Tag: Learning Spaces

Listened Innovation in Learning Design from Happy Steve

I recently had the pleasure of being invited onto the Atomi Brainwaves podcast on the topic of Innovation in Learning Design.

The timing is excellent because after 4 years of working with commercial organisations, I’m delighted to be bringing some of my focus back to schools and learning. The episode was recorded about 6 days into the COVID lockdown.

Steve Collis spoke on the Atomi Brainwaves podcast about her journey in regards to learning and innovation. Reflecting on his experiences, Collis talks about the importance of creating the culture of change at the top. For him, this came through messages, such as ‘do then think’ and ‘ready fire aim’. This was about doing small changes which could then be incorporated into the daily practice along the way. This is in contrast to spending months preparing change for the following year. (An example of such learning experiences was the decision one year to have the first two days to be without teachers.)

For Collis, the big challenge he faced was reimagining the human journey. A key to this was breaking the traditional approaches to education and differentiation – what John Goh calls our ‘default’ – where each lesson involves three different groups/levels that often succeed as teachers work so hard to make it work. The problem with this is that it treats learning as a linear process that runs to strict time and place.

To help make better sense of this change, Collis spoke about the Touchline Model to capture the current state of play and how we might change it. This involves unpacking three structures: physical structure, information structure and our shared social structure. Here is a summary from the Amicus website:

When working with Amicus’s People and Culture consultants the first thing that is achieved is a direction-setting module which covers our report and design-briefing document, we take into consideration all three touchlines in an integrated fashion. This means in practice that we unpack your aspirations for the move into practical implications for not just the physical space, but also the information space (e.g. your technology toolkit) and organisation space (e.g. routines, meetings, spatial protocols). The goal for any new workspace should be a capitalisation on what you can truly achieve. The office lease or motivation to move only rolls around every 5 years or so, so ensure your organisation makes the most of it.

He also talks about the model in his presentation at DEX 2019 conference.

Another important ingredient to change is the design for emergence. This is where teachers design deliberate constaints. Often the argument is made against ‘direct instruction’ and specific information, however the issue is not the instruction, but the fact that such instruction is not at the point of need. Collis spoke about the use of flipped instruction and providing students more choice and autonomy as to when they accessed this information. Therefore, such shared learning narratives often involved a number of choices or spaces. This often included a help desk which was run by both teachers and peers. Where such spaces differ to the open planned movements of the past is the place of technology to make such learning more doable. This includes both Google Docs and writable surfaces. With all of this, the question is always about finding the right balance. He discusses this further in his TED Talk.

Associated with leadership, Collis touched on the fact that it is easier to drive change when there is nothing to lose. For example, this is at the heart of Templestowe College’s success. It is also interesting to think about this in regards to Simon Breakspeare’s work with Agile Schools. However, Collis also touched on the risk of trauma about changing too much too fast. For me, the danger of coming up too fast is that we risk getting the bends. In this respect I guess leadership is also knowing when to pull the break. See for example Richard Wells decision to press pause on the move to reimagine learning in the school he is in.

Listened Place Based Education with Tom Vander Ark – Modern Learners from Modern Learners

I’m excited to kick off our next Modern Learners Community theme “Places and Spaces” with today’s interview with Tom Vander Ark. Tom is the CEO of Getting Smart and his brand new book Place Based Learning: Authentic Learning through Place-Based Education has just been released. He co-authored the book with Emily Liebag and Nate McClennen.

In the book, Vander Ark defines place-based learning as anytime, anywhere learning that leverages the power of place to personalize learning. Later the authors add the idea of connecting projects to community, delving into authentic problems, and encouraging public products which ultimately develop an ethic of contribution.

Tom Vander Ark’s reflection on space and context reminded me of an experience where I attended a network meeting at a school with a working vineyard. The lesson that came out of this day was not that every school should get their own vineyard, but that every school should look for such opportunities based on their own context.
Bookmarked [ #cefpi #tep10 ] Clicks & Bricks: When digital, learning and physical space meet – Ewan McIntosh | Design Thinking, Education & Learning (edu.blogs.com)

School buildings as influencers of future practice, not responsive to existing practice.

Ewan McIntosh breaks down learning into seven different spaces:

  • Secret Spaces
  • Group Spaces
  • Publishing Spaces
  • Performing Spaces
  • Participation Spaces
  • Watching Spaces

It is interesting to consider that this was written nearly ten years ago.

Replied to Reflections on Transition C – Final Thoughts – Tom Barrett’s Blog (edte.ch)

There are not enough blogs and teacher discussions into what is working and what doesn’t.

It is fine to have PhDs creating a body of emerging knowledge, but we also need a broader ecology of social commentary! You can tell I have been at a research conference for too long! We need more practitioners (educators and designers) talking about the studies out there and sharing that thinking.

Thank you Tom for sharing your thoughts and reflections on Transitions19 conference.

I was really taken by your comment on the need for more subjective sharing from the fields, rather than relying on PhDs. I find this interesting and think that education as a whole would benefit from more sharing. However, it feels like the reality has moved away from this.

