Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2016 | Page 15

T

he classroom feels like one of those places that never changes: A group of students sitting in rows
and a teacher who stands at the front. But in reality, the classroom has been changing all along.
Thanks to technology, education has undergone its own version of the industrial revolution.

The handheld slate chalkboard and the pencil
allowed students to do work at their desk. The photocopier allowed teachers to distribute worksheets for
each student to complete on their own. The fill-in-thebubble test allowed administrators to track students’
progress in detail.
One piece of technology, though, did not have as
big an effect as promised. Though they revolutionized
offices and homes, personal computers were simply
too bulky and too expensive to put in every classroom.
That’s about to change. The latest laptops and
tablets are thinner than ever. Prices on bare-bone
computers have dropped dramatically. And many
students now carry smartphones that are as powerful
as many older computers.
Here are a few ways that we can expect the classroom to change more than ever:

1. LECTURES WILL MOVE OUT OF THE CLASSROOM
Students will watch professional quality videos of
lectures on their own time. Think TED Talks meet
algebra class. They’ll often be paired with interactive
features that determine whether the student understood the concept. That will free up time in class for
discussion and collaboration, as students apply what
they’ve learned. School furniture will need to be modular to accommodate different learning styles especially ones that include more advanced technology.

2. CLASSROOMS WILL BE CONNECTED
Students won’t just be collaborating with each other; they’ll be collaborating with students in other states
and other countries. When it’s time to learn about another part of the world, students will interview people
who live there using high-quality video chat software
programs similar to Skype, with real-time automated
translation. This means classroom furniture like chairs
will need to feature things like tuck-away tablets so
students can sit in a more collaborative setting while
still having a small workplace to rest their iPad or other electronic device.

3. STUDENTS WILL LEARN AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS
Interactive textbooks, video lectures and other
forms of technology will allow students to advance
at their own pace. Every student in a history class
will need to master some fundamental facts about,
say, the Civil War, but students who want to go
more in-depth will have the resources to do so.
That means that school furniture will have to adapt
more than ever with built-in electronic panels so
students can connect to their device and power up
right from their seat as they do their own set up
lessons for the day.

4. CLASSROOM FURNITURE WILL BE MULTI-PURPOSE
The basic design of the classroom will change
dramatically. With fewer lectures and more collaboration, classrooms will be more open. One area might
be for quietly reading or watching videos, while
another spot might be designed for small groups
to collaborate. There will still be desks, but there
will also be couches and comfortable chairs. With
modular furniture that is multi-purpose a classroom
might look traditional on one day and then more like
a conference room on another day, all using the same
furniture.

5. LIBRARIES WILL BECOME MAKERSPACES
Some areas will be more for construction than
instruction. Students will collaborate with each other
on things like building and programming a small robot
to do a set task. Libraries, which won’t be needed when
a student’s Kindle comes preloaded with every classic
book in the public domain, will be repurposed as makerspaces. That means we’ll have to be more creative
of the types of furniture we have in libraries and other
educational settings.
These are just a few ideas. Not all of them may
come to pass. But cheap, thin and mobile computers
and other devices will change the classroom as surely
as they’ve already changed the office.

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BLAKE ZALCBERG is chief executive officer of OFM, an office and school furniture manufacturer, distributor, and wholesaler headquartered in North Carolina with operations in Phoenix, Ariz.
Photo Credits: OFM, LLC.

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