Building Schools for the Future

In December of last year, I had the pleasure of visiting the city of Bradford, England. I wasn't quite sure before I got there that it would be a pleasure based on the "You're going where?" comments I'd get from the locals when I told them where I'd be going.  Bradford's heyday was two centuries ago, when it was known as the wool capital of the world and England was the international center of the textile industry.

Fast forward to today and you find a city redeveloping itself with many of the old factory spaces being converted into trendy lofts and other real estate ventures. Bradford has an ethnically diverse population of nearly 300,000 people, with one of the highest percentages of Muslims in England.

Building Schools for the Future: A Model for the World

As a result of economic challenges, Bradford's local schools have not performed well and the infrastructure has suffered. That is why it was one the first locations in the country to benefit from an innovative program called Building Schools for the Future (BSF), a U.K. education reform initiative focused on both infrastructure and information and communications technology for learning.

I think the BSF program should be copied throughout the world because it will result in the rebuilding or renovation of practically every secondary school in the U.K., and the introduction of technology to advance learning. As a partnership between the central government, local governments, private contractors, and schools, it fuels economic investment that no single group could accomplish on its own.
(The old school is in the foreground and the new school, still under construction last Dec is on the left)

More than Bricks and Mortar
Physical space is important. I toured one of the schools that was being replaced. It was old and oddly configured through decades of "renovations." Technology was isolated to noisy and hot rooms that felt more like greenhouses than classrooms because of the PCs and the heat they emitted. If you don't think PCs are hot and noisy, put about 30 of them in a single room. Even though it was December and cold outside, an in-room air conditioner was running to make the room more bearable.

I visited another school that was just completed. In fact, a claw backhoe was busily eating the old building as I toured the new one. The new building was incredible. It had the air of a small shopping mall with meeting spaces everywhere. Computers were spread throughout the campus in classrooms, the library, and the auditorium. The school also had an incredible music center and studio that were as professional as anything I'd ever seen.

(The building eating backhoe is on the left behind the green mini-bus)

The computers were not conventional PCs, but Sun Ray thin clients. Sun Ray clients enable virtualized desktop sessions to run on a datacenter server, which houses the applications and data. Because Sun Ray thin clients run coolly and quietly, classroom temperatures were comfortable and the only noise was from students and teachers. And as Sun Rays consume just 4 watts of electricity, compared to about 80 watts for a PC, the Bradford school stands to benefit with reduced energy costs.

More than Hardware

As the key technology partner to Bradford, Sun is not only providing the hardware, we're also designing the software that will facilitate learning. Using Sun's open source software as well as other open source educational software such as Moodlerooms, Sun has created an open source software environment for the school.

So it’s back to school throughout much of the world. I'm excited to go back to Bradford and see how the new physical space and the new technology has improved the quality of education there. I'm proud that Sun has been able to play a small role in this community's path to renovation and innovation.