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IT And The Classroom Of The Future 
Our schools of the future will be shaped as much by pedagogy as by Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The classroom of the future looks like being a wireless-enabled learning space, divided into zones in which children can use hand-held devices to look up information from a learning web or be interacting with 3D virtual-reality (VR) images.
Educational technology is fast moving from the realms of science fiction to science fact. In history, for example, sophisticated computer games present realistic images, and children could be walking through a Roman villa or touching a 3D Roman sword or handling a hoard of Roman coins — the sorts of objects normally kept on display in a glass case! In geography, VR is used as an alternative to field trips, and in maths and English computer games stretch gifted and talented pupils and inspire slower learners.
Computers are now an essential tool for learning, and electronic whiteboards, scanners and colour printers are also becoming valuable teaching aids. The number of computers in schools will continue to increase. In addition, it is likely that all pupils will have their own wireless hardware in the future.
The ways in which children learn are changing. These changes are being driven by the need for different skills because of new ways of working and also by a concern that individuals are not reaching their full potential. These new ways of learning will have an effect on the balance of spaces in a school of the future.
Education must change to enable us to cope with changes in society. The qualities that people need in order to meet the challenges of change are:
- The ability to adapt to changing technology and circumstances
- The willingness and ability to work in teams
- A passion for learning throughout life
- Creativity — public and private institutions are changing rapidly as a result of economic and cultural demands, and a creative workforce is required to manage these changes
- The ability to organise and analyse information.
If pupils are to have a stimulating learning experience which leads them to acquire these skills, changes in learning method are likely too. These include:
- Active learning, individually or in a group, including information-gathering as well as practical experience such as undertaking scientific experiments
- Learning in a context; drawing a number of ideas together through common themes
- Learning at the individual's own pace (difficult to achieve if all learning proceeds through lecture-style teaching)
- Varying the learning experience by means of different teachers, different co-learners, different places or different styles of learning.
Where practical activities are prohibitively expensive or dangerous, technology allows pupils to have 'virtual' practical experience. Good-quality recordings of speech and music mean that oral skills can be learnt and assessed more easily.
Pupils can learn from and with others across a network via the internet or video link-ups, reducing isolation for outlying schools through video conferencing, while multimedia engages some students previously alienated from education. Used appropriately, video, sound, speech, graphics and different cultural representations can close the ‘inclusion gap’ dramatically.
The classroom of the future will not just deliver e-learning, cutting-edge technology is being used to support teachers in raising standards. A new generation of data-management systems are fine tuning assessment tracking, enabling teachers to deliver true individualised learning.
Teachers can create personalised work plans to encourage individualised learning, making it easier for pupils of different ages and abilities to work more easily together. And students can be continuously assessed from a distance and records of achievement can be kept for a lifetime in a 'digital vault'.
Data-management systems are part of change management within schools, providing ongoing support not just to teachers but a range of professionals working together and sharing their experience. Many new buildings under the Building Schools for the Future programme will be fitted with open-access web-based systems, combining a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with Information Management Systems (IMS). Web-based IMS systems provide data on demand to a community of users who may be other children’s services, community services provided on and off the school site, parents, teachers and pupils. IMS will help track pupils, but the VLE will drill down to a finer level to provide individual marks and individualised learning.
‘Blue skies thinking’ inspired by Building Schools for the Future has sparked debate about pedagogy, with data-management systems tailored to track children’s individual learning paths as they interact more with e-learning. Many within education believe that we need to get away from the concept of physical buildings and approach teaching and learning from a new angle.
Professor Stephen Heppell of blue skies consultancy Heppell.net comments: “Children could be studying at different times and places — possibly different institutions. We need a national data-management system — a system that can capture a portfolio of work. Information should move with the child”. Serco’s O’Hagan adds: “Building Schools for the Future is not about physical bricks and mortar at all. We should talk about building learning for the future. In future, schools will not rely on didactic presentation as the sole means of delivery but on children working collaboratively, possibly online. We no longer need an education system; we need a learning system”.
Schools for the Future will mean that ICT design moves up a gear. The British Education Communications Technology Association (BECTA) is supporting the BSF programme by providing tools, information and guidance. BECTA’s self-review framework is a tool that helps schools evaluate their current ICT use and to plan future improvements to teaching, learning and management. New schools will find it an invaluable guide in planning their future ICT provision and achieving value for money.
Useful web links
The British Educational Communications Technology Association (BECTA)
www.becta.org.uk
ICT and Building Schools for the Future publications
www.becta.org.uk
Blue Skies ICT research
www.heppell.net
Microsoft Education Partnerships
www.microsoft.com/uk/citizenship/skills-for-growth.mspx
RM Building Schools for the Future
www.rm.com/bsf/Generic.asp?cref=GP343439&srcurl=/rmcomhome.asp
Every Child Matters
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk
Building Schools for the Future
www.bsf.gov.uk
Partnerships for Schools
www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk
Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
www.specialistschools.org.uk |
