2015 03-06--innovations in-learning_spaces[1]
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This "invited talk" for the KIPA (Knowledge & Information Professiona Association) 2015 Annual Conference in Denton, TX (March 6-7, 2015) explores what the New Media Consortium "2015 Horizon Report > Higher Education Edition" calls a key trend in educational technology.
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2015 03-06--innovations in-learning_spaces[1]
- 1. Facilitated by Paul Signorelli Writer/Trainer/Consultant Paul Signorelli & Associates paul@paulsignorelli.com Twitter: @paulsignorelli Knowledge & Information Professional Association (KIPA) Annual Conference Denton, TX March 6, 2015 Session Hashtag: #KIPA2015 Making Space: Exploring Innovations in Onsite and Online Learning Spaces
- 2. Setting the Learning Space
- 3. Setting the Learning Space
- 4. Setting the Learning Space (2)
- 5. Setting the Learning Space (2)
- 6. Setting the Learning Space (2)
- 7. Setting the Learning Space (2)
- 8. Defining the Learning Space
- 9. Defining the Learning Space
- 10. Defining the Learning Space
- 11. Defining the Learning Space
- 12. Defining the Learning Space: Media Lab
- 13. Defining the Learning Space: Media Lab
- 14. Defining the Learning Space: Informal
- 15. Defining the Learning Space: Poster Session
- 16. Defining the Learning Space: Poster Session
- 17. Defining the Learning Space: Uncommons
- 18. Defining the Learning Space: Uncommons
- 19. Defining the Learning Space: Makerspaces
- 20. Defining the Learning Space: Makerspaces
- 21. Defining the Learning Space: Makerspaces
- 22. Defining the Learning Space: Makerspaces
- 23. Defining the Learning Space: Blended
- 24. Defining the Learning Space: Extended
- 25. Defining the Learning Space: Mobile
- 26. How Big Is Our Learning Space?
- 27. How Big Is Our Learning Space?
- 28. Discussion: Building Upon What We See What are the best learning spaces you’re currently seeing/using?
- 29. Discussion: Building Upon What We See What are the best learning spaces you’re currently seeing/using? What makes them effective/memorable?
- 35. Pedagogy: Stimulating More Senses
- 36. Communities of Learning: Idea Spaces
- 37. Communities of Learning: Idea Spaces
- 38. Connected Learning & Learning Spaces
- 39. Twitter as Learning Space
- 40. Facebook as Learning Space
- 41. MOOCs as Learning Space
- 42. Discussion: What Do We Do Next? What is one thing you can take from this session and begin applying in your own workplace within the next week?
- 43. In Summary
- 44. In Summary
- 45. In Summary
- 46. In Summary
- 47. In Summary
- 48. In Summary
- 49. Resources “Idea Spaces” presentation on Houston Community College Northwest Educational Technology Services site at: http://tech.nwc.hccs.edu/idea-spaces/ “Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design” available at: http://dmlhub.net/wp- content/uploads/files/Connected_Learning _report.pdf “A Guide Planning for Assessing 21st Century Spaces for 21st Century Learners,” for available at: http://www.pkallsc.org/assets/files/LS CGuide-PlanningforAssessing(1).pdf
- 50. Resources Learning Spaces Collaboratory Resources page at http://www.pkallsc.org/Resources Articles about learning spaces at https://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com/?s=learning+spaces Horizon Report at http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc- horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/
- 52. For More Information Paul Signorelli & Associates 1032 Irving St., #514 San Francisco, CA 94122 415.681.5224 paul@paulsignorelli.com http://paulsignorelli.com Twitter: @paulsignorelli http://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com
- 53. Credits & Acknowledgments Collaborative Commons, University of Texas, Austin: Photos by Paul Signorelli Setting the Room (ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim, 2012): Photo by Paul Signorelli Re-setting the Room Sequence (ALA Annual Conference, Las Vegas, 2014): Photos by Paul Signorelli Defining the Learning Space Images (YouTube Video): From Michael Wesch’s A Vision of Students Today, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o Defining the Learning Space (Anne & Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania): Photo by Paul Signorelli Defining the Learning Space, Media Lab, University of Texas, Austin: Photos by Paul Signorelli Defining the Learning Space (Volunteer Orientation, ALA Annual Conference, Las Vegas, 2014): Photo by Paul Signorelli Defining the Learning Space (Poster Session, New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Portland, OR, 