Patrick Blois
I grew up in a small town Nova Scotia. I played ice hockey in the winter and soccer in the summer. I spent weekends at the family dairy farm, and the rest was spent running around outside my home in the subdivision. My childhood was exciting and full of the adventures and discoveries that come with living in a rural community, just outside the city of Halifax.
After graduating from St. Francis Xavier University with my B.A., I spent time travelling and working in different parts of Canada. After completed a sixty hour TESOL course with Oxford seminars in Calgary, Alberta I made arrangements to move to Beijing, China.
In China, I discovered my passion for teaching. During these two years, I worked with kindergarteners as an English specialist at a Montessori school, helping students develop their language through story-telling and play.
In 2011, I registered and enrolled in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Over the course of my B. Ed. program, I was determined to become a certified teacher, travelling and teaching internationally.
My first three years of certified teaching began in Seoul, South Korea -- at a British Columbia Offshore school. The past five years of teaching have been spent at an American international school in Cairo, Egypt.
Due to the onset of the pandemic in 2020, I have since returned to Canada. I am now a teacher on Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.
Life-long learning is an ideal that an educator adheres to -- both in professional practice and in personal life. Recognizing that there is a learning opportunity in every experience has helped me to overcome many obstacles and has been essential to my own growth and development as a person.
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Hi Didy and Patrick!
I enjoyed the Genially presentation format of your OER and found it very easy to navigate! I learned a lot about what classrooms of the future would look like because your group presented it in an organized and digestible way!
What excites me about classrooms of the future is how technology can be used to make classroom spaces more accessible and inclusive to students. As well, I am glad one of the emerging trends is designing classrooms with sustainability in mind.
In terms of what I find troubling, I will summarize what I shared in the padlet–which is that personalized learning has so many benefits, but I worry that it will diminish students’ capacity to engage in productive struggle and peer collaboration.
My one suggestion for your padlet is perhaps shrinking the Major Market Players list down, picking the top companies, and formatting it similarly to your Leading Companies section.
Thank you, annaren!
Your “worry that [personalization through the use of AI] will diminish students’ capacity to engage in productive struggle and peer collaboration” is certainly justified, but I think it all depends on the design of the tools we use, how we use them, and what we expect from them. In truth, I often feel overwhelmed by the impact AI is having on education. I am now reminded of some of my thinking from last week’s OER, which raised concerns regarding privacy and the ethical use of learner’s data. That said, I do think these tools could be ethically created and maintained. I do think AI empowered personalized learning is going to be pretty powerful stuff, if designed well and guided by good pedagogy and the inspired practice of good educators.
While each learner could be travelling alone with their AI supports, along their own iterative, and customized/customizable path, perhaps the development of social connection and emotional learning lies in how learners engage with reflection and choose to articulate their understandings to and with others, formally or informally. Productive struggles and academic rigour might also be maintained through portfolio style reporting, where learners curate/identify evidence of their own understanding and discuss that of others. Rigour could also be maintained through the design of AI tools themselves, in terms of the tool’s approach in its assessment of each individual’s threshold for challenges, while noting their preferences — expecting to push each learner further by reducing the amount of scaffolds in place over time.
Also, thank you for the feedback on the design of our OER. We’ve been collaborating through Slack, and I wanted to share with you that I just shared your suggestion in our chat. Check back for adjustments. 🙂
Great OER Patrick and Didy! I thought you did a great job taking a wide-ranging topic and focusing attention through the 7 identified emerging trends. This served as a helpful frame for the learner too because I always understood why you were bringing forward an idea. The thing I found most interesting was how you highlighted the importance of the physical architecture of learning spaces as well as technological advancements in your presentation. You pointed to the fact that both are important considerations for future design of classrooms, which I thought was an important consideration that could be easily overlooked. Though not an oversight in your work because you touched on it with student-centred learning and UDL, a suggestion would be to somehow illustrate what a culturally responsive and inclusive classroom of the future looks like through a narrative or a video example. Again, fantastic work and thanks for a fascinating exploration into classrooms of the future!
