I’ve been intrigued with learning spaces for awhile, especially in regards to the development of digital components that support and extend the physical experience of our schools. To me, the consideration of how space is used in the learning process is perhaps the most forgotten element of instructional design. One size space does not fit all, however most of our schools, designed in an era of where classrooms were the sole place for learning, assume that learning takes place in rows with individual desks, and only there. There is much more to consider now, and truly effective schools, and their teachers, need to consider how their legacy spaces can be modified, altered, and re-created to provide a more multidimensional type of physical support system for learning. This emphasis towards new thinking regarding space should also be applied to the creation of digital spaces for learning. All of us are fortunate that the emergence of connective technologies provide a fresh slate for design, and one that can be created to support the development of key skills that support the development of a shifting notion of what it means to be literate in 2010 and beyond.
My Educon session, entitled “On the Development of Learning Spaces” will challenge co-conversationalists to rethink space. You can read about it here on the Educon site. If you are interested, and even if you are not attending Educon, I would hope that my session resources (I think some of my best work) are of value to you. For those of you attending virtually, I think they will help you follow and contribute to the conversation. The resources provide an overview of my challenge to participants, a flow for the conversation, and resources targeting learning spaces and also literacy. I finish with some questions to stimulate your thinking regarding learning spaces.
I hope to see you there on Sunday…
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January 29th, 2010 at 5:20 pm - Edit
Hi David. Good collection of ideas in this presentation!
I have a vision that I don’t see exactly here, though it is close. IF form follows function, and we think of the the revolutionary ideas behind a wiki, which is a single, collaborative project environment that is totally assessible, then I think we need to envision kids in a grouping around a single desktop (smart desk) which uses multitouch technology to work on projects both separately AND together, to display or distribute elsewhere at the students’ OR the teacher’s desire. It is the idea of collaboration around a single project/workspace that I see in some of your pictures. But ALL your current pictures depict a single, one-user screen.. laptops as we know them today.
Multi-touch smart desks are being developed in England (with government money) and elsewhere, now.. for use in work and learning environments. (Just watch a National Weather Report on TV today!) The screens (form) follow the function (think wiki-collaborations on projects). Within 4-5 years we will see these in an affordable, probably horizontal, form, I am certain.
So I add the idea that single-user screens will change, and that multi-touch desktop/screens will allow rethinking of the physical space designs pictured in your Powerpoint show.
Have a good session.. wish I could be there!
Dan
February 5th, 2010 at 4:53 am - Edit
Dan: I like the idea of a smart desk, with the possibilities that such a device might bring. I want one now. :}
Thanks for the comment, hope you are well-session went well.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:22 pm - Edit
I find it interesting that the new iPad does not allow concurrent operations.. mutitasking as such a multi-touch desk would.
(BTW.. kids’ reactions to the iPad are simple.. It’s too big to put in their pockets!)
Check out:
http://tel.dur.ac.uk/synergynet/