2014): Photos by Paul Signorelli Defining the Learning Space (Networking Uncommons, ALA Midwinter Meeting, Philadelphia, 2014): Photos by Paul Signorelli Defining the Learning Space (Autodesk Makerspaces, San Francisco, 2014): Photo by Paul Signorelli Blended Learning Spaces (Desktop/Laptop): Photo by Paul Signorelli Extended Learning Spaces (From Google Hangout conducted in Networking Uncommons, ALA Midwinter Meeting, January 2015): Photo by Paul Signorelli Mobile Learning Spaces (Philadelphia Airport Lounge, sponsored by Free Library of Philadelphia): Photo by Paul Signorelli Globe: Photo by Paul Signorelli Flipped Classroom: From Ransomtech’s photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ransomtech/7112676365/sizes/m/ Idea Spaces: Images from Tom Haymes‘ Idea Spaces website at http://tech.nwc.hccs.edu/idea-spaces/ Questions & Comments: From Valerie Everett’s Flickr photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/3006348550/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Editor's Notes
- Let’s seek some common ground as, and knowledge and information professionals, we begin our time together today by walking virtually through the Collaborative Commons in the Perry-Castañeda Library on the University of Texas, Austin campus. If you’re reacting the way I did during a physical walk-through earlier this year, you’re noticing that it wakes us up. It’s an open, yet well-defined space. The flow of light through the windows to the left and from the overhead lighting is comfortable. The colors perk us up immediately and make the space immediately feel vibrant. The seating appears to be comfortable and makes us want to spend time there with our co-learners. The space and furniture are also highly adaptable—we can easily reconfigure the space to meet our learning needs. And although it’s not obvious from this angle, that whiteboard is the middle of the photograph is augmented by tech tools to support the learning process. One final obvious element: learning resources (AKA books) are also within reach.
- What if we had none of that? What if we could create a learning space that met our learning needs in the most inviting of ways with whatever we had with us at any given moment? We actually can lay the foundations for an effective and engaging learning session today by quickly looking at the space we’re in, acknowledging what is positive about it, and noting what will not at all support a dynamic and memorable learning experiences. Then make it work as best we can. With that, let’s dive into the challenge: You have three minutes to reset this room in any way that you believe will support your own learning during the time we have together. Let’s see what you come up with…
- [after three minutes and a quick debrief] If you had been with us at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference Learning Round Table “Ignite Interact Engage” session, you would know how this turned out: Participants, doing this same exercise (inspired, by the way, by Peter Block, a fabulous writer-trainer-consultant who did this at a conference I attended in 2008), went far beyond anything I had anticipated when they not only rearranged the tables and chairs, but actually went out into a hallway to retrieve a sofa for our session. It left us with a newly-created slogan—”Addressing the couch in the middle of the room”—and created a memorable learning experience that we obviously can easily replicate with our own learners. (More information at https://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/ala-annual-conference-2012-addressing-the-couch-in-the-room/.)
- A similar exercise at the ALA 2014 Annual Conference (in Las Vegas) produced equally interesting results, as you see from this sequence of four photographs in which learners quickly broke down the shoulder-to-shoulder row-after-row seating arrangement, pulled tables from the side of the room into the middle of the room, and quickly produced a learning circle that left no one standing at the front of the room or sitting in the back, staring at the backs of other participants’ heads.
- This, we can probably agree, captures what is essential in our quest to answer the question “how can we design and manage learning spaces that support successful learning opportunities?”: Learning has to be playful. Learning has to be memorable. Learning has to have the learner at the center of the process. Learning has to meet the needs of the learner as well as the needs of the organization and those it ultimately serves. And learning has to build off of what we already know.