Thank you Mark, I think I speak for both Didy and I when I say that it was a tricky to wrap our heads around the design of future classrooms as a topic. What did it need us to focus on?
Initially, I was so hinged on edtech that I hadn’t considered the design of the physical space itself. This surprises me, as sustainable design is important to me and I work in a newly designed community school. Regardless, as the research had me thinking more and more about the design of physical classroom, I started to think about how difficult it is to access and use district laptops in some of the other schools in my district. I also remembered how those same buildings are so old that modern HVAC systems cannot be installed without incredible expense. The physical spaces we design to connect, collaborate, and learn within are important and being (or in desperate need of being) updated. Hence the opportunity forecast. 🙂
Also, thank you for your suggestion on improving our OER and thank you for your work in your OER last week. I really enjoyed it. 🙂
Thank you Didy and Patrick! This was a well made OER and it was easy to navigate. You picked some excellent videos to demonstrate and reinforce your ideas – I have been a big fan of Dr. Tucker for a while so I was especially thrilled to see her video. I liked the knowledge checks along the way but with some of them it was a bit difficult to tell which questions I had and hadn’t answered while going through.. this may just be due to Genially’s functionality. Maybe splitting them up throughout the sections vs. putting them all on one page would help with this? Or maybe it was just me 🙂
I really liked where you were going with your first section on the physical spaces that make up learning environments because this can often go overlooked when we think about how to optimize learning experiences. The detail on the financials of this sector was very interesting as well and shows how massive this trend is. I think most of your audience would understand the tie-in between building designs and the nature of the learning environment within them, but some stronger tie-ins between the nature of those built spaces and some of the other themes in your presentation may have helped to solidify the importance of how structures are designed and built. For example, you mention the stairs in the Yorkville school later in the presentation and could have introduced in that first section as an example of how forward thinking approaches to architecture and design are necessary in order for educators to take advantage of the different options and opportunities for instruction that a given space can offer.
Great work!!
Thank you for your feedback, Ken!
When I ran through the presentation the first time after it was finished, I had clicked a question which I then realized I had already answered. I do think some means of tracking which questions a learner/user has answered would be better practice and a beneficial feature for that learner/user. I also think it would be nice for users to access their overall scores (without comparing them to anyone else’s’ scores) and get feedback when a question is answered incorrectly. This connects to Annie’s feedback below, in terms of how activities in digital learning modules might be adjusted to improve engagement and the overall quality of learning retention. Perhaps questions and activities could have been used to help users better understand and also discover connections between identified themes and trends and the real-world examples we shared. I really appreciate this feedback, Ken; as a language arts teacher, I try to connect the dots in modules or units that I design through repeated themes and language — with the intention to scaffold folks.
Stepping away from your feedback to chat about Genially for a moment, I’d like to share that I’ve enjoyed how the MET program has introduced me to so many new ventures and practical digital platforms and tools. Genially is but one such tool. What I like about Genially is its capacity for both linear and non-linear exploration of content for users. A learner can go from start to finish, flipping through digital “pages” like a book or traditional PowerPoint, or they might skip ahead or back through hyper-links and buttons to access material or content that they deem relevant to them. You can also embed just about anything. But it’s all in the design. The teacher/designer must create that space with clear goals and familiarity, to effectively support learners as they explore and experience content on their own.
That said, I do think Dr. Tucker would want me to push myself further, beyond the old ways of being as a teacher and embrace the chaos of student-led learning — allowing for more student choice and self-direction in the units and experiences I design. I do still love the sound of my own voice and a quiet classroom on a Monday morning and a Friday afternoon. 🙂
Thank you Didy and Patrick! Awesome work on this OER – I love the clean and user friendly flow of it! Same comment with Ken, I really enjoyed the videos you picked out to support your ideas.
How I have been approaching the weekly OERs is that: First, I will quickly scan through the content on the first day; Then, throughout the week I will read the content in details; and at the end of the week, summarize my thoughts in the Padlet discussion. My worry was regarding your midpoint check quiz – perhaps you were being too easy and lenient on us? (No complain actually haha). I felt like the answer was already in the question, so I could actually complete the quiz and get full marks even just just skimming through the content.
