"Microsoft to build city high school"...the headline says it all.
The Philadelphia School District and Microsoft Corp. will partner to build a new $46 million high school steeped in the latest technology for learning, business functions - even sports.
The school will offer digital textbooks and computerized tablets, electronic plays for the football team and technology-enhanced cafeteria menus, among other features. One district official called it a "paperless high school," although some paper inevitably will still be involved.
The school, which will serve 700 students in a location not yet determined, is the first venture of its kind for Microsoft, which in the past has provided support to schools on a smaller scale. It is scheduled to open in Sept. 2006, but district chief executive officer Paul G. Vallas said he hopes to have it ready a year earlier.
Technology or no, if the cafeteria food tastes good, it's not a real high school. And what does a "paperless" high school mean, anyway? Homework on computers only? Digitized report cards? The entire school IM'ing one another instead of reading that downloaded copy of Romeo and Juliet? Will kids be rebels not with cigarettes and leather jackets but with Linux and Macs? The mind reels...
Posted by kswygert at September 4, 2003 03:47 PM