Students and Teachers
Moving and Creating ideas
Using different technologies in the
classroom can enhance student learning. Hillbrook School in Los Gatos,
California, launched a prototype in adaptive and agile learning spaces. Furniture,
whiteboards, and technology can be moved at the teachers’ or students’
discretion to facilitate the lesson being learned that day. The space is large with possible room
dividers, and the design is endless in its configuration.
The response from students as well
as teachers was overwhelmingly positive.
Teachers made comments after using the space called ILAB, or Idea Lab, of
“Students are more interactive. The
facility provides room to create and think. The room can be adapted to the
lesson. I love the energy. The kids are
engaged. Sixty percent more of the students were involved in discussion and
participation. “Students commented, “I feel more free to do something I want to
do. It’s a crazy room for crazy ideas.
You can sit in a corner or talk with everybody.”
Teachers
and students use this room for project-based, participatory learning. Learning is student directed as they are
presented a project or question or problem to solve, and they are asked to do
the work themselves in researching the subject and finding a way to solve or
create an answer. Each student is provided
an iPad for internet access. Inventions, science projects, mathematical designs,
and engineering concepts were presented. As the company who designed this
concept and sells the furniture modules states, it is truly a learning
environment of “exploring, experimenting, and experiencing”. Bretford Manufacturing produced the mobile
furniture. Peter Lippman is an architect who writes about collaborative spaces
and architectural design influencing our students’ learning. It seems like an amazing venture into
successful integration of innovative use of technology and physical space to
enhance learning.
What is
the cost?
First,
the tuition at Hillbrook School is $29,000 a year per student. I will let you
breathe a moment. Obviously this type of
innovation can be costly at any school, but Hillbrook appears to have the means
as it is a private tuition-based institution.
Can we
as instructors in central Illinois implement some of these resources? Yes, of course we can!
We can
move our classroom furniture in creative ways to allow our students more free space
for thinking, imagining, discussing, and solving problems. We can use
technology in computer labs as tools to assist our students to work through
project-based learning activities that inspire them to explore and be
innovative. We can provide more
formative assessments that allow our students to direct their learning and practice
and apply information they have learned. We can allow them more autonomy as they read,
discuss, view, respond, evaluate, and create.
Though that tuition is crazy (more than my undergrad and grad school combined), I agree with you that the general principles could be applied to even an underfunded urban school. All students will benefit from collaborative learning, and teachers don't need an architectural masterpiece of a room to plan a collaborative lesson. If you really need a lot of movement you can always take your students down to the cafeteria. A creative teacher could do much of the same things that the school from the article can do.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. I think that being able to change up your classroom structure spatially is so important, especially for younger kids that may get stir crazy from sitting in one type of room all day. I can see how it would be easier to have students get engaged if they get to do some of the teaching and rearrange the room as they see fit for a presentation or activity. This sort of set up allows for the teacher to have more freedom in lesson plans and ability to literally move things out of the way if students were needing space to demonstrate something, etc. I think this can be recreated with teachers that want to do so, without crazy expensive technology but the teacher or professor needs to be motivated themselves and see potential in this freedom of structure. I can see it being awesome for science classrooms and really facilitate any lesson plan for students to become the teacher or lead group activities more easily. Cool post.
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