Perhaps a more challenging set of questions will allow us to reflect on the previous content, before answering them. This will increase the likelihood of information retention and knowledge acquisition from your OER.
Great job to both of you :)!
We really appreciate your feedback, Annie!
Your passion for, insight into, and knowledge of edtech shines through in your work, posts, and comments. I have enjoyed viewing your work and reading your comments in this course. Now to speak to your feedback, I’d like to start with a seemingly ridiculous analogy. The balance between pumping up tires and avoiding deflation is the trick when it comes to being a good tire technician. 🙂
Successful self-directed and personalized learning must create confidence in learners (so that learners maintain a positive attitude, to remain engaged and productive) while challenging them (so that learners foster resilience and adaptability as they develop and discover skills and understanding). Knowing when to offer more or less supports or challenges requires a commitment to understanding the personalities and skillsets of each learner. We wanted to pump you all up as you explored our content, but I do agree that more friction from more of a challenge would help the learning to “stick”.
Looking forward, this is where I think that AI will have to prove itself as a beneficial addition to the digital tools and ventures used by educators — in terms of helping educators better know the individual learners that the AI is supporting and adapting to their learning styles and needs, while also uncovering strategies to prepare those individuals to meet increasingly difficult challenges by removing/reducing/adapting/modifying supports.
Hi Annie – I have settled into a very similar rhythm with these OERs as well. A quick scan and some initial impressions on sunday/monday, followed by a deeper dive and contributions mid-week, and then reading and responding to colleagues comments and thoughts until the next OER. It’s a nice way to ingest and engage with the weekly content without getting overwhelmed or becoming detached from the content for too long.
I appreciate you both sharing your systems for success in the course! 🙂
After navigating our OER, what do you find most interesting, troubling, or exciting about the design of classrooms (of the future)?
Interesting – I love a good infrastructure conversation, so designing classrooms of the future was something that I was really interested in. I live beside an elementary school that looked like an elementary school that I went to in the lower mainland of British Columbia, and there was much excitement when the HVAC was finally installed in the school (they even brought in a DJ).
I thoroughly enjoyed the primer of blended spaces and how it supports education in a hybrid model.
Exciting – For adult learning, I really appreciated the content on personalization. Sometimes it feels like there’s a gift when teaching people who have passed the boat on individual learning assessments or counselling. There’s also busy life schedules that need to be incorporated and having AI support individualized learning of a learner.
Please, help us make our work better. Did we overlook something that you wish to share with us and any others interested in the design of tomorrow’s classrooms?
I’d appreciate a bit more knowledge checks within the genially, it was nice to read but for me personally I like a bit of an activity to test my knowledge. This was a great module and it was enlightening to go through it.
Rico
Thank you for your comments and affording me a moment to gripe about the infrastructure of the public system, Rico!
In my mind, infrastructure and funding are the limiting factors for significant change in public education — specifically in both the design of classrooms and the edtech we use/acquire. I understand how we have arrived at this point — through the politics, logistics, and cultures of the past — but there are still schools in my district with chalkboards, poor wifi and outdated hardware just fifteen minutes down the road from newly built, open-concept classrooms, with outlets to connect to power via traditional cords or via USB (located in in areas where students can gather and work outside of their classrooms). As much as we may celebrate and explore new ventures in edtech, the classroom’s physical and digital design will dictate what can and cannot be done in a day of learning (in my humble opinion).
Personalized learning in counselling really appeals to me as well, Rico. A previous week’s OER shared a venture that was used AI to stay on top of the mental health of students, as a proactive measure to prevent an escalation of issues and concerns. Provided that privacy measures are transparent and adhered to — and that security protocols are stringent enough to ensure safety — then I think AI could be incredibly useful in helping students grow, be more resilient and adaptable, while also feeling safe and a sense of belonging while at school and in classrooms. Regardless of the personalized learning afforded by AI, the design of the AI is key and how ot use the software effectively must be well understood by the educator using it to guide their students and the administration that has decided to purchase or gain access to it.
