Dunshaughlin Community College is one of 12 schools chosen from around the globe for development by Microsoft as a 'school of the future' through new uses of technology. The school launched its two-year programme last Thursday and will involve other schools in the Meath VEC by sharing technology. But it also has other even more radical plans.

"In terms of learning capability, some students are best suited to starting school at 7.45am while others would benefit from starting school at 11am, " said John West Burnham, a UK education expert who will mentor the school through its two-year programme. "We're moving more towards students having more choices and building their own participation in their learning.

"The school as we know it today is essentially a product of the 19th century. Lots of good things came out of the 19th century but most of them have been abandoned or updated, apart from schools. The traditional model no longer applies and we need to move to a model of personalised learning, " he said.

Representatives from the school recently travelled to the US, where they met with the other 11 'schools of the future' from around the world. The selected schools were chosen because of their progressive attitudes to technology, and research emerging from the 'educational experiment' will be used to develop best practices in schools worldwide.

Electronic roll-calls will soon be standard and broadband is already in place in every classroom at the Dunshaughlin school. Many of the teachers work from portable 'tablet' PCs and there are plans for students to soon work solely from portable PCs. An internal school network allows access to digital lesson plans and the school is in talks with a publisher about the development of online textbooks so eventually there will be no need for schoolbooks. Vice-principal Janice Corrigan said: "At the moment we are asking staff to come up with ideas for facilitating learning through technology but the focus is always primarily on education."

Kevin Marshall, academic programme manager with Microsoft Ireland, said, "The experience will inspire other schools throughout Ireland."