Where to from here for me as learning space designer?
As a learning space designer, I
believe that we need to adapt our teaching and learning spaces to meet the
challengers of the next generation of learners. The day of the chalk board has
come and gone. But it is more than changing teaching strategies because student
attention has switched on to Facebook and Twitter.
We need to create what Oblinger
and Oblinger (2005) describes as a convergence of the learning space with
technology and traditional pedagogical outcomes. More importantly, we
need to design classrooms of the future that are designed for people and not
for fleeting technologies or transient social flirtations. (i.e. once there was
Myspace then Facebook.).
As I have a background in
Information Technology, my classroom design will be optimized for concrete
learning activities, and not just stuffed with the latest bells and whistles.
Each object must have a tangible purpose and a pedagogical reason. In
conclusion, we need to design spaces that foster creativity, and not just
productivity. This is especially important as we foster not just individual
goals, but constructive collaborative teams to solve both local and global
issues of the new century ahead.
My key learning's from LCN601:
The
unit has opened my eyes to the complex relationship between space and learning
pedagogies, as to develop both innovative and flexible spaces for learning.
Space can enable different styles of teaching as well as learning: which is the
formation of a collaborative and learning teaching philosophy.
Moreover,
as educators we need to understand the concept of “Built Pedagogy” (Monahan,
2002). For example, laying out our classroom in neat rows of desks and chairs,
we embody pedagogies of discipline and strict conformity. The teacher has a
clear view of the students and control the interaction and communication
between them. We are not empowering the student, but following the concepts
described in Foucault’s work of Discipline and Punishment (Hardy, 1999). The teacher has disciplinary power to supervised and controlled efficiently. But at a university level, we should expect students to be worthwhile adults, wanting to be actively involved in their learning, and questioning the teacher.
Children
mature faster these days, they need more empowerment and the ability to
socialize and interact. Therefore, the key word in the unit title is Spaces.
What we need to learn is that our pedagogical standards to include flexibility
in learning, to allow the student to self-discover, and be creative.
And
finally, that when we plan to design a change, either to the way we teach or a
physical space, that the learner or student is a key stakeholder in the
decisions of change: they have a right to participate in the process of change,
as in the end, they are the new generation. I’m only the current owner waiting
to pass the baton on.
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References:
Hardy, T. (1999). Tales of power: Foucault in the
mathematics classroom. Retrieved from http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/csme/meas/papers/hardy.html
Monahan, T. (2002). Flexible Space and Built
Pedagogy, Teaching Invention, 4(1): pp. 45-48.
Oblinger, D. & Oblinger, J. (2005). Educating the
Net Generation. Colorado, USA : Eduause.
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