21st Century Schools
Schools need to look like the universities and work spaces where their students will be spending the rest of their lives.
disseminators of information to facilitators of learning, students will need to
move around the classroom, work in the
hallways, find collaborative conference
rooms, and make presentations in large
common spaces.
In other words, schools don’t have
to resemble the ones we knew in the
20th century: they need to look like the
universities and work spaces where their
students will be spending the rest of their
lives. When global skills become just as
important in schools as standardized testing, then students will move seamlessly
from one stage of life to the next.
TIP #3:
Make Technology the
Foundation of Learning
The average American high school
student spends six to nine hours per
day in front of a screen of some type.
8 essentials | fall 2016
Most of those hours are before school
and after school, or perhaps in small
increments of time during the school
day when students surf their smart
phones to get their technology fix.
While more technology is now making its way into classrooms, too many
educators still rely on textbooks that
are supplemented by occasional forays
onto the web.
Schools have no choice but to move
to a teaching and learning system predicated on technology usage — because
our students live in a technology-heavy
world. As learning space is redesigned,
educators should ask:
• How can the learning space foster
effective technology usage? Is there
room for students to comfortably use
their devices alone or in groups? Can
the space be designed so that groups
don’t bother students who are working
alone?
• Is the furniture designed so that
students can sit comfortably with their
laptops or tablets?
• How can social media be used to
enhance instruction and communication?
• How many plugs are available for
charging devices?
The only place most students use
pens and pencils today is in schools; if
given a choice they’d rather text on a
smart phone or type on a tablet. Technology is not a luxury; it’s a necessity
— and the learning space can enhance
how it is used.
TIP #4:
Start Small and Involve
the Students
Most educators don’t have the
luxury of building a new classroom or
building. Luckily, space redesign can
be done on a small budget in all types
of buildings, even the oldest ones.