Learning Space Design and learning spaces

The summer 2008 EDUCAUSE Quarterly spotlights the complete findings of the 2008 EDUCAUSE Current IT Issues Survey as well as feature articles on open source software in education, a first assessment of a learning studio, and student use of clickers in library presentations. 

With the ELI 2007 Annual Meeting fast approaching, I interviewed the University of Dayton's Deborah Bickford and David Wright on the ideas behind their upcoming featured session, "Creating New Spaces for Learning in Community." They will conduct their session on Tuesday, January 23, from 10:00-11:00 AM, along with fellow presenter Bill Dittoe of Educational Facilities Consultants.

My discussion with Bickford and Wright focused on the factors that motivated the University of Dayton to focus on learning spaces as a key component of its academic planning and development. They also reviewed the challenges the university encountered in effectively engaging the institutional community in learning space design, as well as the approaches the university took to overcome them. Finally, Bickford and Wright talked about options institutions might consider in assessing the impact of learning spaces on learning.

In this 16 minute recording, we'll hear from Rachael Edwards, Learning Grid Manager at the University of Warwick. Listen in as she shares a bit about their innovative library and learning space.

See also:

the University of Warwick's Learning Grid
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/grid/

Society of College, National and University Libraries
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/

Higher Education Academy
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/

Learning Spaces Resources
http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=696

JISC: Designing spaces for effective learning
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/eli_learningspaces.html

Many already know about efforts in Portland, New Orleans, Philadelphia and San Francicso (to name a few) to offer complete city-wide wireless converage. There was an update in today's San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Wi-Fi Bidding Heats-up

What are the implications for campus space designers when students will be able to do more away from central campus. What kinds of spaces do we need to create to encourage students to choose to stay on campus and in a community for learning. Wireless everywhere raises the possibility of isolating learners from each other physically while connnecting them virtually.

If you would like to access the learning spaces podcasts developed in conjunction with the ELI 2006 Annual Meeting, please see http://connect.educause.edu/folksonomy/eli_06_learningspaces.

In conjunction with the 2006 Annual Meeting, ELI asked a few members of the ELI community to pilot enhanced podcasting by developing case studies on model learning spaces. A recent innovation from Apple, enhanced podcasting involves synching images or video with audio files which can then be played on a computer or podcast to a video- or image-enabled iPod via iTunes.

Julie Little of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville contributed an enhanced podcast exploring the planning and development of the university's new Commons. It brings together information and technology resources for easy access by students in a space design that encourages collaboration. (For those without a video- or image-enabled iPod, the file is also available as an audio-only podcast.)

Dan Gilbert of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning provided an enhanced podcast highlighting Stanford's Wallenberg Hall. This facility provides learning spaces with multimedia components and flexible furnishings to facilitate interactive teaching and learning.

ELI thanks both Julie and Dan for the great podcast resources they have made available to the ELI community. If you have something similar to contribute, please let us know (jcummings@educause.edu).

In my second interview with Lori Gee and Terry Hajduk,  we discussed participant questions related to their ELI '05 Fall Focus Session presentation, The Importance of Informal Spaces for Learning, Collaboration, and Socialization. While our first conversation focused on issues of institutional culture, this interview addresses the design process for informal learning spaces. Participants asked Gee and Hajduk to address:

• How widely Gee and Hajduk's views on informal space design are shared across the architect / designer community
• The extent to which architects and designers may be approaching the design process based on "boilerplates from the past"
• The weaknesses of applying business space design models to learning environments, and
• Their starting points for designing a library today, based on contemporary views of informal spaces.

If you would like to view their original presentation in addition to listening to the attached MP3 file, you can access it via the focus session proceedings.

The attached MP3 file contains the audio from the general session presentation conducted by Lori Gee and Terry Hajduk at the ELI ’05 Fall Focus Session – Design of Informal Learning Spaces. In their presentation, Gee and Hajduk highlighted the following principles as central to the design of effective informal learning spaces:

• The entire campus is a learning environment that provides opportunities for further learning;
• Informal spaces for learning, collaboration, and socialization are critical components of both scheduled and unscheduled campus spaces; and
• Space drives behaviors and behaviors need to change for our society to realize its learning goals.

Gee and Hajduk explored these principles across a range of institutional examples. To view those examples while listening to the file, you can download a PDF file of their presentation from the focus session proceedings.

 The attached MP3 file contains the audio from the general session presentation conducted by Nancy Chism at the ELI ’05 Fall Focus Session. In her presentation, Chism sought to set the context for the design of informal learning spaces in terms of their relation to the institution’s academic mission. She discussed:

• Establishing a shared understanding of what might fall under the heading of "informal learning spaces"
• Thinking about what constitutes the "instituitonal mission" and its various dimensions
• Identifying how institutional mission and space intersect
• Examining different spaces and determining what they say about learning (built pedagogy), and
• Identifying informal learning space issues about which we need a greater understanding.

If you would like to view her PowerPoint slides while listening to the presentation, you can access them through the focus session proceedings. A PDF file with the text from her remarks is also available as part of the proceedings.