Rethinking learning spaces

Our new design facilitates collaboration and differentiation.
We recently redesigned the computer labs at AISB to make them “learning spaces” instead of “computing spaces.” You can read the results after the break, but here’s the summary. If you’re still relying on labs to provide computing access for your school, apply the following principles to your next redesign:

  • Instead of rows or U shapes, make hubs of 3-4 computers to facilitate collaboration. Leave empty spaces where students with their own devices can work. Orient the hubs so they all have a view of the projector screen.
  • Include groups of desks or tables to give classes flexibility in where and how they work.
  • Use small whiteboards or flip chart paper to facilitate brainstorming and planning.
  • Use carpets and pillow or sofas to create a small meeting space around your projector.
  • Make sure some power strips are available for students to charge their own devices.
  • If you’re on Google Apps, use Calendar resources to let teachers schedule the space from their own classroom rather than having to use a paper signup chart. Being able to reserve from class or from home facilitates their planning process, since they’re having to design around a shared resource – the easier it is, the more they’ll use it.

Schools pass through three stages on their way to 1:1. The first is the “classroom curiosity,” a computer stuck in a classroom where it just can’t serve enough students to be incorporated into the day to day. The second is the school computer lab configured in a row or u-shaped layout. It is often used as a space to “do computers,” whether that means typing papers or doing internet research. The third is the laptop cart. This cuts out some of the transition time for kids but is in effect no better at giving kids a personal device than a lab computer, and is in fact prone to more problems because of issues with battery life, charging, and WiFi signal strength. When you finally get to a 1:1 environment, you get advantages in almost every area: student ownership and a sense of agency; minimal transition time since devices are on hand; and ease of collaboration since students can cooperate virtually but also physically rearrange themselves to facilitate group work and suit individual preferences.

At many schools you’ll see elements of all three precursor stages, and this is where my school is now. When I arrived, the computer labs offered rigid u-shapes facing away from the projector, which meant students had to awkwardly choose between looking at their screen or the teacher. In group work they could talk to the person to their left or right, effectively limiting it to two pairs. There was little freedom of movement or space where a group could sit down to problem solve. I didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t change that dynamic.

Our secondary school computer lab before the renovation. Notice how hard it is for the group (center-left) to work together.
Our original elementary lab layout, with substantial dead space between the nearest row of computers and the wall.

The foundation of the project was good planning. Research said a lot about the process (“engage your stakeholders”) and little about best practices, but I found useful information from an experimental class space at Stanford that discussed the importance of providing spaces for discrete groups to work in but having the furniture and layout be flexible enough that the class could also come together. I then created scale models of the lab in Sketchup so that I could experiment with different designs. This experimentation made it clear that hubs of tables, with free spaces where students with laptops could work alongside those on desktops, was the most aesthetically pleasing space.

My 3D mockup of the final design for the secondary lab.

I added a presentation and meeting space in the front with sofas and a coffee table, and each hub around the edges of the room had its own flip chart pad to facilitate group brainstorming. I also repositioned our Papercut print release station to be near the door to minimize foot traffic going through the lab. I got rid of the basic plastic chairs and introduced rolling office chairs so that students could work more freely. Now, teachers divide students into instructional groups with their own workspaces. I’ve seen English teachers use it to conduct small group workshops at the front while the rest of the class work on the computers; math teachers use it for flipped-classroom activities through Khan Academy, with students doing online exercises while the teachers circulates; and social science teachers using it for exam review, with small groups planning and brainstorming at the hubs and then contributing to a shared glossary in Moodle. So it turned out alright – and without any formal consultation with “stakeholders” – although I am still working on the rolling chair etiquette.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Turning my sights to the elementary lab, I again made a 3D model with three options for layouts but this time invited the elementary teachers to a feedback session. I observed that their workflow more often includes pen-and-paper elements and that it was important that students work at a comfortable place for them. I also noticed that moving to the lab was quite a disruption to them, and it required that each student be at exactly the same place in a project before the class could move to the lab to work on the computers. I thus incorporated work tables into each model so that the lab could be used for more than just computers.

ES lab redesign, mocked up in Sketchup.

Our maintenance crew at the school is amazingly responsive, and 24 hours after I asked for their help, the lab was set up.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I’d like to add smallish whiteboards or flip chart paper to the ES lab as well to facilitate brainstorming and small group teaching, once our budget allows. (Locally-sourced chalkboards run about $60.) But at least now the entire space is functional with a layout driven by the principle that the workspace should conform to the teacher’s planning, rather than vice versa.

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