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Evaluating, Planning and Supporting
Computer-Supported Learning Spaces
Introduction
A learning space
is an educational facility in which people learn and, often,
teach. classrooms are learning spaces. So are libraries, course
management systems, and campuses themselves.
Learning spaces do not "cause" learning. Learning occurs as a result of what students
and faculty do. Obviously learning spaces can
not force people to do something, and rarely can they prevent
people from doing something. (For a brief video describing
the Flashlight approach to evaluating and planning learning
spaces, both physical and virtual,
click here.)
However, each learning space does
make certain teaching/learning activities easier, or harder.
Spaces are usually empowering: they provide a range of
choices for people; if some of those choices are unfamiliar
(e.g., a learning space that makes the use of visual resources,
with students able to control their display during course
discussion), then it is important to invest some time in
rethinking course designs.
Why apply the term "learning space" to
classrooms, course management systems, libraries and whole
campuses? Obviously there are real differences in these
different facilities. And the term "space" is misleading
in some ways for each of them. However, we've found it helpful
to notice the parallels when planning and evaluating these
various kinds of facilities.
Imagine a class of 35 students in art history.
Maybe they meet in a classroom. Maybe they interact online.
For this example, it makes no difference. These students have
studied dozens of paintings in the last couple of weeks.
During class discussion, the faculty member asks Mary to
select any two paintings from the reading, and compare and
contrast key elements. The instructor and the other 34
students need to see the two paintings side by side, and see
where Mary is pointing within the paintings as she analyzes
them. (If you're not in art history, imagine parallel tasks
with statistical graphs, or X-rays). In typical
classrooms and course management systems, that activity would
be so difficult that few faculty would even think to ask
students to do it. How could a student display two images from
different pages of a textbook, side by side, in a way that
everyone else could see them? Online how can the student
point as she discusses differences between the two images?
If designers make good choices about technology, both
physical classrooms and course management systems can make
this instructional activity far more feasible (click
here to see examples of facilities that make this activity
easier.).
This collection of TLT/Flashlight resources is
organized around a
list of such
important teaching/learning activities: activities that are
both (a) important for improving learning outcomes and (b) often
helped or hindered by the design of physical and virtual
learning facilities in which the teaching or learning happen. You
can use this resource to evaluate current spaces, plan more
cost-effective approaches to faculty support and course
improvement, help planners brainstorm about cutting edge
learning facilities, and then evaluate the ways in which those
new spaces are being used.
For example, you could gather focus groups to discuss a
particular physical or online facility. Ask them how, in their
experience, that facility supports
key teaching/learning activities and how it hinders each of
those activities. To stimulate their imaginations further, show
them some alternative spaces for supporting those same
activities: for each activity in
our list, you'll find a list of issues to raise, and
examples of good designs in use. Please let us know what
issues and examples you'd like to see us add to this resource!
- Stephen C. Ehrmann, The TLT Group
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