Recommendations

LEARNING SPACE RECOMMENDATIONS for the OC Centre for Learning
By OC Classroom Committee, October 2007

Values
In a learning-centred organization formal and informal learning spaces come first.

Principles
Like every student, each classroom should be unique and reflect the heritage of Okanagan College and its surroundings.
The environment in each classroom should be controllable especially in terms of light, technology, and climate.
The classrooms should be designed to reflect the future of learning and teaching.

Strategies for Principle 1—Uniqueness
Evoke circularity in each space
Use circular, triangular, and rectangular, etc. tables to evoke our plethora of teaching styles
Use appealing maple or birch coloured doors with translucency
Create ONE unique feature wall in each classroom (i.e. fireplace, stone wall, wood wall, lower ceiling, water feature, glass wall, LCD wall between labs, feature wall)
Use one campus region as the colour theme for a particular floor.
Use aboriginal names for the classrooms
Explore cork, linoleum, and other sound-absorbing flooring materials in larger classrooms

Strategies for Principle 2—Controllable
High quality black out curtains or blinds
Plan lighting to avoid over-lighting the projector screens
Both direct and indirect lighting
Wall plug-ins for student use
At least one folding wall between classrooms

Strategies for Principle 3—Future proof
Built-in lockable storage
Allow the ability to eat together (i.e. potluck dinners) in the classroom
Transparent podiums
Live native grasses in hallways
Doors between classrooms

Furniture Recommendations
All furniture in formal and informal space must be new
All tables and chairs should be portable, easy to move, and stackable
All tables should reflect at least three different shapes: ie. Circular, triangular, rectangular. Each table should seat at least four learners.
Chairs should be comfortable and easy to move.
Where there is hard-flooring, insulated carpets for teachers should be provided

Committee Members:
Sandra Kenefick
Paul Stephenson
Kate Gilcrist
Barry McGillvray
James Cobles
Mike Minions
Wilma van der Veen
Stan Chung

Future-proofing excerpt

In this last regard your facilities can become critical components of your "learning organization." This concept, outlined very eloquently by Peter Senge et al in Schools That Learn, argues that schools that serve students best are those that are constantly engaged in learning as an organization.

One might ask, "How much does your facility contribute to your organization's learning?"The isolated self-contained classroom, once the ideal for educational delivery, is now the biggest limitation we have for education in the future.

Teaching is becoming less isolated and more collaborative. Learning is becoming more personal with lap tops for all and personal learning plans, and more cooperative, experiential, and project based.

The new classroom needs to allow interconnection, varied student group sizes, and multiple simultaneous student activities. It needs to offer variety. In the future a suite of varied learning spaces will replace the row of classrooms we all know so well. Realistically, however, most educators are not yet ready to give up the turf or the familiarity of their individual classrooms.

Accepting this, current classrooms can be future-proofed by creating connections and adding variety. Classroom connections facilitate teaming, sharing, interdisciplinary learning, and project-based learning. They allow a teacher in one room to supervise students in another. Variety within and among spaces facilitates different learning styles and teaching practices.

Read more at...
http://www.schoolfacilities.com/_coreModules/content/contentDisplay.aspx?contentID=%202915

Meeting Friday Sept 28 2-4pm Facilitites Boardroom

I'd like to invite you to a very important classroom focus group meeting for Friday Sept 28th in the Facilities Boardroom between 2 - 4pm.

This is a CRITICAL meeting because the new building is facing budget pressures. We also want to communicate our vision for the classroom, including our furniture requirements. We'll have the new plans available for your comment as well.

Please let me know if you can make it.

Furniture

Hi Everyone
I liked the modular furniture you found, looks easy to move, set up into different group sizes and shapes!!. Also the other furniture and shapes look great. On one note the U shaped classroom is one that trades uses alot and AVED, on their visit a couple of weeks ago, was not very positive about it because they feel the space in the middle is wasted. Any ideas for that space?
Heather

I was speaking to Christian R. about introducing aboriginal ideas/themes/values/art/ceiling treatments into the classroom spaces. He had several suggestions on that topic and also learner-centredness.

