More on 21st Century Classroom design
I blogged a while ago on 21st Century Learning spaces. I believe that we must change not only what we teach, how we teach it, when we teach it but also the spaces we teach in.
Classrooms must reflect the learning paradigm we use and the audience we are addressing. Fundamentally classroom design has not changed for since the 19th century. The rooms are still design to be teacher centered, board focused (no matter what the board is - blackboard, whiteboard or interactive whiteboard).
Pedagogically, these classrooms are limited for students who are not visual learners (how many classrooms have sound reinforcement to provide a consistent level of sound), they are impractical for the kinesthetic learners (how many of our boys are kinesthetic learners…. I wonder if this impacts on the success of boys in the education system).
It is hard to find exemplars of good 21st century learning spaces.
But…. @jutecht just twittered this one. (nice one Jeff). Its a library concept center in holland - http://www.infotoday.com/mls/mar08/Boekesteijn.shtml
Look at these multimedia chairs
This is a library, but I prefer the term INFORMATION Centre, because it has so much. Good design, great concepts and vision. If I get to Holland, I will be getting there too.
Dutch patrons can use these Tank U stations to download Bluetooth content to their phones so they can enjoy it whenever they like.
