You and I know how much technology has changed our lives over the last 10 years; most would consider this intrusion of technologies has been a force of good, most of the time. Those of you have played or watched children play computer games, watched movies such as Lion King or Avatar or even have grown up with Star Wars and Star Trek cannot be but truly amazed at the technological feats. But have you noticed how little has changed in the environment of our classrooms. Technology will permit us and I mean literally permit us to beam a teacher from thousands of miles into our classrooms (at a cost of course) in a holographic image. Changing the classroom in this technologically sophisticated period is a doable feat. Malaysian efforts at establishing Smart Schools are one such effort. More is possible as the next video from Microsoft, which shows its vision of 21^st century ‘edu-topia'.

The Microsoft classroom is a few years away but teachers for a new generation of students must have the skills to manage such a environment.  The 21^st century classroom is both student and teacher centred. Whilst students explore the universe from their classrooms, teachers become mentors, nurturing the creativity of the children. Please read the article in the next activity as group of educators describes the future classroom.

As the classroom changes, so too has the role of teachers. They become mentors who help young people navigate the mostly amazing and but sometimes dangerous world of the web. You may recollect from the earlier units on theories of constructivist learning that an aspect of the learning process is built on acquired knowledge. This future, and in some countries the current state of the classroom environment, with its technologies, permits such learning. Some teachers from Queensland, Australia share their experience in such classrooms, in the next activity.