Also, thank you for your feedback on adding more knowledge check-ins in our OER. I don’t disagree, as we saw in micro-learning that short, consistent and frequent check-ins can help learners feel more confident and maintain engagement. I appreciate the activities and experiences provided by our classmates/colleagues, to help us all better understand the business/corporate/investor backdrops that underpin the shifts and changes in edtech that we are exploring. For our OER and with just a week for such a topic (classrooms of the future), I had suggested that we keep our activities short and simple — to keep folks confident and moving along — and making our reflection prompts quite open-ended, so that folks could spend time reflecting and meanigfully share where they found value and where more value might be added. As I mentioned to Ken above, perhaps questions and activities could have been structured to better help users understand and discover the connections between the identified themes and trends and the real-world examples we shared.
Thank you, Rico for your comments and feedback! 🙂
What I find most troubling about the design of classrooms (both past and imagined) is the assumption that learning must take place within a fixed space, at a fixed time. The idea that we need to confine students to a room and expect them to remain there for a set period feels more like a mechanism of control than a design for meaningful learning. It reminds me of Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, where institutions are designed not just to educate but to regulate behaviour.
When we look back at ancient cultures, whether it’s the philosophical dialogues of Plato and Aristotle, the teachings of Confucius, or the wisdom of Laozi (here I only mention that ones that I’m familiar with, but I acknowledge other cultures may have very similar traditions), we see that great learning happened not in classrooms but through conversations, debates, walking in gardens, and wandering in nature. Learning was fluid, dialogic, and deeply embedded in the environment and everyday life.
That’s why I think the most exciting possibility for the future of education is to move beyond the idea of classrooms altogether. GenAI has forced us to re-examine assumptions we have held for centuries, especially the rigid structures of education. As shown in this week’s video, while nearly everything else in society has evolved dramatically, the structure of education has remained largely unchanged. Perhaps it’s time to imagine learning environments that are intangible, flexible, and built around curiosity and connection, not confinement.
The future classroom, then, might be no classroom at all. ????
Thank you for your passionate comments, Yan Gao!
To be sure, the classroom designs of the 19th and 20th centuries were first a response to industrialization during a rise in nationalism and then increasingly a global commitment to shape future capitalists and global economies after the second world war. In other words, it is/was a system to create cogs to maintain the operation of the machine. We still live in that world (by and large), regardless of our ideals or visions for the future, and are both rooted and limited (to varying degrees) by the reality of the systems in which we exist. Newer designs of classrooms are much more sustainable, open, less centred on the teacher, and foster collaboration. Things are changing, but slowly.
There are a lot more humans in the world than there were during the days of Plato and real estate is valuable. Today, families typically have two working parents and daycare is expensive. Employers still require staff and professionals to have or earn certain credentials. Training programs and post-secondary schooling still offer classrooms where folks can pursue these credentials. Devices will still need access to adequate power supplies and the network, and it will likely always be tricky to predict the weather.
This is why we think that classrooms of the future will always have a physical element, but blended to support asynchronous, online learning. For the foreseeable future, learners will still need to have a physical space to meet to learn, for reasons mentioned above. People will always need social connection and physical interaction with other people in the physical world for healthy social-emotional development. In my mind, I am reminded of a sharing circle in indigenous culture. In a sharing circle, one must be present and participate synchronously in order for that kind of participation to be of value, honest, and genuine. Sure, this can be done digitally, but it has more impact and when done in the real world, with real people. Social constructivist learning theory would likely help us to justify the improvement of physical classroom designs, ensuring that we incorporate the capacity for accessible, digital and personalized learning.
Thank you, Yan Gao, for sharing your thinking. 🙂
Hi Patrick and Didy, thank you for your work in this OER. Like my classmates, I enjoyed the clean and easy-going design it had, it was refreshing. Also, like Mark, I think you did a great job in synthetizing a very broad topic.
