Classrooms of the Future

Marty McFly and Dr managed to do it. They transported themselves through time in the film and its sequels. In the second film, on October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett Brown arrived in the DeLorean time machine and persuaded Marty McFly and his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, to travel to the future with him and help their forthcoming children. They travelled thirty years ahead to October 26, 2015.

The film was actually made in 1989, some 26 years before the futuristic date in the film. The screenwriters, and , attempted to predict the future. According to Zemeckis, the 2015 depicted in the film was not meant to be an accurate representation of the future. However, the film did correctly predict a number of technological and sociological changes that occurred by 2015, including: the rise of ubiquitous cameras; the use of unmanned flying drones for newsgathering; widescreen flat-panel television sets mounted on walls with multiple channel viewing; video chat systems; hands-free video games; talking hologram billboards; wearable technology; tablet computers with fingerprint scanners; and head-mounted displays. Payment on personal portable devices was also depicted.

I am also trying to predict a future: that of education, yet I am not looking 26 years hence. Rather I am looking at five to seven years and the change is likely to be just as impressive as in the film, only achieved in fewer years. This is due to the exponential growth in IT and the impact it is likely to have on education.

Even in the past three years schools have been adapting to an ever changing landscape. For example children are beginning to complete group projects through collaborative software, homework is being completed online and uploaded through a portal and the use of cloud storage in place of flash pen drives or paper to store work is far more widespread.

So what will the classroom of the future look like? There are various suggestions online and I intend to explore some of them here. Firstly there is the classroom layout itself. The neat rows of chairs and desks, rooted from the Victorian era, from which children focus intently on the teacher delivering and demonstrating concepts on the whiteboard is already falling out of favour today. At Yateley Manor we do adopt a flexible approach to classroom setup, but in the future seating arrangements may be even more flexible so that they are appropriate for the task that children are working on. There may also be more focus on the comfort of the children. The following is a list of classroom layout aspects that may become more commonplace in the classroom of the future:

 Children will be given more autonomy on how and where to sit  Standing desks for children who have difficulty maintaining focus while sitting

 Accommodation for children who need more movement  Private workstations will be available for individual tasks while collaborative workspaces will be available for group projects  Interactive projectors and other technology will replace interactive whiteboards  Moving walls will make spaces more adaptable

Clearly much of this will necessitate some careful planning in order to accommodate. I understand that “sitting” is rumoured to be the new “smoking” as far as health professionals are concerned, with prolonged periods of inactivity being very bad for our bodies. Having said that there will also be implications to consider if we are encouraging children to stand for extended periods of time.

Another area of thinking for the future is the use of virtual and augmented reality, which will change the educational landscape. Nowadays it is possible for a child to open a book to what appears to be a page with a picture of the earth on it. Next the child can put on a pair of special glasses and a three dimensional image appears for them. Rather than seeing a simple, flat image they can see various landforms and look at a cross section of the planet to see all of the various layers going down to the earth’s core. This is all possible today because of a technology known as augmented reality.

At a conference I attended recently it was stated that artificial intelligence (AI) will be widespread in education within five years. I am aware of software that will not only measure the accuracy of answers provided but also track children’s mouse movements and the time it takes to answer questions. The software adapts to a variety of data collected from the child’s responses and sets the next challenges. Children are also able to watch tutorials in order to develop their learning. We are already exploring the way AI is beginning to be used in schools and fully intend to be at the forefront of any advances.

Technology will certainly be a major factor in how education in the future differs from education today. However, it will not be the only influence. Successful educators will realise that they need to rethink the entire model of education and redesign it so that it is more child-centred. This means adopting new technologies, but it also means giving up on archaic attitudes about what constitutes educational success and recognising that educational competition is a reality.

Let us also not forget the importance of relationships as we move education forwards in to the next era. Any advances in technology and classroom arrangement must be supported by strong relationships. We must never lose touch with the importance of knowing the children well and being able to challenge and support when necessary.

Would I like to know my future? Probably not, but I would like to influence it. I know what I want my future to look like and I do not need time travel to influence it. One step at a time.

Robert Upton

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