Vision & Planning – School of the Future Case Study

I’m at a briefing series at Microsoft provided to share key learnings from the Partners in Learning projects with the education community and equip attendees with practical resources to be implemented in their organizations. Here is how they developed Philadelphia’s School of the Future. Take a look and think about if you think this type of process takes place in the school(s) you work in or with.

Developing a Vision
Can everyone involved in your effort articulate the vision? Is everyone on the same page? Get a glimpse inside the visioning method for the School of the Future and talk about how and why you might implement it.
Note: Everyone at SOF articulates that learning must be continuous, relevant, and adaptive.

Using a Process
To guide the creation of the School of the Future, the 6i process was developed. This session will take you through its use in Philadelphia and offer guidance as to how you can use it in your organization.

People & Hiring
Microsoft follows a very particular hiring process resulting in high acceptance rates and low turnover. Many aspects of Microsoft’s people strategy were utilized during the School of the Future’s hiring – understand how you can update your approach.

Public Private Partnerships
Absolutely critical to the success of the SOF project were the multitude of partners involved. Schools, community organizations, government and the private sector all have a role to play. This experience demonstrated a new type of partnership for Microsoft – see why we have changed our approach.

Scaling Success
Scaling-up an education innovation means being able to adapt an innovation in almost any education context. How do you do this? What are the steps and traps? How can technology help? This session will help you answer these questions, become familiar with a scale framework, and come away with a scale planning process.

Related Websites
http://www.microsoft.com/education/schooloffuture.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/Education/SchoolofFutureDownloads.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/education/competencies/default.mspx