According to Pinnacle Interior Designer Yasmin Durrant, the most important question isn't how much technology belongs in the classroom - it's what kind of learning the space is designed to support? 

"A school space must prioritise the people occupying it, with technology being the tool to allow people to work or learn better," she says. 

That distinction matters. Technology should never drive the design of a learning space - the learning experience should. 
When schools embark on refurbishment projects, conversations can often begin with the hardware. Should we install interactive displays? How many charging points do we need? What devices should pupils have access to? What AI tools should we be using? 

Yasmin believes the starting point lies elsewhere and says, "I think it's about understanding the purpose of a particular learning area and making sure that the technology is an enhancement. It should aid learning without becoming something that feels novelty-based or geared towards marketing." 

The best technology is not always the most impressive on paper; it’s the tech that supports better teaching, better collaboration and better access to learning. 

"Even having charging banks to allow students to use laptops or tablets at their desks can make a difference," says Yasmin. "The technology doesn't have to be overly frilly. Sometimes the more complex the technology, the more opportunities there are for it to go wrong."

The smartphone debate is not really about phones 

The recent move towards phone-free schools has reignited familiar arguments about whether banning devices prepares young people for the modern world or holds them back. 

But Fiona Beresford, Schools Network Programme Director at Smartphone Free Childhood, believes the debate is often framed too narrowly. 

"Schools are social experiences where learning is enhanced by relationships and connections between people in real life," she says. "Smartphones undermine those real-life connections in the learning environment." 

For Fiona, removing smartphones from the school day is not an anti-technology stance. "This is not rejecting technology," she says. "It is rejecting the assumption that students need phones to learn." 

That is an important distinction, as few school leaders would argue that technology has no place in education. The more useful question is whether a particular device, platform or tool is genuinely improving learning, or simply adding another layer of distraction. 

Learning requires effort 

One of the strongest arguments for a more considered approach to classroom technology is that learning should involve effort. 

As Fiona points out, young people need opportunities to develop sustained focus, critical thinking and real-life relationships. Those skills are not always easy to build.  

"At the heart of learning is struggle," she says. "You need friction. Too often, by defaulting to screens, we are reducing those opportunities for productive struggle, which is where learning happens." 

That concern is now extending beyond smartphones to AI. Used well, AI can support accessibility, reduce administrative workload and help teachers plan more effectively. Used badly, it risks removing the thinking process pupils need to practice. 

Yasmin agrees. "We don't want technology to aid learning in a way where students don't learn how to learn," she says. "There is a concern around cognitive offloading and losing the ability to think critically. Technology should provide support, not do everything for you." 

The aim should be to create environments where pupils are supported to think, question, collaborate and develop confidence in their own abilities. 

Technology can support collaboration 

None of this means classrooms should become low-tech, as well-integrated technology can make learning spaces more flexible, inclusive and collaborative. 

"Technology can contribute to collaboration," says Yasmin. "Interactive mobile screens offer flexibility in a class to work collaboratively and in various group sizes, without the need to have a more traditional set-up with just a teacher at the front writing down students' ideas." 

That flexibility is increasingly important. A classroom may need to support direct teaching, group work, independent study, discussion, project-based learning and quiet focus, sometimes all within the same day. 

Technology can help that happen, but only when it has been integrated into the way the space will actually be used. 

A mobile screen can allow pupils to work in different parts of the room. Charging points can allow devices to be used without fixing pupils into one layout, and reliable connectivity can support accessibility tools for pupils with different learning needs. 

Designing for learning, not devices 

For Yasmin, the future of classroom design is not about adding more technology; it’s about moving away from a one-size-fits-all model of education. "I would like to hope we gradually steer away from traditional classroom set-ups that we've held onto since Victorian times," she says. 

The teacher-led classroom still has its place. But as learning changes, classrooms need to become more adaptable. 

Yasmin explains that many children entering education today are likely to work in jobs that do not yet exist. That means schools need spaces that can respond to new subjects, new skills and new ways of learning. 

"Classrooms will become more hybrid, suiting multiple subjects," she says. "The traditional classroom set-up will just be one of many layouts that a flexible classroom can be arranged into." 

The human purpose of school 

Perhaps the most powerful argument for a more balanced approach comes from what schools notice when smartphones are removed. According to Fiona, the atmosphere changes - students talk more, and playgrounds become noisier. 

This matters as schools are communities where young people learn how to think, relate, disagree, collaborate and belong. And of course, they have to ‘play’ and let off steam too. 

Technology will continue to evolve, but the schools that thrive won’t be those with the newest gadgets; they’ll be the ones who ask -  

- What kind of learning do we want to enable? 
- What kind of relationships do we want to encourage? 
- What kind of space will help pupils think, focus, collaborate and flourish? 

Because great learning environments aren’t defined by the technology they contain, they’re defined by the learning they make possible.