically into lessons are just a few of the ways MS new program can help.  It truly does help to bring to life the philosophy or the school’s principal Grover that “Learning is not just going to school.”