I think it is so important that the phyiscal space, infraestructure per se, is part of the conversation when we talk about innovation in education and the incorporation of technology into it. Many times, you see fully-equiped classrooms with all the new tech gadgets, but the structure of the classroom is still the same as 200 years ago. So getting to know how to use technology becomes “the point” of it all, and not actually learning in a different way and with different objectives in mind. So an integral change in how classrooms look and interact with the environment is really important and I found that to be an important part of your OER. As mentioned on the Padlet discussion, collaboration and interaction (between humans but also with the environment) should be a key element to look out from now on.
Thank you for sharing your insight, Victoria! 🙂 I agree — future classrooms must foster interaction and collaboration with people and the environment, within a sustainable space and supported by ethical and transparent systems.
Edtech doesn’t necessarily change how we learn, but we need spaces that support its use and people that know how to effectively use it. As Justin Reich’s book — Failure to Disrupt — discusses, technology alone cannot transform education. In my experience, the quantity of edtech solutions/services offered to teachers by IT departments in public systems is overwhelming, confusing, and clunky. “Learning technologies―even those that are free to access―often provide the greatest benefit to affluent students and do little to combat growing inequality in education” (“Failure to Disrupt,” n.d.). Unless teachers are familiar with the edtech tools they use and are able to creatively maximize learning potential through their use in the physical spaces we share to learn, not much will change. While edtech may not transform how the mind learns, it has the potential to facilitate much more efficient approaches — if well and sustainably designed.
The IT department in my school district does a poor job of offering meaningful and impactful support for teachers, effectively ensuring that most educators are incapable of using what is offered (in my opinion). I have volunteered and participated in several edtech initiatives in my district, and mot much has changed. Oftentimes, I see the edtech we use merely translating old ways of teaching — a PPT instead of notes on a chalkboard or a digital form submitted instead of a printed worksheet. In the very worst examples, laptops are given to students for free time to play “survival” mode in Minecraft unsupervised. At best, the edtech we use offers inclusion through speech-to-text or text-to-speech software and self-advocacy/reflection through e-portfolios and collaborative platforms like Teams.
Failure to Disrupt. (n.d.). Teaching Systems Lab – MIT. Retrieved July 19, 2025, from https://tsl.mit.edu/books/failure-to-disrupt/
Thanks P and D for the efforts to put in a holistic review of future classroom. The OER is reader-friendly, easy to digest and key points are well delivered. I especially like the section where i have to do the quiz by moving the key words around – this truly encourage me to think and understand the key concepts you are trying to deliver. Well done!
If you would allow me to challenge, with touch of a bit of everything, what would you pick as key feature of future classroom? If let your imagination fly (a bit higher), what would come to your mind that is probably beyond 70% rest of the class could think of?
At the risk of offering a predictable answer, I believe equitable accessibility is the key feature that needs to be addressed when designing classrooms. Apologies jiange, my reply is likely well within what 70% of the class is likely already thinking. 🙂
Growing socio-economic inequality, advances in neuroscience, and an increased understanding of neurodiversities provide me with a rationale for my thinking. Investors in edtech want to make a profit, but increasingly they also want to make a positive impact on society. If we can maintain the faith of forward-thinking and angel investors while establishing better government subsidies to help offset the costs of licenses and supports, then we will likely transform education in a generation. Increases access to powerful educational technology while offering educators the time and space to equip themselves with the skillsets need to plan and integrate them will change things for everyone.
Thanks for your fun question jiange! 🙂
What I find most interesting about the design of future classrooms is the potential for true personalization. With advancements in adaptive learning technologies, AI can help tailor instruction to individual students’ needs, interests, and learning styles in ways we’ve never been able to before. This could make learning more engaging and accessible, especially for students who have historically struggled in traditional environments.
At the same time, I find it a bit troubling how easy it is to become overly reliant on technology. There’s a risk that the more we digitize learning, the more we may lose some of the core elements that make education meaningful, like face-to-face conversations, social-emotional growth, and mentorship. If we aren’t careful, students might end up feeling more isolated, especially in hybrid or fully online environments.
That said, I’m excited by the idea that future classrooms could break free from the one-size-fits-all model. Flexible, student-centered spaces that blend digital tools with collaborative and creative learning environments have the power to redefine what learning looks like. It’s a chance to reimagine education in a way that’s more inclusive, engaging, and future-ready.