- We’re all familiar with our traditional learning spaces—those lecture halls with rows of seats that place the focus on the teacher-instructor-trainer at the front of the room. Michael Wesch, in his wonderful YouTube video “A Vision of Students Today” (2007), inspires us to question the efficacy of this centuries old model, as we see in three screenshots from the beginning of the film…
- Let’s focus, for a moment, on that lecture hall that is visible behind the Marshall McLuhan quote: What words come to your mind if you try to describe the sort of learning that takes place in this kind of space? What does this type of learning space suggest to you as knowledge and information professionals? (Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o.)
- Now let’s make the obvious jump and acknowledge the numerous roles that libraries play in providing learning spaces to support our lifelong learning environment: What words come to your mind if you try to describe the sort of learning that can be fostered in this reading room in the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library on the University of Pennsylvania campus?
- Returning to another space within the Perry-Castañeda Library in Austin—we saw the library’s Collaborative Commons a few minutes ago—we move into more contemporary learning spaces as we enter the library Media Lab.
- Again, your reactions in terms of what makes this a good or not-so-good learning space: From the learning facilitator’s point of view? From the learner’s point of view? From a knowledge or information manager’s point of view?
- We’re part of and surrounded by numerous learning spaces nearly every day, but rarely give them much thought. Let’s remedy that a bit by looking at some informal spaces and how they support learning, and let’s think about how we can use them to our learners’ benefit within our own organizations. Notice, in this informal setting at an American Library Association conference, that you can’t even tell who the teacher-learning facilitator is. The focus has shifted from teacher at the front of a room to learning facilitator as part of a learning community. We also see the seamless incorporation of technology through a bring-your-own-device underpinning in place. Yes, it’s in a conference center setting—but it could just as easily be in a business or library setting.
- This close-up shot of one of 30 poster sessions held in an open hotel space as part of the New Media Consortium’s Annual Summer Conference (Portland, Oregon; 2014) is wonderful for what it says about the use of a space. This particular session was promoted as an opportunity to learn about how an elementary school instructor (Cheryl Steighner) incorporated social media tools into day-to-day learning opps for her third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students. The twist, as you’re probably already gathering, was that Cheryl stepped aside and turned this into a learning space where her very young learners were our instructors.
- That simple act of flipping things a bit made this a great use of the space and, furthermore, made it a memorable learning experience for everyone—including those young learners who realized that their age didn’t prevent them from being able to help others learn from their own experiences. (More at https://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/nmc-2014-summer-conference-not-in-my-wildest-dreams/.)
- Jumping back to a conference setting—the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia (January 2014)—we see yet another wonderful example of minimal set-up creating fantastic learning opportunities. The space is the conference Networking Uncommons—a place with chairs, tables, abundant power cords, good wifi connections—and, most importantly, a standing invitation (from ALA staff to conference attendees) to use the space as a place to meet and talk and engage. The “learners” in this setting are members of ALA’s Library and Information Technology Association who agreed to meet in the Uncommons for an informal conversation; when that conversation turned to a question about whether anyone was using Google Glass yet, and it became clear that one of the LITA members actually had his Glass with him, they quickly transformed the conversation into a learning opportunity centered on their attempts to conduct a conversation via a Google Hangout connecting them via the Glass, other participants’ mobile devices, and a laptop. A great reminder here for all of us: what at first might have appeared to be a very bizarre example of a bunch of people sitting together but more engaged with tech than with each other actually shows how “blending” an experience through a combination of face-to-face and online interactions can produce a wonderful and unique learning opportunity. All that limits us in this particular case is our imagination and willingness to explore.