Moving into a world of Pinterest classrooms, it would seem that less educators are willing to share their experiences and experiments.

In addition to this, some would question who benefits from such sharing? I agree that that even the worst bloggers are making use smarter and that the smartest person in the room is the room. The problem is that this may not be the prevailing ethos in schools. The issue is that this requires a systemic collaborative culture, which I do not think is present. People are instead packaging up what they think is there ‘intellectual property’ and placing it on sites like Teachers Pay Teachers. Ironically, it often technically belongs to the school and system. Otherwise, such reflections are being scrapped by consultants who collate it for branding purposes, which is also counter to the intent … in my opinion. In the end, education has become a competitive rather than a collaborative space that is far from equally distributed.

The other issue is that sharing has moved away from the open web to closed spaces, such as Facebook. This means that the smartest person on Facebook is Facebook.

Maybe I am wrong, too pessimistic. It is just my perspective in the end I guess.

Aaron

Listened From ball pits to water slides: the designer who changed children’s playgrounds for ever – podcast from the Guardian

Eric McMillan revolutionised playground design in the 1970s. Why has the spirit of experimental play that he championed been lost?

Nicholas Hune-Brown explores the legacy of Eric McMillan and his revolution of playgrounds in the 1970’s. He was responsible for designing for designing Children’s Village in Ontario.

At Children’s Village, McMillan built two and a half acres of mayhem under an orange canopy – reproducing in the safety of Toronto his feral childhood spent scrabbling through rubble, with mountains of colourful vinyl and foam. He erected an enormous spider web structure that hung from soaring watchtowers. He built a series of wooden ladders that spun on their axes, hurling would-be climbers to the mats below. He strung swinging monkey bars over a pool of water and suspended a forest of punching bags at the centre of the village that was, for decades, the most reliable producer of bloody noses in Toronto.

However, Hune-Brown explains that as time passed, creativity was replaced by concern about liability:

If the design for children in the 60s and 70s had been full of possibility and experimentation, the prevailing mood in the 1980s was of caution. “In the 80s, there was this real turn towards a safety culture,” says Lange. “We tamped down on a lot of innovation and a lot of the risk and reward of the children’s environment.” After a series of lawsuits against playgrounds, “liability”, not “creativity”, became the most important word in children’s design. The adventure playgrounds that once dotted North America were shuttered. The massive wooden jungle gyms in schoolyards were replaced with modest climbing structures.

It is interesting to think about this alongside reflections by Brendan Hyndman, Narissa Leung, Adrian Camm and John Johnston on educational play spaces.

Bookmarked Making spaces to create: environments for collaborative planning (kathmurdoch.com.au)

Now of course, great inquiry teachers can plan anytime, anywhere. No one really NEEDS an inspiring environment to design for powerful learning. BUT I wonder what would happen if we did indeed pay a little more attention to the spaces in which we ask teachers to do this important work? How might it contribute to our wellbeing? Our creative process?

Kath Murdoch questions the space we cultivate for teachers and the impact that this might have on learning. To support this, Murdoch provides a number of strategies, such as access to resources, professional reading on display, objects and light to inspire and an active ‘wonderwall‘ for staff. Personally, I think that the space where teachers plan can often provide an intriguing insight into the wider school culture as it is often the last space considered because it does not directly involve students.
Bookmarked Let them play! Kids need freedom from play restrictions to develop (The Conversation)

Children need to play and discover the world for themselves without too much restriction. Here are some ways we can enhance children’s opportunities to do this.

Brendon Hyndman highlights the benefits of ‘play’ in and out of school. One suggestion includes providing spaces with loose play equipment. This is something Narissa Leung, Adrian Camm and John Johnston have touched upon, through the use of objects, such as old bricks and crates. Sometimes the biggest challenge is getting out of the way.
Bookmarked The Morality of Educational Architecture by Tom Barrett (edte.ch)

Is this learning space worthy of its inhabitants? Will this place create a beautiful experience?

Tom Barrett responds to Elizabeth Farrelly’s four ways that architecture can “acquire moral heft”: wellbeing, environmentalism, public-mindedness and beauty. This continues Barrett’s exploration of learning spaces.
Bookmarked Are we designing and building the right schools for future Australia? (We could be getting it so wrong) by Adam Wood (EduResearch Matters)

The beginning of the 2020s is an opportune moment for us all to re-think and re-design Australian schooling. As the pioneering architect of many schools and universities, Giancarlo De Carlo, put it almost 50 years ago, “architecture is too important to be left to architects”.

Adam Wood shares four insights from debates around building schools and learning spaces:

  • Avoid crisis mentality
  • Design schools for living as well as learning
  • We only get what we pay for
  • We need a debate about school architecture

This is a useful provocation in regards to learning spaces.

Replied to Learning Spaces Aotearoa by Steve Mouldey (stevemouldey.wordpress.com)

Rooms that give no sense of you in the space do not give us a sense of belonging. Classroom/learning space wise think of both a blank class of rows but also new ILE spaces with no display areas for learners to mark their space. In our day to day lives we have all seen work pods or office spaces where people have put pot plant, pictures etc. on their little screen areas behind desktop computer.
We do this in our living rooms, man caves etc. How do we enable this in learning spaces?

