Sunday, October 18, 2009

Preparing for the Classroom of Tomorrow


I was asked to Blog about what the classroom of tomorrow will look like, how will this affect teachers and students and what I should be doing to prepare. I don’t have the ability to predict the future but I can make observations on what is happening today and might happen tomorrow. Sigh, If only Miss Cleo still had her Psychic Friends Hotline I could make a phone call and know what tomorrow will bring. So after a week’s reflection on these questions this is my ‘Crystal Blog’.

The America as we once knew it, flush with cash and a leader producing an educated, technologically innovative labor pool is on the decline. This is not a failure of public and higher education. Rather it is a reflection of America’s changing economy and American businesses no longer driving domestic demand for advanced labor skills. Globalization erased borders and now businesses flow with little resistance towards the least expensive means of producing goods and services. In economic terms this means balancing the mix of fixed and variable costs to maximize profits.

Let’s look at the costs of producing an educated populous. School districts have fixed capital costs in buildings, heating, cooling, electrical systems and maintenance. Relatively recent additions to fixed costs are networks, computers and electronic whiteboards. Districts’ variable costs are generally but not limited to teachers and salaries. In the current economic times district budgets are examined, re-examined and pared to maximize return on investment.

Okay, so what does the future hold for the classroom of tomorrow? Let us start by looking at where we are today. School districts and teachers have clients in the form of students and taxpayers. Teachers deliver ‘product’ using available means. Taxpayers balk at adding more teachers yet demand greater results. In effect, they are saying that the capital improvements have been made and now demand a greater return on investment.

The classroom of tomorrow will have traditional face-to-face classroom learning blended with computerized solutions. Students will still need to learn how to read and write but as we incorporate computers they will also need to learn how to interface with educational technology. A transformative shift must also occur where computers are no longer perceived as toys but as a means to research, communicate and learn. The transformation will require greater diligence for parents ensuring that children are doing schoolwork on computers and not playing games. Since parents are paying for the education via taxes and they demand better product, they too need to understand their role in the process.

Teachers will create lesson plans that combine online digital resources and classroom activities. Lesson plans may include guest speakers via The Internet, interactive Web-sites (Geography, Mathematics, English, etc.) and Web-based homework assignments encouraging research and electronic submission. The classroom of tomorrow demands that teachers expand their repertoire from the bricks and mortar classroom to the virtual classroom and resources on The Internet.

Initially, the teachers of today will require retooling via programs such as the Cardinal Stritch University MEIT. However, as time passes and we move through this computerization ‘bubble, new educators will enter the workforce and the blended approach of classroom and computerization will be the new norm. New educators will already have had the experience as students in the classroom of tomorrow and will carry their experiences forward, innovating and creating new blended solutions.

2 comments:

  1. Can you tell I got my BA in Economics? Labor Economics was one of my favorite classes.

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  2. I bet you've read "The World is Flat"

    This may be a failure of the education establishment to explain their value to the society.

    When we fail to recognize that the value of education is that our people are educated then we end up with an incomplete look at the whole idea of education. We end up with tech schools that "prepare" people for jobs.

    Education is the end in itself, it is the essential ingredient in a free society. It is what made us a great country.

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