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In workshops where we've asked faculty and
administrators to reflect on their own most important
learning experiences in college, more often than not they
recall moments that occurred outside the framework of
classes. What aspects of architecture (physical or virtual)
make such interactions more likely and more productive?
Physical: It helps to have places
where large numbers of people pass one another, can
unexpectedly see one another, move out of the flow of
people, talk, sit down, have a cup of coffee, etc.
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Virginia Tech's Torgersen Hall has
wireless support throughout the building. The main
hallway, lined with classrooms, is exceptionally wide,
and has couches and about 20 tables, chairs; dozens of
students often congregate at those tables, before or
after class, and use the wireless capability to work on
assignments or other projects together. [Big
Image 2]
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The corridor linking Virginia Tech's
Torgersen Hall to the university library provides
another space for work and meetings. This bridge,
paneled like a library and lined with study carrels,
also supports wireless networking. Students can borrow
laptops for use in these carrels.
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Other physical learning spaces
(informal): University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, is renovating a football
field-sized Learning Commons in its library building.
Many of its feature are designed to create interaction
among people. Some examples: once a student logs in
(either at the Commons, from a dorm room, or anywhere
else) they will be told whether other students from any
of their classes are also in the Commons, studying for
those same courses. UMass is also working on a way of
letting the student know where those other students are
sitting. Other devices for supporting interaction (and
renewing the library's role as the heart of the
institution): encouraging faculty and TA's to have
office hours in the Commons (and making it equally easy
for students to find which carrel the faculty member
happens to be occupying today); having important student
services (ideally with evening and weekend hours, not
just normal business hours) such as laptop repair,
financial aid, and the like. UMass will do everything
it can to a) make the Commons into a student magnet, and
b) make it easy for each student find who and what is
available, even before coming to the Commons. For more
information, contact Richard Rogers
(Rogers@provost.umass.edu ) The new facility should
be in full operation by Summer 2005.
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MIT's Department of Aeronautical and
Astronautical Engineering has implemented a fresh
approach to engineering education called CDIO
(Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate). In parallel, the
Department renovated its main building. One of the
features of the
renovated space is how easy it is for students
engaged in one activity (e.g., brainstorming new
designs) to see students engaged in other activities
(e.g., research in the library; building or testing
components), even when those other students are in
different rooms or on different floors. Altered policies
help promote spontaneity in learning: students have
keycards that allow them to work in most areas of the
building 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; equipment that
requires professional supervision is isolated in
separate rooms with different locks.
These slides
give a sense of the variety of physical facilities but
only hint at how networking enables students to use
resources and people outside the Institute as they work
and learn.
Virtual: In many ways, typical online
systems are more utilitarian than traditional campuses. The
student logs on to the course management system and doesn't
"see" another student until reading a course's threaded
discussion or participating in a course chat session. But
there are exceptions.
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Since the earliest days of computer
mediated conferencing, some programs have featured
"cafe'" discussion areas where students could converse
with one another, and sometimes with instructors and
staff, about topics outside the context of courses:
politics, personal issues, and so on.
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Jenny Niven of Robert Gordon University
(Scotland) points to the importance of knowing who else
is logged onto an online learning system so that
spontaneous chat or e-mail can be initiated "outside"
the course. It helps, she points out, if one can go from
a person's name to profile information about them.
Physical/Virtual:
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Gettysburg College's
CNAV portal
system lets students and faculty see not only class
rosters and schedules but also photographs and profiles
of those individuals. This feature of the system is
heavily used. Students who want to find faculty can
check their teaching schedules and wait outside a room
until that course (which might not be the course that
student is in) concludes. Students who want to know
about a class meeting they missed check the roster of
photos, find a familiar face, check the name and contact
information, and ask for help. Deans who need to talk
with someone in a particular club can do the same thing:
check names and photos, looking for a familiar face. The
TLT Group's Flashlight Program is currently (spring
2004) planning an evaluation of CNAV; one hypothesis for
the investigation is that this use of virtual
information in order to arrange face-to-face meetings
helps build community and connections at Gettysburg.
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Occasionally spontaneous social
conversation is used as part of the course, too. The
late Karen Smith, then with the University of Arizona,
designed an innovative upper division Spanish course in
the mid 1980s. In the online portion of the course,
students conversed in Spanish using computer bulletin
boards (threaded discussion). Some topics were assigned
but students were also encouraged to develop their own
topics (planning parties, helping one another through
tough times). Interestingly, this kind of interaction
contributed to superior oral use of Spanish by
these students, compared with students trained in a
language lab. Karen reported on her findings in
""Collaborative and Interactive Writing for Increasing
Foreign Language Communication Skills." Hispania
(March 1990):77-87.
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