Thank you for sharing your reflections Steve.

I really liked some of the suggestion, such as developing walls that make us think, making sure that students belong in their spaces and thinking about our spaces from the perspective of different learners.

This is another post to add to the list.
Replied to Episode 109: Surveillance and social conformity (tidepodcast.org)

This week, Doug and Dai discuss conformity, social media, Personal Learning Networks, Edward Snowden, surveillance, Big Tech, digital assistants, teaching History, and more!

You speak about the intelligence of buildings in this episode. You might be interested in Ian Guest’s interview of non-humans. I wonder how it might translate to ‘interview’ spaces?
Bookmarked ‘Lifespan’ or ‘Learnspan’? Designing to mitigate irrelevance – by Joann Cattlin (iletc.com.au)

Brand (1994) refers ‘shearing layers of change’; the components of a building that over time, may or may not alter and/or have the capacity to alter, in response to required changes. The components as he describes are 1), the site (setting and location), 2) structure (foundation and load bearing elements), 3) the skin (exterior surfaces), 4) services (the wiring, plumbing, heating ventilation), 5) the space plan (interior layout of walls, doors, ceilings), and 6), stuff (chairs, desks, appliances etc.)

This is an interesting take on the longevity of learning spaces from Chris Bradbeer.

To avoid obsolescence of educational buildings what is important therefore is not only to consider the ‘lifespan’ of our schools but also we are cognizant of their ‘learnspan’

via Tom Barrett

Replied to Bears, Beats and Better Buildings 🐻🎸🏠  – Issue 99 – Dialogic Learning Weekly (mailchi.mp)

This little gem of an article popped up when I was exploring some music learning spaces research. 15 of the world’s most legendary recording studios. The post outlines a range of iconic recording studios across the globe and their contribution to music culture and history. I am always fascinated by creative spaces and in particular the music making process. The mobile recording studio started by the Rolling Stones was used for the live recording of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” – fantastic!

Tom, I really liked the post you linked to about the recording studios. One of the most interesting stories i have read about recording studios involved Rick Ruben recreating the conditions for Johnny Cash to flourish. What stood out was that everyone requires something different. Probably not much of a surprise, just hard sometimes with multiple ‘artists’ in the same space.
Replied to INTERTEXTrEVOLUTION by Greg McVerryGreg McVerry (jgregorymcverry.com)

So in my we are studying connected learning and aaffinity spaces this week anyone in the community want to hop on a quick microcast and let me ask you four questions about learning and leading the community? I need to work on a model for the class.

I am always happy to talk, but am hopeless at locking away times (unless it is for work I guess.) Can answer questions asynchronously if you wish Greg? Must admit that is why I like(d) Voxer.

Open Office Stress

The claim is made that open offices were designed as a part of the third industrial revolution where skilled people could come together and collaborate. Reports since the 70’s have discovered that this is not the case and that such spaces increase stress and reduce productivity.

Another design-based example is open-plan offices. In the push to lower overheads—and under the false assumption that it would encourage better working practices—private rooms were traded for non-divided workspaces. This resulted in environments that increase stress, particularly due to noise. Stress has become the dominant cost to human health at work. A 2016 report found that stress accounted for 37% of all work-related ill-health cases in the UK and 45% of all working days lost due to ill health.Source

In response to Apple’s new open planned architecture, Rima Sabina Aouf summarises some scrutiny:

Open-plan offices have become more common since the 1990s but have come under scrutiny in recent years. A recent Haworth’s white paper said that open-plan offices are “sabotaging” employees’ ability to focus at work, with office workers losing 28 per cent of their productive time due to interruptions and distractions.

Similarly, Gensler’s 2016 UK Workplace Survey found that workers were more likely to innovate if they had access to a range of spaces supporting different working styles – including private, semi-private and open-plan environments.

These discussions remind me of the experience described by Aaron Swartz.

Wired has tried to make the offices look exciting by painting the walls bright pink but the gray office monotony sneaks through all the same. Gray walls, gray desks, gray noise. The first day I showed up here, I simply couldn’t take it. By lunch time I had literally locked myself in a bathroom stall and started crying. I can’t imagine staying sane with someone buzzing in my ear all day, let alone getting any actual work done.

Libby Sandler summarises some recent research into open-planned offices, highlighting that:

In many open-plan offices, the drive for increased interaction and collaboration comes at the expense of the ability to focus and concentrate.

When distraction makes it hard for employees to focus, cognitive and emotional resources are depleted. The result is increasing stress and errors, undermining performance.

When employees can’t concentrate on their work, their desire to interact and collaborate with others is reduced.

In some ways, open spaces kill the very thing it is trying to encourage.

Seth Godin reflects upon the creative and collaborative purpose of the office and wonders if the space has lost its place?

As social creatures, many people very much need a place to go, a community to be part of, a sense of belonging and meaning. But it’s not at all clear that the 1957 office building is the best way to solve those problems.