In the last 40 years, technology has drastically improved and changed everyday life. It has changed how we approach almost every task and has led to fantastic improvements and speed in accomplishing tasks. We experience things much differently and it has allowed for collaboration projects with people from all around the world. We have the ability to communicate with someone across the world in a personal face-to-face dynamic that used to be only possible in our futuristic imaginations via Skype. Overall, technology is a tool that has provided an unbelievable opportunity and potential for improvements to education.
In order for this technology to be useful, though, we have to have the ability to create unique new experiences. This week in CEP 811, we examined the concept of Experience Design. IDEO CEO David Kelley describes this concept in technological advancement products in his TED Talk “Human Centered Design”. David explains that his company is trying to examine behaviors and personalities of their users and infuse those concepts into the products.
This principle of Experience Design can be applied to technologies used in the classroom. The users of the technology are the students; the products in which we should infuse behaviors & personalities in are the lesson plans; the designers of the products are the teachers; and the space to experience the products are the classrooms.
There is one thing, however, that has not changed in the midst of all this technological change. That is the classroom. Although, there have been some different styles of learning with a hybrid approach or online instruction, the standard “face-to-face classroom” has remained boring and unchanged. I am guilty of this as a teacher. My current classroom is set-up in rows and columns with the teacher (me) at the front.
A little background on my classroom: I teach high school seniors economics and government. This is my first year at my current school. The set-up is your typical model. The teacher is in front of the room leading instruction. It is very structured and a basic classroom. Desks and chairs are connected and it does not necessarily promote participatory learning, as much as it does “watch, write, listen to the lecture” approach.
Not to say that this is always bad, but I think there are different ways to re-think this space to better utilize it for learning of all students. A different approach also might encourage students to take charge of the learning in a discovery-based approach. From an outsider looking in, I can’t help be see the current model (the same model for hundreds of years), as somewhat of a stage and the teacher is the show. This approach is much different from a discovery based and experimental learning approach as the TPACK model encourages.
While my pedagogy includes many different approaches including: kinesthetic activities, cooperative learning, collaboration, supplemental reading & lecture, and discovery-based techniques, my classroom lacks this encouraging collaborative space. Trung Le, from Cannon Design, talks about a “school without walls” and writes about promoting learning by changing our learning space. In his article, “Wanna Improve Education? Demolish the Classrooms” he writes educational progress can be changed with “design that promotes reflective, collaborative learning that mimics the way teenagers think, learn and socialize” (Le, 2010). This is a student-centered approach that can change the way we set-up our classrooms.
This may seem like a pretty radical concept, but in fact it has been proven to improve learning for all students. The traditional model provides many challenges to moving in the classroom. In my own classroom, I notice that I do not get around to formatively check-in with students that sit in the back of the room as much as I do with those who are in the front. It is not always the case that the weaker students sit in the back. Maybe it is not the student that is weak, but the model of classroom.
So how can we accomplish this?
This may seem like it would be a long process and you would have to call in a professional to get this shift in the structure of the learning space. This could cost a lot of money that schools simply do not have. However, on the design process, CannonDesign describes the mindset for change is so much more important than the financial concerns with developing a new classroom model. The change should happen through a process and they describe the process in an article by The Third Teacher called “Inside the Inspired Learning Environment”.
“As we’re designing, we’re building capacity within the faculty to tinker, collaborate, and evaluate” (CannonDesign, p.91 paragraph II)
The task for my CEP 811 class this week was to redesign our learning spaces and to make a prototype using “SketchUp Make”. I have just described the current classroom and learning space. I have also given you reasons why a change is necessary to improve engagement, participation, and collaboration. My designed space looks like this:
Students will have space to collaborate and work in groups. There is no distinct “front of the room” because the learning is not passed down from the teacher to the student. The learning happens in the space designed to be participatory and engaging.
The yellow seats in the corner are a station that will include: discussion, reflection, video, and creativity. Students are no longer in desks. They are sitting at tables. The tables are round so that it is inviting for discussion and collaboration. Students will be using laptops or tablets at the tables and will have different stations that they will visit throughout the week. The tabletops will be dry-erase material to promote complete freedom and creativity when learning and collaborating.
These Five stations are:
- Video/Music analysis
- Article/primary source/Critical readings/ document analysis
- Games/virtual-quizes
- Blog Post/Reflections on content
- Discussion or Kinesthetic Activity (corner yellow beanbags)
The different groups and stations would represent a different part of the learning process. Each station would focus on using the content. One station would be focused on information and content. Another station would be a space to experiment and explore the content in new ways building research skills. A different station would be a formative check and competitive gaming station. Another station would allow students to reflect on their learning and create a blog post. And the last station would be a spot to discuss and share their findings with peers. This sharing would allow for collaboration and give a deeper understanding for the content learned. This discovery based and interactive learning puts the student in control of their learning and changes the learning space to something that invites discussion.
The teacher’s role would be designing engaging lessons and different activities that would scaffold learning and encourage participation. Lessons in this setting would have to be student driven because if the students did not buy in to this approach learning could suffer. Classroom management in a setting like this could become a problem on days when all students were focused on one task. This change in learning space would have to be implemented at the beginning of the school year so that students could have a normal understanding of expectations and accountability. As a teacher I would have two different ways to group students. Each would be used during different times: one group of students on similar academic levels to differentiate learning; another to encourage participation and discussion for stronger academic students to work with low-achieving students.
Students will be placed in groupings of 5 students (two types of groups):
- With similar learners on similar academic levels
- With different types of learners on different academic levels
Additional Resources needed and potential costs:
Resources needed would be laptops (or tablets), bean bag chairs, round tables, dry-erase tabletops, and ideally, a Smartboard at the beanbag workstation. To make this a reality, you would need to raise some funds and get some fundraising. The benefits would certainly outweigh the costs.
30 laptops (or tablets): $9,000 – $12,000
5 Bean Bags chairs: $250-500
Smartboard: $3,000
Whiteboard Desktops: $600-$2,000
Interactive and participatory learning space: priceless.
This design could be implemented in segments or all together. The ideas about the workstation could be accomplished with minimal economic costs or time. The change would be in the learning approach that would come with this “station” based approach. It would be an interesting experiment to see how engagement would change: whether more students would be engaged in the content and involved in their own learning or if the change in environment would cause a distraction to the learning process.
The theory behind this change makes sense and offers a structural change that would go hand in hand with the discovery-based learning. I also see a positive unintended consequence that would undoubtedly happen and that is the classroom community. Students would get to know each other and feel much more comfortable with asking questions and helping others.
REFERENCES:
Kelley, D. (2002, February). Human-centered design [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_on_human_centered_design
The Third Teacher+. (2010)“Inside the Inspired Learning Environment”. Common Design, p.91 paragraph II Retrieved from: http://digital.turn-page.com/issue/134932/91
Le, Trung. CannonDesign. (2010). Wanna Improve Education? Demolish the Classrooms” Retrieved from: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662178/wanna-improve-education-demolish-the-classrooms
Winning in Education 