| Schools of the Future - Page 2
Indoor/Outdoor Environments Linked With An Interdisciplinary Integrated
Curricula
Gardens and landscape will be an important feature of
the school of the future. Their planning and care will be built into the
curricula and other programs. Different styles, methodologies, nutrition
of plants and people, climate, geography, aesthetics, and social studies,
from around the world can be studied in relation to the growth and care
of plants. Computers, video, all the arts, language arts, science, math,
and other disciplines can be related to the work in the outdoor environment.
Local parks and bodies of water that are near the school of the future will
also be incorporated in the care, nurturance, study, and programming of
these living environments.
Animals, too, will be integrated into the program.
Urban, suburban, or rural wildlife (as the case may be), such as birds,
fish, frogs, and insects will be studied individually and as they interrelate
with the natural setting. When possible, other species will be introduced
such as rabbits, chickens, ducks, and sheep. Agriculture will be seen in
relation to the communications technologies and the built environment and
will be understood as being an early form of technology.
At first, the resources themselves, like the land around
the school, will be studied directly and the library and other local resources
will be used by the students extensively to supplement research. For example,
questions that relate to the local ecology might include.
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What is the ecology of this place?
How and when was it formed?
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What are the sources of water
in the area?
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Where does it come from?
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What can we grow here in this
climate?
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What do we need to maintain what
we plant?
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What are the trees that are here
now?
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How long have they been here?
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What do they need to maintain
their health?
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What is the animal and insect
population here?
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Is there intelligence in their
behavior?
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What is the relationship of the
human being - the child and adult - to these species?
These and many other questions can be raised by
the students and their teachers, researched, and the date and other information,
compiled and added to a growing community multimedia data base. With guidance
from media technologists, information can also be interpreted in other
forms and media chosen by the students, such as visual and performed arts,
crafts, language arts and poetry, audio and video histories with the neighbors,
planting projects, scientific experiments such as those that test water
and the PH of the soil, etc.
Community Multimedia Data Bases Form an International
Network of Cultural & Ecological Diversity
Telecommunications, tepees, and trees - teleconferencing, books, and water
- architecture, parks, and ants -poetry, physics and butterflies - students,
artists, and scientists - all will contribute to the locally created multimedia
data bases that will include drawings, dance, multilingual song and text,
statistics of the neighborhood and region, the watershed, and PH of the
soil—past, present and future—as well as information of other
times and places around the world.
Creative research using existing resources will be translated into a variety
of expressions, forming a local multimedia digital data base created by
students and others with media technologists. The database can be shared
locally and with other communities, near and far, bringing to life the
local diversity of each place and eventually forming an extraordinary
network of diversity.
Imagine the excitement generated by this kind of a local multimedia
database being created in communities around the world. The resulting
international network will be a marvelous tool for developing
multicultural appreciation and understanding, learning languages,
geography, and other subjects. Other technologies will also be
used including telconferencing whereby students and others can
directly communicate around the nation and the world, live, with
great interactive possibilities for sharing, learning, and co-creating.
Planetary consciousness and sensitivity and how we create an impact
locally, will be an important subject and result.
Students (Pre-K-college) will be involved in choosing areas of study ranging
from learning about the local culture and ecology as well as the humanities,
social sciences, and the arts. The subjects will be brought to life through
many elements in the school of the future and will function to enhance
the physical environments - the indoor/outdoor public open spaces and
classrooms. Plants and other living forms, all the arts, the built and
ecological environments, state-of-the-art communications technologies,
as well as the many programs of lectures, demonstrations, and workshops
will all contribute to the beautification and multiple meanings of the
learning environment.
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