Here are some links full of ideas:

http://www.booksokanagan.com/theytus.html
http://www.nkmipdesert.com/explore.asp
http://okanagan.students.ubc.ca/prospective/aboriginal.cfm
http://www.gov.bc.ca/arr/firstnation/okanagan_nation_alliance/default.html
http://enowkin.tripod.com/

Technology and Space Design

Classroom transformation
The essential challenge of higher education is, as it were, to clone Socrates: to reproduce the intense give-and-take and personal focus of one-on-one teaching for hundreds or thousands of students at a time. Through information technology, we suddenly have the power to reach that goal: to transform university education from a long string of passive lectures and solitary projects into a intense, active, personalized and highly collaborative adventure that engages the imagination of both students and faculty as never before.

http://icampus.mit.edu/themes/classroomtransform.shtml

Models of Teaching

http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/learner/cooplrn/b3.html

Joyce and Weil (and others) posit FOUR general categories of instruction.

Our question is what sorts of LEARNING SPACES do these categories require to maximize the EXPERIENTIAL quality of the learning?

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/instruct/instmdls.html

1.
Behavioral Systems
The focus of the methods associated with this category is on observable skills and behaviors. These methods have generally proved more likely to positively impact scores on standardized tests of basic skills than models in other categories.
Direct Instruction--highly structured, teacher-directed; maximization of student learning time
Mastery Learning--given enough time and quality instruction, nearly all students can master any set of objectives

2.
Information-Processing Approaches
The focus of the methods associated with information processing approaches are more linked to concepts and principles developed in cognitive psychology. Many of the tests used to measure school learning are being modified so that they consider important mental processing skills that these models are designed to address.
Inquiry Training/Inductive Thinking--focus on concept formation, interpretation of data, and formation of principles and theories
Concept Attainment--focus on categorizing, concept formation, and concept attainment
Intellectual Development--based on the cognitive developmental theory of Jean Piaget

3.
Personal Development

The focus of these models is on those outcomes held in high regard by humanistic educators: high self-concept and self-esteem; positive self-direction and independence; creativity and curiosity; and the development of affect and emotions. Most of the methods used are associated with open education. While these models have not demonstrated an ability to impact outcomes associated with traditional education, they do show promise in impacting other outcomes important for the information age.

Facilitative teaching--student-centered; based on the methods of Carl Rogers
Increasing Personal Awareness--focus is on developing an awareness and fullfillment of individual potential
Synectics--focus on the development and application of creativity

4.
Social Interaction

The models associated with the social interaction family are focused on developing the concepts and skills needed to work in groups. Cooperative learning has demonstrated an ability to impact standard achievement measures as well as group interaction.
Cooperative Learning--focus is on working in groups; based on the methods of Slavin and Johnson and Johnson
Role playing--focus is on the study and development of social behavior and values


Reference
Joyce, B., & Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2003). Models of teaching (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Some cool pictures from Stanford and MIT and others

Interesting Links on Classroom Design

http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/index.html

http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/classroom_design.cfm

http://www.designshare.com/index.php/home

http://techined.rice.edu/TinE.cfm?doc_id=2854

Welcome to the OC Classroom Focus Group

Our task is to develop a report that makes recommendations on the classrooms to built in the Okanagan College's new building, the Centre for Learning.

Project champion: Heather Schneider

Project leader: Stan Chung

Project team: Ann M, Sandra K, Mike M, Paul S, James C, Barry M, Stan C.

Project outcomes: 5-10 page report outlining the group's recommendations on the classroom in the new Centre for Learning building.

Project parameters: Consider all stakeholders. Consider the learner-centred mandate. Consider innovative methods of teaching and learning. Consider technology requirements. Consider a twenty year window. Consider ways to anticipate the future learning requirements of the OC learning community. Be bold. Think big. Be inclusive.

Project deadline: end of March 2007