Classrooms of the Future

In the future, classrooms will look nothing like they looked like a decade ago, or even what they look like today. As teachers, it is our job to make sure that we are preparing ourselves in technology so that we will be able to teach it.

My dream of the classroom of the future would start with hardware. There must be a one to one ratio with regards to students and laptops. From there, we must be able to provide a way for free wireless internet in the schools and easy access to their homes. While this is a costly adventure, if we want our students prepared for life, they must have these skills.

They also need acess to software that is required for courses. This must be free or very inexpensive if we want technology to be integrated. Today we have Open Office, which is a free document provider, but it is not the same as Microsoft, while they are similar, students need to know how to use the free as well as the paid options.

Every classroom needs to become as close to paperless as possible. With a 1:1 ratio, students will have access at their fingertips to turn in assignmetns and to provide the teacher with what knowledge that they know.

The classroom of the future also has to be able to deal with the pitfalls of technology. They need to be taught how not to steal, hack, or plagarize. This should be the main goal of the teacher, that while we should incorporate technology, our students need to know how to properly use that technology. As cybercrime is become more and more prevelant with K-12 students, they need to know the seriosness behind these crimes.

As for projects of the future, everything should be based around technology. Students should be making movies, podcasts, blogging, and using any new Web 2.0 feature that has been created. This has to have the other hardware as well, but I see the future classroom with no needs for wanting technology.

Classrooms of the future while looking different, I think will also look the same today. Some teachers will implement technology and some won't. Teachers need to be able to see the significance of technology as our world moves to a completely online society.