I happened to be working the other day at Caribou Coffee, which has pretty good coffee, a cool northwoods atmosphere, and free wifi. It’s a fairly big space, with ample electricity, different table sizes, and a really nice environment for reading, writing and learning. A wide range of people use the space, including high school kids.
As you might imagine, its filled with people using laptops and other forms of mobile technologies. People come and go, people re-arrange the furniture. No rows. No desks. So, I was interested when a group of high school kids invaded the table near me. They were kids from a school I taught at for 10 years and I had some fun talking with them about my recollections of the school. These kids were working on calculus, talking, using their cell phones to text, and their graphing calculators. No surprise there, they’re kids. But what was interesting to watch was the way they interacted. I’ve been interested in learning spaces for awhile, and I’ll be doing a conversation about such spaces at Educon. Watching these kids, and knowing the classroom (a word I use intentionally here) that they would go back to, I wonder where they would rather learn and interact in. We all know the answer. We need different spaces for kids today. Yet, there is very little focus on establishing or creating spaces that serve today’s learners. When kids walk into Caribou, what kinds of interactions do they believe will happen? When the same kids walk into a classroom, what kinds of interactions do they believe will happen? My question: How does the design of the learning space influence the perception of the type of teaching and learning about to take place? In other words, how does design inform the intent?
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December 26th, 2009 at 6:01 pm - Edit
[...] No Rows, No Desks – [...]
December 27th, 2009 at 2:16 am - Edit
Take it a step further. My son has been playing with his new XBox game system. He has been communicating with friends online while playing games exchanging information and ideas to play the game better. Students will need the ability to communicate over the Internet to confer with other students to exchange ideas. There is a teacher in our district who uses Twitter with her AP Spanish class for such a purpose. Her students communicate with students and teachers all over the world to collaborate on assignments. Cell phone use is going to change how assessments are done which should be research-based projects both individual and collaborative.
December 27th, 2009 at 12:02 pm - Edit
@john. The classroom is not the only place for learning. That’s been true forever, but it was generally localized. New tools open up learning to take place without boundaries. For me, the use of Twitter in classrooms is still up in the air, but if we use it to connect, why can’t kids? I’m seeing more and more kids on Twitter in our library (kids can check out Netbooks so I see where they are going). This might give them the social connection they are looking for since Facebook is blocked.
Thanks for the comment.
December 27th, 2009 at 5:32 pm - Edit
David,
Your question reminded me of a professional workshop I attended a couple years back titled Dimensions of Learning. There are five Dimensions to Learning but the first one is titled Attitudes and Perceptions which in essence is the entire backdrop to the others. Dealing with anyones attitudes and perceptions seems to be a bit of a gray area however, my instinct tells me that having a comfortable learning space that does not consist of a traditional classroom setup would lend to a more positive attitude and perception toward learning. With that said, how does that translate for a classroom teacher?
My first thought is to get a bucket of paint and put some color on my classroom walls. I am thinking I could also haul out the desks and bring in some tables and more comfortable chairs. Perhaps adding plants and throw rugs would add to the ambiance. In my mind I can envision a mixture of a book store, coffee shop, and lab. I am teaching fifth graders so I would need to keep that in mind. Would this type of classroom, excuse me, learning space meet the needs of my students? Would it create a more positive perception and a more positive attitude toward the learning? David, you have certainly left me with food for thought. Thanks for all that you do!
John Howell
December 28th, 2009 at 2:36 pm - Edit
John: I think most classrooms are pretty sterile places, they look like classrooms. Anything that can “de-institutionalize” a classroom is a good thing in my opinion. Do kids expect classrooms to be classrooms? What if they walked in, and it was different? What does that say to them? You should check out Clarence Fishers work on classrooms as studios (he teaches middle school) to get some more ideas on changes that transform a “classroom” to a “learning space.”
December 29th, 2009 at 12:46 am - Edit
This was a great perspective. It reminds me of a story I read somewhere about designers of a university campus watching the formation of foot paths where students walked in between buildings. The university then built walkways that followed the already established paths.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:26 pm - Edit
@tom: that makes sense, and I’m surprised more places don’t do that. I’m smiling, thinking back on my own college experience, where there was a distinct separation between sidewalks and paths. So, how do you translate that kind of design idea to learning spaces inside of a building, if at all?
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:10 pm - Edit
I think about how most of my learning at workshops and conferences take place. It’s usually out in the corridors and common areas, rather than in the session rooms (although it happens in there as well on occasion) For the last few NECC’s, more conversation and learning by me takes place in areas such as Blogger’s Cafe and places like that.
