Designing for learning spaces– from Gráinne Conole (and Matthew Riddle from La Trobe University)

Also see:

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NEW -- Journal of Learning Spaces - Volume 1 from December 2011

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Active Learning Classrooms (ALC’s) at University of Minnesota — from Educause

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Active Learning Classrooms at the U of Minnesota

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Walker Figure 4

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Implications and Recommendations

  • Where local resources allow, administrators might consider refitting older learning spaces along the lines of the ALCs to improve student learning outcomes and increase student satisfaction.
  • Instructors teaching in an ALC-style classroom should be aware that the space’s de-centered nature can make traditional, expository teaching techniques difficult. They might wish to incorporate more active learning techniques and approaches into their repertoires.
  • The beneficial impact of aligning pedagogy with the learning space indicates that faculty development programs designed to support the redesign of courses being taught in ALC-type spaces deserve continued or increased institutional support.

Further research is needed into the connections among learning spaces, pedagogical approaches, and student learning outcomes. In particular, future research should investigate the mechanisms underlying the positive effects of space and aligned pedagogy that our studies have found. Furthermore, as ALC-type learning environments become more common, it will be possible to conduct longitudinal studies of the impact of taking multiple classes in new learning spaces on broad strategic outcomes such as student retention, persistence, and failure rates.

Designing learning spaces to meet the changing learning needs and expectations of students and staff -- from University of Canberra by Helen Carter & Danny Munnerley

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Facilities include:

  • Open lounge – An informal space where you can hold ad-hoc or planned gatherings, whilst still having access to screens or projectors to share work and ideas together. There are skype enabled screens, wireless audio, printing facilities, hot water for tea & coffee or chilled water for filling your water bottle. WIFI is available throughout.
  • Common Spaces 1& 2 – Meeting, presentation or discussion space equipped with an interactive data projector and writable Idea-paint walls, capacity 12-20 (depending on layout)
  • Hothouse Studio – Meeting, presentation or discussion space equipped with interactive data projector and writable Idea-paint walls, capacity 18-26 (depending on layout)
  • Sessional staff office – An open office that provides 3 workstations for staff or sessionals to use for temporary office space, available on a first come basis.

MultiTaction turns walls into giant touch screens — from cnet.com by Jacqueline Seng
.MultiTaction

A maximum of 24 MultiTouch cells can be stacked together to form a ginormous touch-screen display.
(Credit: MultiTouch)

Excerpt:

MultiTouch, a Finland-based company known for its interactive display systems, has launched the MultiTaction Cell 55″. The display is supposedly the “world’s largest integrated multiuser LCD multitouch display,” which means (way) more than one person can use it at a time.


Matt makes his point on memory and attention in a very entertaining way
(…note the solid applause and genuine excitement at the end of the clip on math)


 

Very clever use of technology by Matthew Weathers -- October 2011

— from http://www.fractuslearning.com/2011/11/21/4-videos-from-matthew-weathers/

 

From DSC:
And, due to the date, check out the Symbols of Thanksgiving as well!  🙂

 

 

Dreaming: A look at Anastasis Academy — from ilearntechnology.com by Kelly Tenkely

Excerpt:

You will notice that we don’t have rows of desks.  No teacher’s desk either.  We have space that kids can move in. Corners to hide in, stages to act on, floors to spread out on, cars to read in.  We are learning how to learn together, learning how to respect other children’s space and needs, learning how to discipline ourselves when we need to, learning how to work collaboratively, we are learning to be the best us.

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Also see:

Smart Class 2025: How to make classrooms engaging [Heppell]

Herman Miller, Inc. : Designing 21st Century Classrooms — from 4-traders.com

Excerpt:

As technology and online universities continue to disrupt education, a new Herman Miller study examines the role of the physical environment in learning. The results of the longitudinal Learning Spaces Research ProgramSM (LSRP) highlight an emerging space – the learning studio – which is driving collaborative learning in 21st century education.

Learning studios overcome the rigidity of traditional classrooms with flexible, moveable design that supports diverse learning and teaching methods. Findings released last night at the Transforming Education conference at Purdue University suggest these holistic environments could improve the learning experience for students and faculty by as much as 18 percent over traditional classrooms.

 

Also see:

  • Learning spaces that make the grade — from interiorsandsources.com
  • The Learning Space — from Bretford– is inspired by interaction and conversation. Hear provocative and practical ideas about the classroom, design, and realizing the potential for change in education.
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Apple University will train executives to think like Steve Jobs — from good.is by Liz Dwyer

Excerpt:

If you want to honor Steve Jobs’ life by following in his entrepreneurial footsteps, forget heading to business school. The Los Angeles Times reports that an Apple team has been working on a top-secret project to create an executive training program called Apple University. The goal? To train people to think like Steve Jobs.

Apple refused to comment on the existence of Apple University, but the Times says that in 2008, Jobs “personally recruited” Joel Podolny, the dean of Yale Business School, to “help Apple internalize the thoughts of its visionary founder to prepare for the day when he’s not around anymore.” Apple analyst Tim Bajarin told the Times that, “it became pretty clear that Apple needed a set of educational materials so that Apple employees could learn to think and make decisions as if they were Steve Jobs.” Though the curriculum is still under wraps, Jobs himself oversaw the creation of the “university-caliber courses.” (emphasis DSC)

 Also see:

 

Steve Jobs’ virtual DNA to be fostered in Apple University:  To survive its late founder, Apple and Steve Jobs planned a training program in which company executives will be taught to think like him, in “a forum to impart that DNA to future generations.” Key to this effort is Joel Podolny, former Yale Business School dean.
Photo: Steve Jobs helped plan Apple University — an executive training program to help Apple carry on without him. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

Steve Jobs helped plan Apple University — an executive training program to help
Apple carry on without him. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times / October 6, 2011)

From DSC:
If Apple were to choose to disrupt higher education, several other pieces of the puzzle have already been built and/or continue to be enhanced:

  • Siri — a serious start towards the use of intelligent agents / intelligent tutoring
  • An infrastructure to support 24x7x365 access and synchronization of content/assignments/files to a student’s various devices — via iCloud (available today via iTunes 10.5)
  • iTunes U already has millions of downloads and contains content from some of the world’s top universities
  • The internal expertise and teams to create incredibly-rich, interactive, multimedia-based, personalized, customized educational content
  • Students — like employees in the workplace — are looking for information/training/learning on demand — when they need it and on whatever device they need it
  • Apple — or other 3rd parties — could assist publishers in creating cloud-based apps (formerly called textbooks) to download to students’/professors’ devices as well as to the Chalkboards of the Future
  • The iPad continues to be implemented in a variety of education settings, allowing for some seriously interactive, mobile-based learning

 

 

 

 

At the least, I might be losing a bit more sleep if I were heading up an MBA program or a business school…

 

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