TEACHING RESOURCES |
Smart Classrooms
Advice for modern classroom design? Get smart The digital environment, with 24/7 access to the internet via phones and mobile devices, and information immediately available, is the one that today’s generation of students have grown up in. Modern smart classrooms, therefore, not only reflect the existing digital knowledge and expectations of 21st century learners, but also the increasingly technology-based world outside the classroom. In effect, smart classrooms can be seen as the amalgamation of the technology used by the teacher and at the front of the class (e.g., projectors), and the technology used by the students (e.g., laptops), plus the physical environment (e.g., furniture or charging stations) that facilitate the successful use of this technology. Yet the simple addition of smart boards, digital projectors, laptops, tablets, or any other technological paraphernalia into a traditional classroom does not transform it into a smart classroom. Like the ‘pen and paper’ technology of yesteryear,
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a modern laptop, say – or any similar device – is simply a tool for learning, one that must be used and supported appropriately. Smart classrooms are designed to nurture and encourage students’ curiosity and desire to learn not because of the technology involved but via how this technology is effectively employed. And while both successful smart and traditional classrooms are ones
where teacher and students interact collaboratively in the physical space of the classroom, with the smart classroom this extends to the virtual space made available via computer technology. The knock-on effects of the virtual space created by a smart classroom – one in which every student can access a device – includes many positives, including: •
teaching/learning across
different levels, all at the same time •
student control over the pace of learning
•
content readily available and regularly updated
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increasing student familiarity with work-relevant technology and contexts
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inculcating the behaviours of good digital citizens