Given current concerns internationally about student performance in science and the need to shift how science is being learnt in schools, as a community, we need to shift how we approach the issue of learning and teaching in science. In the future, we are going to have to close the gap between how students construct and engage with knowledge in a media-rich environment, and how school classroom environments engage them. This is going to require a shift to immersive environments where attention is paid to the knowledge bases and resources students bring into the classroom. Teachers will have to adopt adaptive pedagogical approaches that are framed around a more nuanced understanding of epistemological orientation, language and the nature of prosocial environments.