Designing learning spaces...some thoughts and resources

English: The media suite at Albany Senior High School, New Zealand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is a growing interest in designing flexible learning spaces that will provide opportunities for students (of all ages) to learn in a space that best suits them. Some of the resources available to help guide thinking if you are a school, or other institution, thinking about re-designing your learning spaces.

• Enabling eLearning: Learning spaces - has some great accounts from New Zealand schools about their new learning spaces, as well as links to research and readings, and other related Web sites.
• Background from Albany Senior School and Designing new technology spaces - tips, wrinkles, and things to think about when designing innovative school learning spaces.
• JISC InfoNet - Planning and designing technology rich learning spaces - tertiary sector focussed, but with some really great advice and guidelines that are relevant to all sectors.
• Educause - Design of the learning space: Learning and design principles - again, tertiary focussed, but it raises some great points and raises some good questions to address.
• Designing an ecology that supports students to be critical thinkers, engaged in problem-solving - resources around learning space design.
• Redesigning learning spaces: Shifts pedagogy & locus of control - in this video Chris Bradbeer, Associate Principal from Stonefields School in Auckland, explains the ideas behind the open learning spaces at his school.
• Redesigning the learning spaces in a primary classroom...with the students! - in this video Lisa Parisi (teaches fifth grade on Long Island, US, in a collaborative classroom model), captures the process of collaborative rearrangement of learning spaces. She explains: "After a Conversations show with Trung Le, I was inspired to explore The Third Teacher and redo the setting of our classroom."



English: Students at Albany Senior High School, New Zealand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Amazing Learning Spaces: Social learning any time, any where - video which provides a snapshot of how children who are ill and hospitalised can stay in contact with friends at school, and maintain their learning with the help of ICT.

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