Functional Components & Benefits

MULTIPURPOSE
In order to maximize the return on investment, the classroom should be designed to support the teaching of any subject ranging from ESL, Math, Science, Law, Engineering, Management, and Medicine to CAD. The classroom should also be designed to be accessible to both highly computer -literate users as well as relative beginners.

MULTIFUNCTIONAL
There should be no such thing as a "computer classroom" but rather "a classroom with computers." Rather than design a classroom for a single function, the infrastructure should be designed to support a variety of needs such as:

  • General Use Classroom
  • Computer Lab
  • CBT Training Center
  • Video Conferencing Room
  • Multimedia-based Classroom
  • Lecture and Presentation Room
  • Distance Learning Room
  • Internet Web-based Learning Center
  • Curriculum & Student Portfolio Production Room
  • Administrative Meeting Room

SOFTWARE AND CURRICULUM INDEPENDENT
In the life-long learning environment of the 21st Century, educational needs will be constantly changing. Therefore, the classroom should be designed to accent any computer hardware, computer operating system or application software and it should be easily adapted to any curriculum program.

ACCOMMODATES VARIOUS TEACHING METHODS
Lecturing Coaching Cooperative Learning Distance Learning Team teaching Internet-based Learning.

HIGHLY INTERACTIVE COOPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT
The classroom design must provide real-time 3-way interaction:

  • Teacher to Student(s)
  • Student(s) to Teacher
  • Student to Student(s)
  • At both local and remote sites

In addition, the design should provide for synchronous interaction as well as asynchronous interactions.

MULTI-MODAL DISTANCE LEARNING INSTRUCTION CAPABLE
There should be no such thing as a "Distance Learning Classroom," but rather a "Classroom which can support Distance Learning." It should be used for both site-to-site and site-to-multisite Distance Learning Programs. Applications include software training as just one option. There are MANY good reasons to use a computer-supported, multimedia-based distance learning classroom. Under one scenario teaching and learning still begin and end in a real classroom with a group of real students and teachers, not the "virtual classroom" of the type. The classroom should be designed to support every type of "multi-media communication" -- both "short-distance learning" (in which teacher and student are in the same room) and "Long-distance learning" (in which teacher and student can be separated by hundreds or thousands of miles). Two or more classrooms anywhere in the world can be easily and inexpensively linked and function as a single high performance and highly interactive learning environment. An instructor in either room or a team of teachers can communicate face-to-face and screen-to-screen with students at the remote site in an approach to education, which we call "classroom-to-classroom communications." The synchronous (real-time) links are supplemented by asynchronous links (Email, WWW, etc.). What we are witness-ing here is the birth of an inexpensive bybrid digital-analog, synchronous-asynchronous medium, which goes everywhere to connect groups large and small.

OPEN ARCHITECTURE
The classroom must support any computer platform: PC, Mac, Sun, etc. and work even without CPUs, just monitors only. It can integrate with any data or videoconferencing systems or any multimedia peripheral. The design should provide a migration path for integrating old equipment with any emerging or future technologies. In an unique multi-layer configuration designed for maximum flexibility, a modular, plug-together hardware backbone interconnects all the various digital and analog devices. This hybrid digital-analog instruction delivery system is the central "structure" which integrates ALL the other technology at the point of instruction. Think of it as a "network-of-networks." Additional digital or analog devices, like simple building blocks, can be introduced on the fly as the lessons dictate.

KNOWLEDGE AUTOMATION CAPTURING THE PROCESS KNOWLEDGE
19th Century education was among the most labor-intensive industries. The 21st Century classroom, similiar to the automated office, should facilitate knowledge automation and should record both teacher presentations as well as student work which can later be re-used when developing case studies, curricula or student portfolios. The classroom will be the source of new knowledge creation. We should systematically look at how knowledge is created, assembled, presented, published, preserved, synthesized and distributed. The "economics" of "Knowledge" and its productivity will be of great importance in the 21st Century learning environment.

COMMUNICATION WITHIN CLASSROOMS
While many schools are pursuing distance learning applications which connect individual classrooms to other locations, we should be aware that most current classroom designs always put teachers and students at a distance, even though only 10-20 feet may separate teacher and students or student and student. Too often people concentrate on connecting from one classroom to other classrooms. We must also fundamentally change the way we communicate within the classroom.

MULTI-MODAL COMMUNICATION
Just as the most up-to-date transportation networks today are multimodal in nature, exploiting a combination of airplanes, ships, trains and trucks, the 21st Century classroom represents a multimodal approach to educational communications. A hardware backbone within the classroom acts as the localized information delivery system, a feeder and distribution-switching device for whatever other communication links happen to be in use. The connections between classrooms can be digital or analog, wired or wireless (e.g. ISDN, Fiber, ATM, etc.) including even ordinary telephone lines. The choice of medium depends simply on where you are connecting and what you are teaching today. You can have more than one connection running at the same time or change the connections during the course of a class. The "best in practice" of current distance learning programs often require creative packaging of different communication media.

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Before driving a car, every driver must go through practical training and an exam in order to get a driver's license. Each teacher must likewise go through a professional development program. Some specific technology training programs are as follows:

  • Educational Technology Seminar Series
  • Computer-in-Education Certificate
  • Multimedia-in-Education Certificate
  • Distance Learning Certificate
  • Instructional Technology Degree Program

THE 21st CENTURY CLASSROOM- KnowledgeWEB Classroom
Based on these functional requirements, the KnowledgeWEB Learning System diagram illustrates how to design the best possible classroom in 21st century.