Welcome

Schools, colleges and university are just some of the places where learning takes place but school kids and students can spend a lot of their time in these spaces. There are other places where people learn, some through doing courses at work or online or even learning from others around them in all sorts of situations. The posts here are about learning spaces, writings about learning and technology and thoughts and ideas about all of these.

Do It Your Self School Design

0 comments Posted by Dave Thomson at 20:34




You don't need to leave it to expensive design companies to begin to visualise your school design ideas as now you can use Google Sketchup to explore the ideas for yourself - if you have the time that is!

With so many new school designs ending up with updated versions of what existed before maybe tools such as Sketchup provides an ideal opportunity for those involved to consider all sorts of alternative design ideas.

Google now hosts a School 2.0 Design collection of 3D models and there is an open invitation for designers to add their own designs. If this were to take off we could see a valuable resource of ideas to consider and modify to meet a range of different needs. The current set of 13 models have all been added by Fred Bartels whose other designs using Sketchup are fascinating to explore. The design he has come up with is wacky to say the least as the school is designed in the shape of a leaf. I would guess most architects would either throw their hands up in horror or rub them together thinking what they might charge for such a building. This said, the use of software like Sketchup makes it possible to explore ideas, discuss the use of space and how the association between different subjects may be incorporated into the designs.

The 13 models developed by Fred can be found a the The Google 3D Warehouse of School 2.0 Designs and the Sketchup software is free to download.

It would be good to think that students and their teachers might become involved in a dynamic dialogue about the school of the future - hopefully before the steamroller of a formal design activity involving the private sector begins.

 

Categories: , , , ,

Spaces for Teaching and Learning

0 comments Posted by Dave Thomson at 11:01



There are a number of fundamental questions that tax anyone trying to formulate the ideal learning space whether that be physical or virtual. The question takes us right back to fundamental issues around teaching and learning.

If we assume learning takes place all of the time and is as a result of learners of any age interacting with something, i.e. a book, a person, a web site etc then where does teaching come into play and where not? It is pretty evident that unmediated learning can be a risky thing e.g. do a search on Google for endangered Octopus (as you might doing research into endangered species) and you end up with a spoof site all about the North American Tree Octopus!

Put a large enough group of learners online and allow them to collaborate, challenge and correct each others understanding and you have a community dynamic where, for some learners, the interaction with more knowledgeable peers is actually more effective than the encounter with a teacher.

No doubt teachers are critical to the mediation role within the learning process and we often turn to teachers for specific training or the acquisition of knowledge but in the case of the standard classroom in schools the extent to which these hard pressed people can provide a personalised curriculum for all their students is a tall order.

What we would appear to need then is a mix of opportunities for learning. the teacher and the class, the collaborative community, the learning resources and the vision by leaders to recognise this mix and explore how best to establish the new ways of working that are required.

With the advent of learning platforms there is a risk that we will simply replicate the traditional classroom online without harnessing the potential of the collaborative extended community to best effect. We may concentrate on using such systems as they were originally designed to be used i.e as course delivery systems and yet we know that there is the potential for so much more. Comments from a researcher at Lancaster university suggested that schools may actually need more than one online learning environment as the key requirements for teaching and learning may actually be different.

 

Categories: , , , , ,

Safe Spaces and Learning Places

0 comments Posted by Dave Thomson at 10:25

I have long thought that we need to develop a carefully crafted model for the learning environments of the future, particularly for students in the state school system attend compulsory education.

Research into the views of young people about their school experience reveal that many feel that it is not meeting all of their needs. If we are intent on delivering personalised learning then we need to listen to young people and build environments. Both physical and virtual, within which they can flourish.

Students also say that they want to be able to engage with other young people and in many cases the opportunities to do this are either difficult to arrange or are not sustained over long periods and are limited to specific projects.

The safe space of a learning platform or VLE, where learners are supported in their formal learning, combined with the more open global tools, where greater opportunities for social interaction become possible, must be our ultimate goal as educators. Our aim should be to ensure that we support learners effectively in their formal learning while allowing them to explore ideas and interests with each other. We also need to reach out to other learners world wide rather than requiring them to enter our closed managed online worlds which may well restrict the nature and extent of the discussion that can take place.

The diagram here shows how we could create much more stimulating online worlds. The use of RSS feeds are probably one of the most powerful ways of linking these external systems into the safer spaces without the need for complex API interfaces and authentication. Educators can ensure that their learners are aware of the risks associated with online system while harnessing them to serve the education process. A larger image is available here.

I would be interested to here how educators and/or learners use these different spaces and just what the impact of this approach might be.

 

Categories: , , , , ,

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)