Where Big-City Schools Meet ‘Microsoft Smarts’
Born of a partnership between the Philadelphia public schools and the world's leading software-maker, a new high-tech high school starts strutting its stuff.
As its organizers see it, Philadelphia’s School of the Future is high-tech testimony to just what can be accomplished when big-city school districts team up with corporations that like to try new things.
“Philadelphia asked us to do something we’ve never done before: build a school,” said Craig J. Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer at the Microsoft Corp., which created the newly opened high school in partnership with the city school district. “So we took our best shot.”
A gleaming white building on the edge of a blighted West Philadelphia neighborhood, the $62 million school garnered wide attention when it opened this month, in part because of its technological bells and whistles. Those futuristic features include a tablet personal computer for each student, interactive digital whiteboards, a supercharged wireless network, customized educational software, and digital “smart cards” to open lockers and pay for meals—all making possible...
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