Julia Fischer
Julia Fischer is an educator turned content developer for Clarity. As a classroom teacher Julia used innovative teaching methods and materials with her middle school students. Julia discovered online learning and took courses which led to facilitating online courses as well as writing content for these courses in multiple platforms. She transitioned to a district level position where she planned, facilitated and supported professional staff development. Read more...
Classrooms of the Future
Julia Fischer | October 29, 2012While reading Thor Prichard's post – Envisioning the Future of Mobile Learning I started thinking about what classrooms of the future would look like and did some web browsing. Along the way I stumbled upon:
- What Will the Classroom of the Future Look Like?
- The Future of Classroom Education
- Future U: Classroom tech doesn’t mean handling out tablets
As I read these articles the one thing that kept jumping out at me was reconfigured space. I couldn’t help by relate to my own elementary experience in an “open classroom” or pod in the 1970’s– a classroom without walls which at that time was something new and different. I spent 3rd and 4th grade in that space and it was definitely something different. I remember all the resources – such as SRA’s, textbooks, lab materials, tangrams or puzzles being in a centralized location. We also had tables and not desks so there was a lot more sharing of materials that took place. And I recall a lot of collaborative learning. Now I don’t recall if this was the formal practice of an open classroom but it was definitely different than what I experienced in 2nd and 5th grades. And at that point in time it was something new, and different.
As classrooms of today transition to support technology tools and practices that are evolving how do the classrooms have to change? Or how should they change to best accommodate best practices and resources?
Obviously I am a little biased to the use of technology in the future classroom but are the top three things that schools need to think about in planning for the future:
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Classroom Power – have plentiful outlets in walls, floors and ceilings.
- An added bonus is if schools started thinking about alternative energy sources
- Ergonomic Learning Environments – not all kids are the same height – so why should their desks and chairs be the same? Start teaching students about Ergonomics and avoid bad habits in the future.
- Connectivity – provide a stable wireless connectivity throughout the school
If you address those three issues then I think working within a space you can develop and build all the other pieces of a future classroom.
What would you add as an essential component to a classroom of the future?
Thor Prichard responds:
Great post and glad I could be inspire it. :-) Regarding the "open" classroom experience... that's a great example where the innovation wasn't even about technology, but instead about effective instructional practices for classroom management. Somehow the education industry seems to have lost track of promoting meaningful instructional strategies for effective use. (And explains why we always have to remind our clients about this!)
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