Classroom of the Future

摘要

As a principal means of learning, the classroom of the future has to embody a barbell function. On one end, it has to leverage digital technology to make education more pervasive, increase quality of learning, and lower instructional costs. On the other end, it has to reduce theoretic dogma in favor of building proactive, strategic alliances with the nonacademic communities to deliver contextualized solutions addressing specific challenges facing human advancement and organizational development, while laying emphasis on the learning proclivities of adult learners. Grounded in empirical phenomenology and guided by three objectives, this paper explores the characteristics of a technology-enabled, context-rich classroom of the future. First, it investigates the specific features of the classroom supporting social collaboration, fostering communal connection, and tailoring academic experiences to learner preferences as well as real-world context. Second, it identifies extant obstacles to creation of an effectual classroom for adult learners. Third, it delineates approaches to surmount the obstacles, recognized and anticipated. A model of the classroom of the future is presented, along with framework of the components and constituents required for the realization of an innovative temple of learning that knows no boundaries. The results should prove valuable to scholars, theorists, and practitioners in the design and development of a future-oriented classroom that decisively conjoins technology and context to personalize learning, cultivate social attachment, and advance collaboration.