It’s that time of year again where the leaves are falling, Christmas is fast approaching (we’re under 100 days away!), and children are well and truly settling into their new routine. With a new classroom, a new teacher and perhaps even a new group of friends, going back to school is exciting, as well as a little bit daunting. But have you ever given any thought to what going back to school might look like for children in the future?
Well, ten years from now, you can expect to see some big changes.
Dropping the kids off at the school gates in pristine uniforms while they sling a brand new rucksack over the backs might look just the same as it currently does, but things get interesting when you peek into the classroom…
Interactive walls and desks
Classrooms are already well organised with an array of furniture to support children’s learning. Retailers (like this company) stock classrooms up and down the country with soft furnishings, whiteboards, display boards and specialist pieces of furniture (such as items for Early Years Education), and all these things are really effective when it comes to delivering lessons.
However, it’s thought that 2026 will see children using interactive walls as well as things like whiteboards. These interactive walls could be linked to other classrooms around the world, allowing children to share lessons with pupils in other countries, and will enable a hands-on, proactive and exploratory approach to learning.
Beyond interactive walls, children will probably also get to have their very own interactive desks too. Those rickety wooden desks of our childhood will be long gone, and children will drag and drop, swipe and touch segments of information beneath their fingertips with just as much ease as when they’re at home using an iPad or smartphone.
Holograms
That long-held dream of beaming teachers, educators and famous figures into classrooms so that children can learn from a ‘first hand’ expert might soon be a reality… Expect to see your children coming home from school telling you that Queen Elizabeth I was beamed into their reading corner to tell the class about the Tudors, or that Usain Bolt ran alongside them while they practised the 100m for sports day. Holograms will also be really useful for communicating complicated ideas in way that’s much easier to understand, such as the structure of the human skeleton and the position of our organs, or what a proton and a neutron is and how they behave.
Virtual reality
You might already have heard children talking about virtual reality – it’s the new trend in gaming, and allows participants to wear a headset that seemingly transports them into another world. Within ten years, it’s expected that this technology will have moved well beyond the reach of computer gamers and will be used to ‘take’ children on field trips to far flung destinations – such as the inside of the International Space Station – all from the safety of their classroom.
So, going back to school in 2026 certainly looks like tons of fun! If you want to learn more about the classroom of the future or explore it for yourself, check out this resource.