Learning Spaces

Welcome to the Basalt Virtual Workshop on Designing Learning Spaces

Consider the following questions:

Where does learning take place?
Do we need to build more classrooms?
And equip them with more complicated technology?
How does the physical environment affect the learning process?
Does it limit the kind of learning activities that can occur in that space?
Are technologically literate learners well-served by sitting in a rectangular box from 1330 to 1420 MWF? (sometimes the answer is yes)

explore: http://www.denison.edu/learningspaces/

Denison University website on Learning Spaces
start with their Checklist for Improving Your Learning Spaces (pdf)

read: New Learning Spaces: Smart Learners, Not Smart Classrooms
by Howard Strauss
http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=6702

read: Educause Review July/August 2005 Volume 40, Number 4.
Learning Space Design issue
http://www.educause.edu/er/erm05/erm054.asp

see also: http://www.educause.edu/ELI/5521

Educause Learning Initiative page on Learning Space Design

and follow the link to Mark Valenti’s “The Black Box Theater and AV/IT Convergence: Creating the Classroom of the Future .pdf

You may also want to watch some of the video presentations at the bottom of the ELI page.

for a UK perspective on learning spaces in higher education, have a look at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/JISClearningspaces.pdf

Now, take a walk around your campus and imagine the possibilities.