Classroom of 2030: A Quick Sneak Peek

echnology has transformed the world of education in unimaginative ways.

It has made information more accessible and literally ushered the world on to the fingertips. Information technology has altered the façade of modern education, replacing the traditional ‘chalk-and-blackboard’ systems with sophisticated education technology. With the passage of time, a greater number of schools and colleges have been adopting smart educational practices to impart knowledge to learners.   

How does Technology Influence Modern Education?

For instance, today I find students relying on their smartphones for certain ‘mobile apps’ that aid them in improving their Math literacy or master other subjects.

Also, there are several academic institutions that encourage pupils to employ resourceful software like Evernote in order to complete their assignments or grade the performance of the students! Gadgets like the iPads, iPods, and tablets have flooded the present-day learning spaces, promising students an extraordinary classroom experience. This is because, these electronic devices make online resources and education software more ‘informal’ than ever before.

Nowadays, robotics technology has also started playing a dominant role in the niche of education.

Did you know that you can attend classes even while you are sick? And you can do that right from the comfort of your home. All you need for that is a unique robotic device known as ‘VGo’. Robotics has also been known to guide autistic students and help students enhance their handwriting.

Therefore, technology has been a true blessing for teaching professionals, learning communities, and students. Be it online education or robotics technology or any other, education is gradually receiving a beautiful grooming for the perfect makeover!

Imagining the Classroom of 2030

This makes me ponder, what would our future classrooms resemble?

Research states that textbooks would completely vanish from the classroom by 2030, with education largely being based on ‘virtual reality’ and ‘holography’.

The boundaries of online and offline education have already started blurring. And, this would only become more pronounced as the years roll off rapidly. The manifold emerging education technology trends would alter the roles of teachers as ‘disseminators of information’ to ‘academic mentors’.

Education experts believe that the ‘2030 classroom’ would incorporate technologies that would facilitate a tailor-made form of education, wherein learning processes are more personal and student-friendly.

Let’s take a sneak peek at the classroom of 2030 in the following paragraphs.

#1. A New Classroom Ambiance

The day is not far when students would enter their classroom only to be greeted by lessons based on holography. For instance, you might be explained the cross-section of a human brain with holographic images! Just imagine…

Learning would become so much fun!

Not only that — the physical settings of the classrooms are also going to undergo metamorphosis. ‘Brick-and-mortar’ classrooms would soon bid you farewell. Instead, you would discover yourself surrounded by ‘digital textbooks’ and online learning sessions. Unlike the conventional teaching techniques, your teachers would promote ‘online peer tutoring’ to motivate students to learn swiftly.

In short, virtual classrooms would take over the traditional classroom environment.

Learners would enjoy the process of imbibing education in the true sense of the term. For, by 2030, blackboards would be extinct. And so would a teacher sitting in front of her students, with a textbook in her hand offering lectures.

#2. Innovative Learning Ideologies

If you are frustrated with the current learning style followed in your school, you can at least smile contemplating ‘better days ahead”! Because, technology is growing by leaps and bounds every single day. Obviously, such an ever-changing mode of education technology would ensure that teachers can explore multiple avenues of learning.

Smartphones, tablets, and iPods would turn out to be affordable for almost every student present in the classroom.

Teachers and course instructors would provide digitized notes and other forms of study materials ‘online’, thereby discarding the idea of ‘handouts’ and printed notes. The concept of textbooks is also about to take a backseat in majority of classrooms, thanks to e-mails, ‘flipped learning’, and much more. So, you can expect amazing, ‘paperless’ classrooms that would have a lot to offer you.

Lessons would become more individualized, being customized as per the requirements of different kinds of learners.

#3. A Fresh Role for Teachers

At present, classrooms involve teachers who share information with their pupils. On the other hand, students have little choice but to analyze the information, interpret it, and memorize it for their exams. Unfortunately for students, this learning process has become quite monotonous for most learners.

A recent trend that has crept inside modern academic zones is: the flipped classroom model.

As I have already mentioned, flipped learning is one of the latest learning strategies that is beginning to display remarkable outcome on student success. Flipped learning deals with students accessing information about their academic lessons through video tutorials or online notes and later applying their knowledge to answer questions at school.

This, however, is done under the expert guidance of a teacher.

Flipped learning is yet another concept that would completely dominate classrooms of 2030. This is, undoubtedly, an excellent tactic that helps students develop their critical thinking and logical reasoning skills.

#4. Utilization of More Blended Learning Activities

Most of you must be already acquainted with the fact that ‘blended learning’ has been introduced in many educational institutes across the globe. This form of learning includes a special fusion of online as well as digital technologies.

There are numerous learning styles when it comes to the blended learning theory.

I have come across certain schools that adhere to the ‘rotation’ system of blended learning. In such a scenario, students learn in face-to-face classroom sessions. Next, the learners are instructed through online classes. In the ‘labs’ technique of blended learning, learners are taught lessons through online tutorials and also through course supplements.

Then there exists the ‘online driver’ system of blended education in which teachers educate learners in direct personal interactions and also through the medium of digitized platforms. It is known to be among the most popular forms of blended learning!

I can safely say that students with varying learning styles can adapt themselves to this learning strategy easily.

#5. Creating a ‘classroom wiki’

You know about ‘Wikipedia’, right?

Well, it can be referred to as an online encyclopedia that is enriched with a vast amount of information on a wide variety of topics. The pages of Wikipedia can be edited by a large number of users. However, here I am talking about your ‘classroom wikipedia’. When I say classroom Wikipedia, I don’t mean that your page must be on the website of Wikipedia.

What I mean is, classrooms of 2030 would strive to create a common digital forum where learners can discuss their queries and share their thoughts about different ideas.

Since we are all progressing towards a completely digitized form of education, such online platforms would enable students to:

• collaborate on a number of assignments
• work on important assignments
• provide their swift feedback on the lessons they learn at school

It saves up precious time that would otherwise have been lost in approaching teachers and clarifying doubts, one by one.

#6. Employing Multimedia Presentations

You must have observed how most online courses fail to engage learners.

Do you know what makes the online academic courses slightly dull?

Let me tell you dear learners, it is the lack of interactive presentations that is the main culprit.

Classrooms would soon switch to effectual multimedia presentations that explain a particular topic elaborately. An ideal presentation would boast of interesting photographs or images, along with the latest statistical data, illustrative graphs, charts, and audio-visual features.

The utilization of animations and sound effects in each of the slides would make a presentation simpler to analyze.

Students would find it thrilling to undergo lessons that are characterized by videos and images, rather than listen to lengthy lectures in any subject! These presentations go a long way in helping students retain the information they learn to a great extent.

By 2030, educational scenarios would go through a drastic transformation. Sometimes, it makes me crazily wish I could be a young student once more – gaining the best form of education ever, through online tutorials, software, a series of fabulous apps, and a lot more.