Also, think about the physical education classroom. Learning takes place in there ALL the time and whoever considers the PE classroom a traditional setting by far needs their head examined. I remember when I was teaching PE, the times I brought kids inside to do ‘traditional’ classroom learning, there was more disruption and off task/off learning behaviors.
I think you are RIGHT on with this perspective. But the ‘traditionalists’, you know, those in administration who have this weird sense of education that is stuck back in the 80s and early 90s, would never go for something like that.
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:45 pm - Edit
@Tom: in my experience, many are responsible for education being “stuck” where it is. For example, how many teachers, yes teachers, are doing just fine thank you, in 1980 or 90? Many are teaching the way they have always taught, and never will change, regardless. And if you ask parents, they’re mostly looking for the same experience they had, because, they did just fine, afterall. So, its unfair to blame just admins for the lack of change, although they can certainly contribute to it as well.
January 6th, 2010 at 4:19 pm - Edit
I taught junior high for seven years in a private school. When I first got the job, I walked into what would be my classroom and was overwhelmed. It had been used as a storage room for years. I was told to keep what I wanted and put everything else in the hallway to be removed. There happened to be several restaurant-type booths in the room. I kept them and used them in my classroom. The kids loved them. I had a traditional desk setup for lectures, but students had the freedom to go to the booths or move around the room for work time. They were always full. Your post made me think about my booths and the impact they had on my students and class environment. I ended up with them by chance, but they shaped my classroom and students’ learning more than I may know.
April Grabanski
January 7th, 2010 at 3:10 am - Edit
Very interesting. While the interactions at the elementary level are not quite as sophisticated as older students, this post makes to want to take a look at the furniture in my school library. Currently, I have 7 tables, all of the same size – for kindergarteners through fifth graders. All have the same number of chairs. This needs to change if I want to create a more flexible, inviting work environment – an environment that suits students and teachers of today, not yesterday.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:53 am - Edit
@April. That’s pretty cool and represents a consistent theme in education on many different levels-sometimes we just dont know how much and why we make an impact. All the more reason to create conditions where we can impact by intent, or just get plain lucky. We are redoing our library and considering adding booths like you are talking about.
@Chad. Check out the work of one of my friends, John Howell (@jazzymiles) out in NY. He’s taken it on himself to recreate a learning space for kids and he has elementary kids too. Has a couple of videos up about it, heres the link: http://www.jdhowell.org/?p=491
January 11th, 2010 at 1:41 am - Edit
@DSJ. Though adding the booths was by chance, assessing the impact they had on my classroom and students was not. I agree with you that a lot of success in teaching happens by getting lucky with a new idea, resource, or activity. It takes a willingness to try new things and be observant to how those changes impact the learning that is important. In retrospect, I can’t imagine my classroom for those years without the booths. I hope to incorporate a similar setup in my future classrooms as well. Good “luck” on your new library!
January 21st, 2010 at 3:22 am - Edit
Dave–How about for some of us who aren’t so fortunate to have those windfalls of furniture (jealous-April!)? I live in a rural district in a poor community with an even tighter budget, and would like to “de-institutionalize” my math class. Any colors that would be beneficial or dare I say psychologically pleasant? I do have old woodwork which surrounds the blackboard and the corkboard above the blackboards on 2 adjacent walls. the back/near the door includes old cloak closets which are basically my storage area now. Broken blinds which haven’t been replaced in years, nor is there money set aside to fix/repair or upgrade the west facing window coverings. I’ve now thought to ask custodians if they have anything worth pulling back out. Any more ideas?
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:18 am - Edit
@Cory: I would suggest viewing John Howell’s videos here if you haven’t. http://www.jdhowell.org/?p=491
As for colors, the psychology of color is quite interesting with blue being Americans favorite color with dark blue indicating trust.
Given your situation, I would look towards grants that might be of help here…seems like you are a prime candidate for one, and could make a compelling argument.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:14 am - Edit
I would just like to share my own experience in a classroom setting. The first time I walked into Mr. Vandenberg’s class (my high school’s Human Relations/Love & Marriage teacher) I was floored to see sofas, plush chairs, and a large area rug taking the place of desks. The walls were painted by previous students, each leaving their own mark of paintings of flowers, tastefull “graffiti”, and other cheerfull images. That was almost 20 years ago. He broke the rules of what a typical classroom looked like. It gave us a feeling of being close and relaxed, unlike the uneasiness I felt when I was in Geometry (math just wasn’t my best subject). But now as I think about it, would I have done better in Geometry if I had it in Mr. Vandenberg’s room?