The Classroom as ONE Learning Environment of the Future

Martial Vivet (laboratoire informatique, Universite du Maine, France)

Abstract: Firstly, we consider important concepts to be taken into account when thinking about the classroom organisation and the design of learning environments. The concept of classroom integrates different facets including at first interaction between children and a system of available knowledge carried out either by human beings or multi-media contents. A very important facet is that the classroom is also a context for social interaction. Knowledge acquisition by human beings makes sense only if we take into account the need for socialisation of knowledge and a process that allows the sharing of it. We then consider recent results in cognitive sciences especially in the study of learning theories and focus on why and how this is to be considered when designing and implementing educational technologies. We need to consider user-centered approaches and human factors in the classroom.

We then describe the major characteristics of the classroom for future. The model we propose for the classroom is to be splitted in two parts : the kernel (as a set of real places where persons can meet physicaly) and the cloud (as a set of real or virtual places) reachable from the kernel via networks. The kernel plays a role of a fix point very useful for people having roots. The balance between activities taking place in the kernel and the cloud is then analysed. This leads us to discuss some basic principles underlying the global organisation. This kind of approach helps us to specify more precisely different points : teachers' roles and constraints on teachers' education. The need for mediatised resources meeting the needs in such schools leads us to propositions for methodologies to design educational resources.

Keywords: concept of classroom, distributed learning environments, educational resources design, educational technologies, learning theories