- Close-up of Jason Griffey, with his Google Glass; Jason is founder and principal consultant at Evenly Distributed (http://evenlydistributed.net/) and formerly served as associate professor and head of Library Information Technology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
- Makerspaces are receiving plenty of attention—and for good reason. As we saw in the previous example, the intersection of people, technology, flexibility, and curiosity can be a powerful combination in fostering learning in a variety of settings. What we see here is one of several industrial-level makerspaces within the Autodesk facility on San Francisco’s Pier 9.
- Although many of us affiliated with libraries might think makerspaces as places driven by high-tech equipment, the Autodesk space reminds us that makerspaces are grounded in a long tradition of learning and building with whatever tools we have at hand.
- And as we acknowledge the setting as part of the learning space, we can’t help but be completely enamored of how stimulating it is for users of those Autodesk makerspaces to have the views that exist just outside the “classroom” windows.
- We’re now quickly moving far beyond anything imagined by those who are still locked into the large-lecture-hall instructor-as-focal-point model. Our personal learning spaces within our homes and offices can bring learning opportunities to us as well as providing us the opportunity to facilitate distance-learning experiences through formal webinars, online synchronous and asynchronous courses, and even through live Twitter sessions (tweet chats)—a “learning space” option we’re going to explore a bit more a few minutes from now. Note that this can be seen as a learning space connected to and comprised of a number of learning spaces.
- Returning to the ALA Networking Uncommons—this time in its incarnation at the 2015 American Library Association Midwinter Conference (Chicago, January2015)—we carry blended learning and blended-learning spaces even further. This screenshot from an archived recording of a Google Hangout conducted from the Uncommons suggests several things to us: Part of the learning space is onsite there in the Uncommons. Part of the learning space is online through the Hangout itself. Part of the learning space is in the homes or offices of the other Hangout participants who, in this case, are learning, through experience, how those unable to physically attend a conference can participate virtually through Hangouts or other online teleconferencing/telepresence platforms. And part of the learning space remains accessible in the form of the archived recording that is still available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR2XyaFeA68 And if we really want to stretch our definition of the learning space in this case, we could suggest that part of the learning space is the article I wrote and posted on my blog to help others learn how they could engage in similar onsite-online blended-conference participation: https://buildingcreativebridges.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/ala-2015-midwinter-meeting-bringing-offsite-colleagues-into-the-room/
- Our view of what constitutes a learning space continues to develop and offer us very interesting possibilities. I realized, while sitting in this Philadelphia Airport lounge space sponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia, that it, too, could serve as a temporary learning space if any of us used the wifi access to further our learning by accessing resources online, immerse ourselves in an asynchronous learning module on our laptops or mobile devices, or even engage in a synchronous online learning opportunity such as a tweetchat. And in what is, so far, the most extreme version of turning a space into a learning space, I recently actually participated in a tweet chat with members of one of my learning communities while they were in various places within the United States, Canada, and Australia, and I was 33,000 feet above the planet on a cross-country Virgin America flight that had flawless wifi service.
- As should be clear by now, we’re continuing to push the boundaries of what a learning space is; a couple of us, in fact, have repeatedly facilitated learning sessions where I’m onsite and my colleague is elsewhere in the country and connected to us via a Google Hangout. The results are spectacular: with minimal technology, we are able to see, hear, and interact with her, and she can see and hear what is happening in our onsite space. The question I always ask at the end of a session—how long did it take you to forget she was not physically in the room?—generally produces a response of “five minutes or less.” Let’s not get carried away. It’s not perfect. The sound is not perfectly synched up with the video feed, and there are times when the connections can be less-than-perfect, but participants often become as immersed in the experience as we become when we’re watching a movie or a television program: if what we’re doing is engaging, the tech flaws fade into the background and the learning opportunities become memorable and effective. That raises a question worth considering: if we’re in this room, and we have colleagues participating from a distance, how big is our learning space?
