Education is, without a doubt, one of the basic areas where the technologies of the future must reach, as they have the potential to open up new horizons of education, with interactive learning experiences and no negative characterisation of the system. As technology changes so does education – we can see this in foreign schools, but also in schools and high schools in our country, where teachers are increasingly open to gadgets, and students are masters in their use.
It’s no longer the case to talk about laptops and tablets in a classroom or in a lab. Students already have such devices at home or in the schoolbags, but use them especially for fun and to get rid of the monotony of „classical” lessons. Schools will be able to offer such devices to students instead of classical textbooks, which are sometimes at least precarious. Clearly, not all students would afford to buy a tablet to bring to school, but the big benefit would be to relieve them of their too heavy schoolbags. Everything becomes virtual, but it remains extremely real.
Schools in the future will no longer have to do with the issue of school absenteeism, and this will be possible both thanks to new technologies and a change of mentality. On the one hand, there are already platforms that allow parents to see the children’s school situation in real time, communicate with teachers, and check if the youngsters are present at all courses. But not only will the fear that they can be seen by parents keep their children at school. Technologies in the classrooms of the future, interactive lessons and fun ways to spend break time will make school more appealing. In connection with the change of mentality mentioned above, this could be manifested by the reduction of classroom classes and their alternation with practical workshops, but also by shortening the school curriculum or by renouncing the concept of „task”.
These are the trends in education in some countries, and the good results achieved thanks to these strategies could ensure their adoption in several countries.
We are all glad of integrated video call options in different applications, but we can also give them more value. With the help of dedicated systems, teachers can hold distance courses that students can follow through a tablet. The same broadcasts may remain available after the live has ended so that students can always come back to a relevant idea they would have missed at one time. The same solution is extremely easy for students who cannot reach school on a certain day for various reasons. Although a day when heavy snow closes schools is a reason for joy, such a day is recaptured on weekends many times, being just a short-term gain. It’s much easier to do things on time, even from a distance, when physical presence becomes a problem.
Virtual reality is also lacking in the classrooms. Such a technology cannot revolutionise just by walking to the museum, but also by learning every day. At laboratory classes this could make its presence felt in a very useful way, being ideal to captivate students through a truly interactive lesson. An extremely rudimentary virtual reality kit only needs cardboard and a pair of lenses, so it is much more accessible than many would think. Moreover, it can be created by students in a first introductory lesson, and then can be used whenever this device is needed.
3D printers are now missing but they are ideal in a school of the future. These can become very useful for printing the required objects as an additional source to various subjects; it is much easier to explain to a child the structure of the water molecule if you let him hold such a model in his hand than by drawing three circles on the board. Printers should not be restricted, so only teachers have access to them. After some lessons in which children learn how a 3D printer could create themselves the various models they need to provide additional material for a presentation, for example.