A much anticipated high-tech high school opened its doors last month in one of Philadelphia’s poorer neighborhoods. Known as the School of the Future, the project was designed with help from technology giant Microsoft.
….. The classrooms have the appearance of corporate meeting rooms — complete with video projectors. Hurst laughs as he describes the coolest thing: “No pencils, no papers, no books. None.”
Complete story on NPR.
Sans Library
This reminds me of the new college in California some years ago that opened up with only an electronic library. No books, see? All computers. This decision made all the newspapers, but nothing was said when shorlty after opening they realized they really did need the books and texts and other things that libraries provide.
Computerized writing is nice, and I use it all the time. But it doesn’t teach you how to spell words and use correct grammar when you don’t have a spell check program that shows you when an error is made.
What would be interesting in this story would be a follow-up in two and four years, to see what changes in the electronic presentation have been made.
After all, accoding to their logic, they wouldn’t need a NBA sized basketball court- the students can play virtual basketball all day long on their laptops…
Re:Sans Library
Does anyone see this as a huge injustice to the “poor kids” attending this school? How helpful is it to prepare them for a “digital-only” world when — despite Billy Gates’ best efforts — most of the world is not digital. Good luck finding a paperless workplace, nevermind a college who really doesn’t mind that you haven’t cracked a book in four years.
I hope Uncle Bill is prepared to hire every one of the “analog illiterates” he is creating.