BACK TO SCHOOL I
The classroom of the future
MAGINE your local school doesn’t have a single classroom; children are all connected to the internet and the teachers have been replaced by apps.
It’s a scenario that’s not as far-fetched as you might believe. Schools are already incredibly tech-savvy with smartboards, tablets and faster internet becoming the norm – and networking specialist Cisco expects IoT (the internet of things, or connected devices and objects) to have a greater infl uence on schools. “The classroom of the future may not even be a room,” says Sarah Eccleston, director of enterprise networks and IoT at Cisco UK and Ireland.
“It can become much more of a remote virtual learning environment where you can use video much more greatly, and everything and
everybody can be connected to the internet. So that means you can conduct training at a distance. You can bring in experts on demand. There could be one topic but thousands of pupils that can learn the topic in the way that best suits them from a library of content.
“We have to move away from this idea of a physical classroom with a desk at the front, one teacher and rows of desks and children. The teacher might not even be a person – it could be an app on a tablet. Lessons may be conducted in a way where the teacher is more of a coach.” Steve Woollett, Cisco’s head of collaboration for the public sector in Ireland, asks: “Can video really be better than being there? Well if you’re sat watching someone getting a haircut in real life, you can only see one view. With video, you’ve got a shot
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How will the internet of things, connected devices and emerging technology like virtual reality shape schools in the future? Cisco UK’s Sarah Eccleston and Steve Woollett tell Dominic Sacco how tech will alter the traditional classroom, while Laura Barnes looks at futuristic learning devices…
Above: Sarah Eccleston and Steve Woollett from Cisco; Main Picture: Childen learning in the Future Classroom Lab in Brussels
of the front, back, sides, top – you can truly see how they’re getting their hair cut. “So in a hair cutting class, for example, rather than making notes with pens and paper, students take out their phones, take a picture of the whiteboard and carry on watching. It’s a really simple but effective way of capturing that information.”
While ‘live’ lessons haven’t quite become the norm (yet), new technology is emerging all the time. Schools already use a host of products from computers to projectors and even 3D printers, while other devices like robots and an ‘iWall’ are on the
horizon (turn to page 30 for our round up).
More than 200 UK schools are even using a customised version of the popular computer game Minecraft, with the idea that its expansive world will help children with creative writing. The Future Classroom Lab in Brussels is also experimenting with the teaching of the future, with its green screen broadcasting studio, plus a whiteboard that can be extended horizontally for group work.
CONNECTED KIDS So how will the internet of things change classrooms in
“The classroom of the future may not even be a calssroom. It can become much more of a remote virtual learning
environment.” Sarah Eccleston, Cisco
the future? The potential in this area is huge, with teachers able to track changes in the quality of soil by connecting a special sensor device, for example. This could have an impact on science lessons as children grow plants. But it won’t just be objects that connect to the internet.
“The teachers are
connected to the internet, the things you’re teaching children about are connected to the internet, so you can have more interactive ways of learning, and also you can start to connect some of the pupils to the internet too,” explains Sarah Eccleston.
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