The School of the Future (C)

Microsoft & co. try a super-smart school in Philly.

I'm not sure what to do with this.
I can't help shaking the feeling that all of this new technology is a waste of time. If we expect to see grades shoot up and kids learning to run our offices at age 12, we're fooling ourselves. None of the real work of education is accomplished in the tools; everything is caught up in interaction of the teacher's and the student's approach to the content and the process. Was this equipment designed with a specific learning approach in mind? Hopefully. Even then, how can they be sure that the approach they're targeting will be a good fit for the students they've enrolled?

Traditional models of education are, at the very least, consistent. That consistency is based on a long, long time that we've spent as a society teaching each other: discourse, reading, writing, knowledge tests and excersises. It's not perfect, but at least we know what to expect from it (students who can read, write, retain knowledge and apply it.)

What do y'all think?