- Here’s one potential and very real answer…
- Let’s build upon the wisdom of this particular crowd by responding to a couple of questions grounded in what we have just covered together…
- Among the short-term trends driving educational-technology adoption in higher education (for the next one to two years) is an interest in redesigning learning spaces, according to the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition (released in February 2015): “Some thought leaders believe that new forms of teaching and learning require new spaces for teaching and learning...Educational settings are increasingly designed to facilitate project-based interactions with attention to mobility, flexibility, and multiple device usage….A student-centered approach to education has taken root, prompting many higher education professionals to rethink how learning spaces should be configured. The mold of the traditional classroom is being broken by several institutions to accommodate new pedagogies; instead of the traditional rows of chairs with writing surfaces facing a podium, universities are creating more dynamic classroom layouts, often with seating arrangements that foster collaborative work. These redesigned spaces support what is often referred to as flexible or active learning.” (p 16) Let’s see how that is playing out a bit. (Horizon Report at http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/.)
- What’s worth noting here for our discussion today is that learning spaces are driven by changes in our pedagogical models. A commonly-asked question that all of us are going to have to face sooner than later is: If we want to move toward more learner-centric models of learning, what are we going to do with inflexible learning spaces that have fixed shoulder-to-shoulder seating or hard-to-move furniture? The Flipped Classroom model—which continues to evolve from its initial format of having learners view brief lectures and then using their face-to-face classroom time for collaborative, interactive, project-based learning—is one example of how our definitions of learning spaces are changing. The learning space includes seamless interactions between online and onsite instruction rather than keeping everything centered around classroom lectures.
- Bruce Wexler is among the neuroscientists documenting the difference an enriched (stimulating) environment can make. It’s something we appreciate when we see elementary-school learning spaces where the walls are full of subject-specific images such as maps or photographs of parts of the world those young learners are exploring. But we seem to lose track of how important a stimulating environment can be as we move into large lecture halls and discussion rooms in higher education, and we lose even more by the time we enter staff-training sessions in computer labs or meeting rooms that are painted in completely neutral colors and, in the worst of situations, force learners to view text-laden PowerPoint slide decks. Which is why the simple act of entering a space like the Perry-Castañeda Library is such a rewarding experience: it does wake us up, it does remind us of what a learning space can be, and it does offer us opportunities to learn from the learning space itself. Let’s take a look at the space and see what contributes to the feeling of it being an enriched environment…
- John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist who also happens to be a wonderful writer, offers us a set of rules to help us understand how our brains function in a variety of settings—including in learning. In his section on sensory integration, he reminds us that when we stimulate a variety of our senses when we are engaged in learning, we are more likely to remember what we are learning. He also reminds us that our sense of vision is extremely important in the learning process, so we don’t want to ignore the use of strong visuals (and settings with plenty of visual stimulation) when we design and use learning spaces.
- While I was at that New Media Consortium 2014 Summer [ed-tech] conference in Portland, Oregon and enjoying the poster session led by those young learners, I was also lucky enough to attend an “Idea Spaces” session led by Tom Haymes from Houston Community College Northwest. He has an entire website that is seamlessly interwoven with the presentation he did, and you can easily find it by doing a Google search for “Idea Spaces” and “Tom Haymes.” http://tech.nwc.hccs.edu/idea-spaces/ One important thing to note here is that by creating a website for learning sessions we believe are important—and why are we putting time into learning sessions if we don’t think they are important?—we stack the deck in favor of making sure that those “blow their doors off” moments are well-supported long after we and our learners go our separate ways. Worried about the time it takes to build a website? Do what Tom does: use a simple user-friendly tool like Wordpress so that you’re turning a blogging tool you may already know into a dynamic learning site that will continue to inspire learners. And recognize that the website becomes an integral part of your learning space.
