The ubiquity of the internet across society has helped develop technology awareness and skills in people of all ages. Those born at the dawn of the internet age may be IT-experts before they reach their tenth birthday, whilst those old enough to remember black and white television are encouraged to ‘go online’ at every opportunity, be it for internet banking or to book a holiday.

This change in mindset towards interactive technology means that many teachers – old and young – will feel just that little more confident about adopting new digital tools in the classroom, which is good news for youngsters brought up on a feast of computer games, multimedia players and the World Wide Web.

From a technology perspective, the internet should be the core underpinning feature of any modern classroom. Research is the chief basis for utilising the internet in education because pupils can tap into a wealth of facts and stats, learning the fundamentals of investigative study along the way. The World Wide Web helps to solve many problems relating to the access of information in schools, in terms of constantly having to update school libraries.

An extension of this should be wireless connectivity. This involves laptops being interconnected in the classroom, allowing youngsters to work at their desks without lots of cumbersome wires strewn across the room. Furthermore, if the portable computers are linked wirelessly to a printer, pupils can print from their PC no problem.

Web and wireless technology aside, what other digital tools could classrooms be using to their advantage? Well, educational technology incorporates countless contraptions designed to optimise children’s learning experiences. This could be an interactive whiteboard (IWB) which performs a number of functions, and as far as collaborative devices go, an IWB should be high on any teacher’s technology request list.

Any teacher will confirm that it can sometimes be difficult to make themselves heard over a cacophony of excitable kids. This can be problematic at the best of times, but for children with reduced hearing or a short attention span, tuning in to what a teacher is saying might be impossible. This is why wireless microphones and strategically placed speakers are a good idea, as they help to bridge any inherent acoustic gaps in the classroom.

Throw into the mix a plethora of interactive multimedia applications and educational software that have been designed by teachers for teachers, then what you have is a fully modernised, technologically switched-on classroom that is well equipped to manage the myriad of scenarios encountered by educators on a daily basis. We are in the 21st century, after all.