Is your school ready for the future? Part 9/12

Education Readiness Review

 A readiness assessment is required to determine what is needed to create facilities that meet the perceived needs of future educational challenges.  Dr. Darren Cannell will be providing twelve review criteria that can and should be used to reviewing your facilities.  This exercise will  make sure your facilities will be ready for the future educational challenges as predicted by the latest educational research and teaching.

The concern of such an educational review is that it will support future challenges but will not dictate the direction of the educational changes.  The design and approach need to be such that it supports current practices but is versatile enough to accommodate the possible future changes and trends.  To effectively assess the readiness it becomes necessary to review the perceived future trends in educational technology and educational pedagogy and theory.   This review of the trends will have direct ramifications on the facilities and will require certain designs to accommodate these trends.

Dr. Darren Cannell is a consultant who does building assessments and staff training.  He can be contacted at 

dcannell5@gmail.com

The ninth of the 12 trends is as follows:

Paperless schools

The concept of paperless schools is not a goal of the future it is here.  There are numerous schools across the world which have effectively eliminated paper from the school environment.  Technology and an ever increasing number of applications have made it possible to painlessly work towards the reduction and elimination of paper use in the schools.   The installation of monitors in hallways and classrooms to share daily notices is a simple example of how it is not necessary to print out a daily notice sheet.  The monthly school letter can be distributed electronically on the school website and via email.  Scanners rather than printers, fax machines, and photocopiers will help achieve this paperless goal.