What Is New

The School District of Philadelphia broke ground on its "School of the Future" in 2004. Today, students attending use Tablet PCs for course material, notes, and assignments. Classroom equipment is state-of-the-art. There is no doubt that the Philly SOF has influenced school technology plans at a world wide level.

Franklin County Regional School District is a few hours to the west, outside of Pittsburgh, and they're exploring ways to bring advanced technology to their students and teachers. The state of Pennsylvania funded $423,000. What equipment have they selected? 60 interactive whiteboards, projectors and mobile PCs for the teachers, along with peripherals like printers, still cameras, webcams and video cameras. Students will have access to 270 mobile PCs that are distributed through the school on nine carts. Sounds like a great start to a one-to-many classroom.

What do you think about this type of touch interaction with devices?

Is Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95 "The Ultimate Steal?" The special promotion is still on and runs through April 30, 2008. See http://www.theultimatesteal.com/ for details.

What type of PC did you use in 1987? Probably an IBM PS/2 compatible PC, which you used at work.

Many of this year's graduating student teachers were born in 1987. These future teachers grew up surrounded by computers. How do you think their experiences will change next year's classrooms?

A simple way may be the acceptance of technology in daily life, versus special training on how to integrate it into their workflow. Another way may be that they'll expect a PC to be used as their main classroom organization tool as well as for rich interaction.