As for ways to improve you OER, honestly I don’t have much critique. The genially presentation style was refreshing and engaging, and I thought the information given was effective and concise. Well done!
Thank you, Griffin for your feedback and compliments. We appreciate your comments on the use of Genially. It was Didy’s idea and expertise that made that so slick; she deserves the credit. 🙂
Great OER Didy and Patrick – I particularly liked your usage of Genially. I find good Genially experiences are challenging to produce, and you managed to do so while keeping the structure intuitive and logically chunked.
To answer your first question, I think your OER made me reflect a lot about the classroom not only as a teaching and learning space, but also as a physical space that can bring with it a myriad of affordances and barriers. ‘Classrooms of the future’ is a massive umbrella that encompasses so much, and its easy to develop a myopic view of the more tech-centric aspects, while inadvertently overlooking important thing such as the very infrastructure that houses a classroom and the accessibility considerations of these spaces.
Again, classrooms of the future is such a broad topic, and you two did a great job of packaging it into a concise and approachable format. Thank you!
Thank you duncanha!
To be sure, we are both happy with our OER, but the topic was so large…it was tricky to keep things succinct and accessible for visitors, while offering an attractive and easy-to-use/follow experience.
Speaking for myself, I had trouble keeping information “less” academically text-based and more visual. I had a tendency in the skeleton we built — which helped us plan the Genially — to be verbose, adding too much context or complicated pedagogical rationales, while also fixating on APA 7 formatting. 🙂 Editing and formatting are two things which I can easily get hung up on. 🙂
Thanks again and enjoy week 11.
Hi Didy and Patrick,
Sorry I thought I left a reply here already but apparently I couldn’t find my comment. Great work on your OER! I loved the design of the OER and how you used Genially to make the content interactive and engaging. As we look forward towards classrooms of the future, I am most excited about the opportunities for personalized learning and how these technologies can make classrooms more inclusive and accessible.
One suggestion for your OER would be to give a quick rundown on what is expected to be completed for the week. While Genially was very interactive, I found it hard to tell which activities were counted for participation marks, and which activities were just for interactive purposes. Otherwise, I think your OER was well done and the design was very aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate!
Tim
Thank you for your comments and feedback, Tim!
I agree, it would have been helpful to clearly itemize which activities to complete in the launchpad — perhaps directly under the link to our OER and just above the final reflective prompt.
To be sure, clearer expectations yield clearer results.
Hello, Didy and Patrick.
My apologies for the late reply here. Anyway, I enjoyed browsing your OER. It’s exciting to click the next button because the contents are great and really took my interest in reading them. Here are my thoughts on your discussion prompts:
The most exciting aspect of the classroom of the future is the immersive tools that can help transform ideas into vivid experiences, like the student-driven VR/AR and holographic learning tools. However, I find that the design can also raise some concerns, such as superficial tech use and maintaining equity considering the cost and all. I also worry that it may overshadow some human elements in the teaching part. As I have mentioned, the superficial tech use could become an issue in keeping teachers the center of learning.
You guys have created such an impressive OER, and the contents are interesting to read. But I think more discussion prompts would make it more interactive.
Thank you Sinsi Jiang for your comments!
I agree, that immersive tools provided through VR and AR are exciting and have so much potential, but they must be designed well to provide near-authentic and relevant learning experiences. They must also enable social interaction and collaboration — in any reality.
While teachers must design and facilitate lessons and experiences (to varying degrees, in varying contexts), I would argue that the teacher no longer needs to be the ‘center’ of learning. More and more best practice pedagogy tells us to have students discover on their own through guided supports and collaboration. This is not to say, that we stop offering and guiding learners (online and offline) through class-wide lectures, discussions, and activities — including micro-learning experiences where fundamental skills, concepts, and language are reviewed and formatively assessed.
I continue to struggle with this as a 42 year-old teacher. I have a tendency to rely on what I deem as old-school techniques, when planning time is limited and stress levels are high; I am in “survival” mode. When I have more time to creatively plan and less life stress I am less the sage-on-the-stage and more the guide-on-the-side.