Schools and the technology used to teach students have come a long way in three decades.
The writing on the wall
Back in the day, chalkboards ruled the classroom, as well as the teacher’s wardrobe. If you were lucky — or not so lucky — the chalk would make a horrid noise that would send shivers up your back. Don’t forget about the eraser fights that left everything covered with chalk dust. In the 1990s, whiteboards showed up in trendier schools, but they also required erasing.
Now, smartboards and interactive screens replace chalkboards, or blackboards, as some may call them. Teachers swipe, tap and annotate digital lessons with no chalk or squeaks in sight. You can view live science experiments from across the world or bring Shakespeare’s words to life with animation and audio with the use of projectors.
Creature comforts
From sweating in September to freezing in February, classroom comfort was as unpredictable as the pop quizzes that would inevitably pop up on the worst day of your life, making it worse— or on the best day of your life, ruining a perfect day. Most schools’ idea of air conditioning was opening the windows. If you were lucky, the classroom had a fan that might provide some relief for those in the front row.
Now, climate control is standard in most schools and going outside is a privilege reserved for fire drills or “brain breaks.” Some newer buildings might feature natural light optimization and filtered air for those with allergies.
The desk dilemma
Everyone sat at identical and often uncomfortable desks. If you were to reach under the desktop, you’d find mystery gum stuck on the bottom. They sometimes had no drawers to hold pencils and pens — you carried your books and supplies from classroom to classroom or stored them in a wall of lockers.
In today’s schools, you may still have lockers, but the classrooms feature modular, movable desks that cater to group work and project-based learning. And books are often likely to be digital, saving space and money.
Some classrooms feature standing desks, collaboration pods and exercise balls. The flexible seating allows students to choose where and how to sit, which helps in transforming lectures into conversations.
Phone-y business
Instead of texting in class, students in the 1990s wrote notes and folded them into triangles, and then flicked them at friend when the teacher wasn’t looking. Those who wanted to talk to a friend after school called them on the landline — and knew everyone’s phone number by heart.
If a friend lived close by, a student walked to their house.
In today’s school world, students sometimes sneak smartphone texts in class, and the effort to keep them off social media during lessons can be as rough as passing notes in the old days. Some schools have cell phone jails, which are transparent lock boxes to keep students off their phones.
Some classrooms even have phone detector apps because every generation has its rebels.
Technology takeover
Thirty years ago, when you walked into the classroom and saw the bulky projector, students were pleased. There might be a movie, or a lesson with more context than the ever-present chalk dust. If your school had a computer lab, it most likely required sign-up sheets. The most distracting thing was a Game Boy if you were able to sneak it into your backpack.
Nowadays, technology is everywhere. Many students receive school-issued Chromebooks and can submit assignments online. Group projects often include videos, slides and 3D models designed on the fly. If you have to be absent that day, you can log into the class and stream from home.
Rewriting the rules
Most lessons came from the same backbreaking textbooks passed down year after year, complete with doodles in the margins and that “old book” smell. Students used brown paper bags to create book covers, so they could make these heavy tomes their own.
Now, students get personalized digital learning that is up-to-the-minute. AI-powered tools help kids with homework. Students take virtual field trips without even leaving their seats .
Next up for classrooms
As technology becomes more available, future classrooms will be as different from today’s learning experiences as today’s are from yesteryear’s. You may see AI-powered holograms of students in class, or students may learn in the metaverse.
One thing is for sure: No more creaky wooden desks with mystery gum on the bottom and dusty blackboards or squeaky whiteboards in dimly lit classrooms. Wi-Fi-enabled classrooms and newer digital learning experiences will continue to change classrooms and the way students learn.
About the Author