What does the 21st Century classroom look like? How does it operate? While we can't predict what classrooms will look like by 2099 (if we still have classrooms at all), we can certainly make a few comments about the way things are heading.
About a century ago, classrooms were often one-room affairs and the teacher had a tendency to write things down on a chalkboard, while students wrote with ink pens and inevitably ended up covered with hard-to-remove black or blue stains. Rote learning of the 3 Rs was the basis of much elementary school learning, and Latin was still compulsory at high school level. We won't mention corporal punishment. The 21st Century classroom looks a lot different, to say the least.
In the 21st Century classroom, things are made much clearer for teachers. Usually, each core curriculum area is carefully outlined, with key skills for each, and examples of how students can demonstrate that they have managed the "desired outcomes" at each level. Taking English as one example of a core subject, a key skill is "Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work" and a typical indicator of the desired outcome is for a student to be able to produce, say, a cartoon or a short story version of a traditional tale.
This idea isn't all that novel, but in the 21st Century classroom, students have other options other than just the short stories or cartoons. Now, instead of just storyboarding or illustrating their own version of, say, one of Aesop's fables, students can really create the film, using claymation or stop-motion animation (the latter is the easier and can be done with plastic animals, toy cars, articulated action figure, etc.). And then they can post the final product online so parents and relatives can see the result.
Similarly, instead of just writing out a poem and embellishing it with appropriate illustrations and maybe providing a glossary in the form of footnotes. In the 21st Century classroom, students can create a webpage of the poem, complete with a suitable soundtrack and links to related pages as well as illustrations. For example, Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" could be linked to dictionary pages explaining the obscure words (e.g. "sedge"), reproductions of some of the classic paintings on the topic, and further links to information about the pre-Raphaelite painters who were inspired by the poem. And that's just one example from one curriculum area.
Classroom laptops, video players, audio equipment (CD and tape decks with headphones) and digital cameras are common forms of equipment in the 21st Century classroom. It's pretty much standard these days for children - even in Grade 3 - to type out and print "good copies" of their work for presentation. And that's just the start...
The important part about any 21st Century classroom equipment is knowing how to use it appropriately. Methods developed and researched from the early use of multi media and video are still effective for enhancing lessons. Mistakes you don't even know you're making can be impacting your lesson.
Watch this video for some important information on how you should be using educational media like school videos in your lesson and download the FREE Expert Guide for easy solutions.
The small company, SchoolVideos.com, I work for is committed to creating quality educational videos for classroom instruction. From the earliest script stages, all subject area content, images, and music are intensely reviewed and selected for meeting appropriate grade level, curriculum objectives and standards for our proprietary productions. The videos we distribute are also screened to meet our high standards.
Teachers in the 21st century classroom will be better educators if they understand how to use multi media in their lessons, if they understand the processes that research has shown to be the most effective for improved student performance, and if they know how to find quality video resources that will enhance their lessons.
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