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Table of Contents of Teaching/Learning
Activities and Spaces
"Ease of use," "power & options" and "progress"
are often opposing values. Facilities (e.g., classroom lecterns,
course management systems) that are easy to use for novices
typically offer few options and change rarely, if at all, over
the years. Some compromises can reduce, but not eliminate,
these problems:
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The fewer the seats in a particular room and the more movable
they are (e.g., on wheels), the easier it is for faculty and
students to move around, on foot or in chairs, especially if a
few people are moving while most are sitting and working or
listening. But movable seats left in one arrangement can
make work for the next class coming in to use the space, if
they need chairs in a different array.
-
Tables are useful for work, but hard to move around.
Small tables, mounted to chairs eliminate the problem of
moving separate tables but they are often too small for a
laptop, book, and paper for notes to be open all at once.
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Electrical outlets are useful for powering laptops and other
personal electronic gear, but the outlets in the floor
shouldn't trip people or hinder the movement of chairs or
tables.
The next few notes refer to the means by which faculty and
students control technology in a learning space, whether in a
physical room or in a virtual space -- the "interface."
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One compromise (but not a cure-all) is an interface (for a
virtual system or for a control that someone in a classroom
uses to control media, lights, etc. in the room) that has
two or more levels. The simplest level offers the fewest
options and commands, but is the most intuitive. If a faculty
member or student comes to the interface when it's set to a
complex level, it ought to be obvious, even to a novice, how
to switch to the simplest interface. (Know any exemplars of
this kind of interface that ought to be linked to this page as
illustrations? please contact us!)
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Most learning spaces ought to have the same (or perhaps only
two-three) different interfaces. A much small number of spaces
might be used to experiment with newer interfaces.
Experimenters using those new interfaces ought to be obligated
to report on their strengths and weaknesses. From time to
time, the standard interface (or one of them) would be
replaced by a newer, more powerful standard.
Many other features affect ease of use. For example, most
high tech classrooms have a control panel at the instructor's
station. Its placement usually defines the "front of the
room", along with the location of the main projection screen. But,
in classes where faculty value movement, how should they
control the lights, change slides, etc.?
-
The Bloch lecture hall in the Hewlett Building at Stanford
University (a TLT Group Network member) has been set up to
make it easy for the faculty member to display experiments.
Among other features, the room offers
five different panels from which projection, microphone, and
other facilities can be controlled, making it easier for
faculty to move around or simply to have their choice of spots
to stand while performing experiments for the students.
-
Another solution is, in wireless classrooms, to enable faculty
to control slides, room lighting, etc. from a tablet or other
mobile device. Do you know of examples - if so please
send them to us (see bottom of the page). If the mobile unit
belongs to the room, there is the danger of losing or
misplacing it (if, for example, the faculty pockets it to free
his or her hands, and then walks out with it).
This question of facilities that are easy to use is a good
agenda item for a
TLT
Roundtable if your institution has one. Roundtables can
bring together the different kinds of people who have stakes in
this issue, including "novice" as well as experienced faculty,
IT support, faculty development, and facilities staff. Your
Roundtable could periodically evaluate the ease of use of your
facilities, and advice the Chief Academic Officer, technology
support, faculty development program, development office and
others about priorities for training, renovation, and future
developments.
-Steve Ehrmann
(ehrmann@tltgroup.org
), The TLT Group; updated December
11,
2004
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