For my Professional Practice class this semester, we took a field trip to the STEM Lab located in Seitz Hall on the Virginia Tech campus. The lab provides an area for many different areas of educational research. The project total was $1.2 million that includes new technology equipment and a lab to make and test ideas that are researched through classroom instruction. The lab is foremost designed to be used for educational purposes. Classes are held in the lab and can incorporate students in the classroom and students teleconferencing in who might be in different parts of the globe. The lab was also designed to be inclusive to any outreach programs that the School of Education wants to partake in. For example, during the summer months, educators work with students in elementary school and develop summer activity programs for the students. The lab is also designed to be used for research purposes that includes instruction and outreach programs but also as a space to provide students access to test the ideas they researched.
I believe that the STEM Lab is a prototype of how classrooms might resemble in the future years to come. I believe that all classrooms will be better equipped for integration of different academic principles. For example, the STEM Lab incorporates all the necessary equipment for educational purposes of lectures and in class assignments that can be used in several different academic departments. I believe that classrooms in the future will also have a laboratory section of the classroom devoted to testing ideas that are presented in the classroom lectures or in class activities. I believe that by offering students a hands-on approach to learning, educators can provide better learning environments to different types of learners.
Of course money and funding will always be an issue in all educational facilities and will take sometime to be fully integrated into all classrooms of all types. However, the integration of lab and learning spaces provide students an opportunity to learn in the best educational environment possible. In every academic discipline, no two students are the same; each has their ways of learning. Some will be hands-on learners, learners who can use the laboratory to construct and get a better understanding of how things go together. Other students will be more research inclined and will benefit from having the technology in the classroom to do so.
Also, with new technologies provided, students do not necessarily have to be located in the same region as the classroom, which is a direction that might be utilized more in the future. The value of higher education is becoming more and more important in society. Sometimes there are circumstances that prevent students from relocating to go to a certain university. With new technology, students can still be apart of classroom instruction and classroom activity. This would be beneficial to many academic disciplines that might not include use of a laboratory through the primary curriculum of their discipline. Some academic fields will always have to be taught on campus, such as science or researched based disciplines. But by providing students with advanced technology, some classes can be taught and include students in different parts of the world.
Furthermore, I believe that the overall design of classroom buildings will change in the future as well. I believe that there will be more academic buildings that are sustainable and provide natural sunlight and ventilation and will try to produce more of its own energy through photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. Essentially, the building will be a living entity that provides the best learning environment in different weather conditions and different seasons.
The future of how classrooms will be designed is an exciting time for architects, designers, students, and teachers. With new technological developments, we can only speculate on how educational facilities might look like in 30 years but it will be exciting to see the adaptation of more technology within campuses and within educational classrooms and laboratories to provide cutting edge designs to help students and teachers in the educational process.