The Future of Learning

By Melissa Turnbaugh, AIA, NCARB

The school of the future will be student-centered and will aim to maximize the learner experience as well as the impact on local and global environments and economies. Learning environments will be designed with numerous factors in mind that all play a role in developing and empowering each individual.   

At the start of the pandemic, many thought leaders began to predict the end of school as we know it. With online learning thought to be the wave of the future the need for school buildings themselves appeared to be in doubt. However, as the results of the educational outcomes started to become clear, the rancor from parents who wanted their kids to physically attend school grew louder, and the palpable social isolation that was being expressed by students online, it appeared that school buildings were here to stay. Through the confusion and uncertainty, a path forward became evident, taking advantage of what was being experienced in the pandemic with outdoor learning, online learning, and new interactive means of teaching, energizing the way our school facilities are designed and constructed. It became imperative to find thought leaders who could provide insight regarding how these trends could help create the “School of the Future.”

Continue reading “The Future of Learning” on pages 34-37 in Learning by Design.