What shape the school of the
future will take is defined, 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, with "remote
learning" the trend of tomorrow. Accessing "classrooms" on their home computers,
students will learn at times most convenient for them. Yet some attendance at an
actual school will be required to help students develop appropriate social
skills.
At Seashore Primary School, an imaginary school of the future created by the
Education Department of Australia, technology is the glue that holds classes
together. At the imaginary Seashore school:
1. all teachers and students have laptop computers.
2. teachers check voicemail and return students' calls on a special telephone
system.
3. students use telephones to find information or speak to experts in subject
areas they are studying.
4. all lessons are multidisciplinary.
5. all students have individual learning plans created by teachers.
"Next century, schools as we know them will no longer survive," says a element
in The Age publication, based in Melbourne, Australia. "In their place will be
community-style centers operating seven days a week, 24 hours a day." Computers
will become an essential ingredient in the recipe for an effective school of the
future.
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."
A Real-Life School of the Future Right here in the United States are public
schools that attempt 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 350 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. (From modern age instruments)
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.
Working Future Schools.--(1). The Center for the School of the Future 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:
i) identify the most effective teaching approaches, techniques, and ideologies,
ii). encourage innovations and their adaptation to specific circumstances,
iii). "equity and excellence,"
iv). teaching of basic skills combined with creative problem-solving,
v). respect for individual values as well as diversity,
vi). preparation for democracy as well as a world economy.
Technology Is Key :--(1).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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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.