The classroom of tomorrow is finally here

Apr 23, 2008

Since the days of punched cards and magnetic memory cores, we’ve been hearing the prediction that some day, every schoolchild will have a computer that will be an integral part of day-to-day lessons.

It has popped up every few years, as discrete components gave way to integrated circuits, as tape gave way to disks and then flash memory, and as system memory went from kilobytes to megabytes to gigabytes. And while this prediction gets taken a little more seriously each time it’s heard, we still often take it with the same grain of salt as the flying car and the three-day work week.

There have been some well-meaning efforts and substantial investments over the years, such as the Icon, the Ontario Ministry of Education’s very own educational computer system. Designed in the early 1980s, the Icon promised not only computer training, but the potential to design lessons in various subjects. It was also expensive, plagued by interfering politicians and surpassed by off-the-shelf consumer systems in just a few years. The idea was ahead of its time.

The role of computers in school continues to grow, but they’ve always been regarded as something of a frill.

But now, it seems that the fabled school of tomorrow might finally be at hand, if Land of Lakes Public School is any indication, and it’s about time.

Computers have come a long way in a short time, and they’ve been a part of everyday life for decades, but only in recent years have they really begun to transform society in the way we’ve always been told they would. Not only is the computer at the heart of virtually every industry, it is beginning to unify the electronics in our homes, becoming television, video recorder, telephone, stereo, and in some cases even running the heat and lights. It’s also become a photo album, phone book, dictionary and encyclopedia. And it is becoming more and more integrated with any devices it can’t replace – yet. One day, all of our communication and information will be coming out of one box, linked to others via the great network of networks.

And aside from tying it all together, the Internet is rapidly becoming the last bastion of true entrepreneurship.

If we believe that schools are here to prepare young people to make their way in the world, it is essential that our kids know the technology, its applications, and its potential. Thankfully, the same conditions that have led the computer to take on such importance in our lives have also put the school of the future within our reach.

We have access to vast amounts of processing power at a low price. The cheap home systems of today would blow the doors off the supercomputers of decades past for just a few hundred dollars, and they’re simpler to use than ever before.

But with all this technology, we must not forget the role of good people. What is really making the electronic classroom a reality is the fact that we are seeing the first generation of teachers, and parents, who aren’t catching up to the kids in understanding and embracing the new technology. Many adults under 40 grew up with computers, used them to some degree in school, and continue to use them daily. It is no longer a strange new technology we’re tacking on to the same old way of doing things, or dismissing as an expensive toy the way some of our parents did.

There are still those who fear the computer, or at least distrust it, and that’s not a bad thing. Computers are powerful things. But taming this technology, being its master, requires knowledge. At the very minimum, one needs to recognize the computer for what it is – a very useful tool. It can do many things, but not without people.

Computers will not replace teachers, or make the classroom obsolete. Creativity, imagination, ethics and human relations can only be learned from people. And without creativity and imagination, computers wouldn’t exist.

We look forward to seeing people and technology continuing to work together at Land of Lakes and classrooms throughout Almaguin.