Throughout the 2009-2010 school year and summer, St. Joseph School has increasingly focused on becoming a "School of the Future". A school of the future is designed and engineered to use technology to aid learning, as well as to incorporate new teaching strategies such as project-based learning. Microsoft Education and the West Philadelphia School District established the first "School of the Future" in Philadelphia in 2006. The $63M facility featured state of the art equipment such as digital whiteboards, streaming video, and laptops for students. Today, two classrooms at St. Joseph feature these digital whiteboards which allow students to physically interact with material displayed from a computer or video system.
However, despite advanced equipment becoming available, increased reliance on technology does not neccessarily result in increased learning. The original school of the future in Pennsylvania suffered from lower test scores and never became the ethnic melting pot the founders had dreamed of. Mary Cullinane, director of innovation for Microsoft Education said: "We've had this saying from the very beginning: Money and technology are great, but people are better."
Technology will not help students learn better if it is not properly incorporated. Teachers need to embrace technology into their curriculums, allowing students to turn in work electronically via e-mail, replacing paper handouts with electronic versions, as well as encouraging the use of technology to take notes.
A school of the future will only become a reality when technology is incorporated into the curriculum rather than focused around it. According to a study conducted in 2009 by Pew research, 83% of teenagers have a mobile phone capable of e-mail functions. 69% of teenagers aged 14-17 have their own personal computer, and 89% have regular access to a computer outside of school. These statistics imply that a shift to personal technology is occurring among American teenagers. For schools such as St. Joseph to advance and become "Schools of the Future", change is required from teachers and students alike. Incorporating new technology and making better use of existing technology could help students retain knowledge and be better prepared for their futures.
