The Classroom of the Future

I often wish I had a crystal ball with which to look into the future. What would be different? What would be the same? What would I have accomplished? Whose lives would I have touched? Here is my chance to be a crystal ball. These are my predictions for a classroom of the future.

In the classroom of the future, technology will play a major role. There will be 1:1 computing where each student will have a convertible laptop. Students will use these laptops to take notes, produce movies, podcasts, and videocasts. The days of PowerPoint will be behind us. Students and classrooms will maintain blogs. Ongoing conversations between students in the classroom and students from around the world will occur via Skype and through online chats. These discussions will give students a more global perspective and help students break down their own preconceptions about other people and other countries. With increased cultural sensitivity, the leaders of the tomorrow will better be able to solve conflicts and wars will be unnecessary. Teachers will not longer be "sages" but guides or facilitators of information. In turn, students will have a stronger voice in the classroom and be more invested in their education.

Teachers' lives will also change. No longer will teachers break their backs lugging journals to and from home, nor will teachers spend hours and hours after school grading. Teachers will be able to access student blogs and work from work computers at home. Teachers will be better able to give immediate feedback to students. Evaluative forms will be easier to access and use during the day. Teachers will also be able to post information from class that absent students may access and students may review.

Parent involvement will be improved thanks to teachers and students keeping parents in the know. Parents will subscribe to classroom and student blogs and receive updates through RSS feeds. They will also leave positive and constructive comments for the students. (Did I mention that all families will have computers and Internet access at home?) With greater parent involvement, families will be able to work collaboratively with teachers and offer their own expertise.

There will be ample professional development and team support for teachers as they explore technology. 24 hour help will be available for troubleshooting. Technology curriculum experts will work with teachers to develop lesson plans and provide on-going support. Funding will also be readily available for new hardware and software programs and upgrades.

Okay, so maybe this is a very optimistic reading of the crystal ball. However, just think of what we could accomplish and the information students would have available if we could obtain all this!