- And one more thing from Tom’s presentation: a visualization of 10 years of learning-space/idea-space evolution on his campus. A point Tom makes—and one you’re seeing today if I’m doing my job the right way—is that in idea spaces, there is no front of the room. Learners interact in ways that work for them, and all of us involved in the learning process are the winners—in our learning spaces and beyond. Let’s stop again long enough to see what is appealing in some of these spaces and what makes them work when they work…
- Connected learning—in which learners interact very effectively face to face and online—is receiving plenty of well-deserved attention; the in-depth report Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design from our colleagues at the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, helps us see how learners and learning facilitators are interacting in very exciting and productive ways, and are among the resources helping us to redefine and re-envision what learning spaces are and can be. (Connected Learning report at http://dmlhub.net/wp-content/uploads/files/Connected_Learning_report.pdf.)
- As we move more and more into online settings as learning spaces, we can’t ignore the creative ways in which lifelong learning incorporates social media tools, including Twitter, into the mix. Moving our learning experiences into well-facilitated sessions using Twitter means that entire communities of learning are continuing to develop with Twitter serving as the meeting place/space. #lrnchat, for example, is a weekly gathering (Thursdays, 8:30 pm ET/5:30 pm PT) where many of us involved in workplace-learning efforts meet for a one-hour facilitated discussion of an idea or resource that we can immediately use in our own day-to-day teaching-training-learning efforts. Our interactions and our learning space are primarily online, but members of the community manage to convene face to face occasionally when we are at conferences or other learning opportunities—which means those conference sites at least temporarily become part of our ever-shifting learning space.
- Facebook, through its private-group function, can also provide an effective synchronous or asynchronous learning space. In helping adult learners become familiar with social media tools, I have successfully conducted online office hours that used the chat function within Facebook to engage learners in loosely-facilitated conversations. The learners, by using Facebook for this purpose, were able to see how the tool itself provided a great forum for exploring and discussing issues of interest to them.
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have received varying degrees of attention over the past few years. Some of our colleagues mistakenly saw MOOCs as a replacement for brick-and-mortar learning spaces; others saw them as an interesting part of our overall learning landscape. What we might consider today is the idea that connectivist MOOCs—those MOOCs that are grounded in collaborative learning opportunities for those who learn by interacting with others—can be seen in a variety of ways, not the least of which is as unique learning spaces. A well-designed and well-facilitated MOOC begins with a central site, as we see in this screenshot of the Open and Connected Learning MOOC that was offered in fall 2014. It quickly spreads over a variety of learner-driven platforms as learners interact in Twitter, in Google+ communities, through Google Hangouts, through Blackboard Collaborate, and in a variety of other ways. I’ll be absolutely honest here: in many ways, I see connectivist MOOCs as a dynamic example of much of what we’ve been discussing today. Learners “gather” within cMOOCs, learn within cMOOCs, interact within cMOOCs, and in many ways set their own pace as well as learning goals and learning objectives within the framework established by designers and facilitators of cMOOCs. And in the best of cases, they form long-lasting communities of learning that define and redefine their own learning spaces on an as-needed basis. These learning spaces can be confusing, if not overwhelming, to those who are unfamiliar with them, so they are the sort of learning spaces that require us to help learners learn how to use them. But for those who find them intriguing, the results are fabulous, and I think we’re far from being able to predict how they are going to continue to evolve.
- Let’s move into a final discussion before ending with a brief summary of what we’ve discussed, then take a few minutes for any remaining questions you have…
- We started with a look at how flexible learning spaces support the learning process.
- We saw that engagement begins with the simple act of involving learners in their learning process at a visceral level.
- We saw a couple of informal settings in which learning was supported by a creative use of space and a creative approach to using that space for learning purposes.
- We looked at an example of how a Google Hangout (or any other form of teleconferencing/telepresence) could connect onsite colleagues with those who couldn’t be present on that site so that learning and collaboration wasn’t hindered by geographic barriers.
- We explored a few of the pedagogical underpinnings that need our attention as we continue designing, using, and expanding our learning spaces.
- What we’re left with is an understanding that our learning spaces, when we combine onsite and online resources, are now as big as our target audience of learners is—which means that our learning spaces can be as big as the world itself if we and our learners have access to online resources. As knowledge and information professionals, we have our work cut out for us in this wonderfully challenging world of learning and learning spaces.