Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The School of The Future
The School of The Future
Please note that this article was originally published in 1998. For a more up-to-date discussion
about how technological advances can impact the classroom, please read Keith
Lambert's article on the rise of Artificial Intelligence in education and what it could mean for
the future of the teaching profession.
What shape the school of the future will take is amorphous, but most educators and observers agree
that the future school will go electronic with a capital E.
Students, The Age asserts, will see and hear teachers on computers, Education World
with "remote learning" the trend of tomorrow. Accessing published this article
"classrooms" on their home computers, students will learn at times almost twenty years
most convenient for them. Yet some attendance at an actual school ago. How accurate are
will be required to help students develop appropriate social skills. the predictions? What
you think today's
At Seashore Primary School, an imaginary school of the future future will bring? E-
created by the Education Department of Australia, technology is the mail editor@
glue that holds classes together. At the imaginary Seashore school: educationworld.com
with your predictions
all teachers and students have laptop computers. for education in
the next decade and
teachers check voicemail and return students' calls on a special we'll include them in a
telephone system. future article.
students use telephones to find information or speak to experts in
subject areas they are studying.
all lessons are multidisciplinary.
all students have individual learning plans created by teachers.
As Seashore's acting principal says, a laptop computer is the students' "library, homework, data
storage, and connection to the wider world. (Technology) has changed the emphasis to the learning
of kids rather than the teaching of kids."
Right here in the United States are public schools that strive to bring the future into the present.
One of those schools, A.C.T. Academy in McKinney, Texas, was created as an actual "school of the
future." Originally funded by a $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the
school is now supported by the McKinney Independent School District.
At the school, knowledge is "actively constructed by the learner on a base of prior knowledge,
attitudes, and values." Sophisticated technology is in place to support the pursuit of knowledge.
The 250 Academy students all have access to a computer. The 12- to 18-year-olds each have their
own computer; 7- to 11-year-olds have one portable computer for every two students; and 5- and 6-
year-olds use computers at fixed stations. In addition, the students use multimedia computers,
printers, CD-ROMs, laserdiscs, VCRs, video editing machines, camcorders, cable television, online
services, and telephones -- simple but effective research tools.
A.C.T. Academy has formed community partnerships and business mentorships to foster students'
learning experiences. The school is also in partnerships with other schools, colleges, universities,
and research centers. The goal: to learn through all the different kinds of resources that real life
offers.
Teachers assess student learning through portfolios and creative performance tasks. Again, the
object is to use real-life approaches to assessment.
The Center for the School of the Future (CSF) is the brainchild of the College of Education at Utah
State University. The center's main goals involve the creation and maintenance of a U.S.
educational system that improves by selecting the most effective teaching practices. The mission of
the center is to:
The CSF is forming a Research and Best Practice Clearinghouse, a Parent Academy, and a Teacher
Academy. Those organizations will contribute to the creation of model schools. Such model
schools, according to the CSF, will stand for:
Technology Is Key
Whatever the configuration of a school of the future might be, technology is always a huge part of
it. Ginger Howenic, a consultant and director for The Classroom of the Future Foundation, recently
made a presentation in the Lake Washington (Washington) School District. She was joined by
Robert Clarke, executive director of the National School Co. Both emphasized technology.
Howenic formerly headed Clear View Elementary School, a charter school, in Chula Vista,
California. At the presentation, she played a video from the school in which two boys studied bee
anatomy with the help of an electron microscope and two professors. At the school, Hovenic says,
kindergarten students use spreadsheets to track their height and weight through sixth grade.
Clarke's company offers SONY Web TV packages to school districts for $207 per unit. The
packages provide Internet access through regular televisions, assisting students whose families do
not own computers.
The school days when computers meant word processing or playing games are already behind us.
Yet no matter how great a part computers and other technologies play in the school of the future, it
is only a means, advocates of technology say, to the greater end of enabling students to learn
through interaction with various aspects of life.
B. Vocabulary Bank
List all of your vocabulary in the table below.
Word Meaning Word Meaning
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