Study Abroad

The 21-Century Classroom

Extraordinary vs. ordinary

The 21st-century classroom is not defined by walls, doors, desks or tables.

academics In fact, it may be quite extraordinary - a coffee shop outside a museum in Montevideo, a park in Oxford, a booth in the Learning Commons.

Whatever the setting, you and your professors and fellow students will wrestle with exciting, challenging ideas.

Equipped for the future

At ACU, you will experience the 21st-century classroom in exciting ways - ways that will prepare you for your future.

You may discuss a clash of cultures with a guest speaker in Africa.
You may use your iPhone to gather information about paintings you've just seen in Germany.
You may debate economic policies with your friends after touring a workplace in China.

We're eager for you to join us. Step into the 21st-century classroom. Engage your mind, and engage the world.

A new way of learning

	20-Century Teaching & Learning			21st-Century Teaching & Learning
	Information is "scarce" and publishing is limited. Quality and assessment of information are assured by the professionalized processes of publishing and cataloguing.			Information is abundant and publishing is pervasive and easily accessible. Access to information is assured, but open publishing and free-form tagging no longer guarantee quality and assessment
	Course presentations and materials are typically developed in advance outside of class with teachers as primary developers			Course presentations and materials are developed dynamically both inside and outside of class with students as co-developers or as primary developers
	Course activity typically focuses on presentation of information with students contextualizing, practicing, or using information at home.			Course activity typically focuses on students contextualizing, practicing, or using information with presentation of information occurring at home through media or online access.
	The classroom is the primary site of access to course content, and access is often "linear" - students cannot typically return to previous class presentations			Access to course content is augmented by electronic sources and media, and access is often recursive or "on-demand," allowing students to return to content when and as often as they'd like
	Course activity often focuses on the students as audience and the teacher as presenter			Course activity focuses on students as participants and agents and the teacher as guide or mentor
	Course activity emphasizes exposition, simulation, and analysis of pre-screened information - displaying, organizing, summarizing, explaining and critiquing are central activities			Course activity emphasizes discovery and application with information "in the wild" - finding, assessing, synthesizing, and applying become more central
	Students and teachers have access to one another primarily in the classroom			In addition to classroom access, students and teachers have access to one another via "virtual" means - online discussions, email, chat, social networking, etc.
	Discrete disciplinary boundaries are established and preserved for organizational necessity			Interdisciplinary connections are encouraged and disciplinary boundaries are seen as porous or even arbitrary