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If we could implement this new vision of how learning occurs by buying the right kind of chair, purchasing projectors with sufficient lumens, or installing digital whiteboards, learning space design would be simple. Obviously, it is much more complex — the task of designing and implementing learning environments that encourage good learning practices and accommodate the Net Gen learning style is a challenging one.
A starting point is to try to imagine what these new spaces might look like and how students would function in them. Creating scenarios helps define functions, usage practices, and design goals. Consider the following three scenarios as examples.
Scenario 1: The New Lecture Hall
Sandra, a junior, is heading to her psychology class, which meets at 10:00 a.m. It is a relatively large class for her liberal arts college, with some 150 students, so it meets in a lecture hall. As she arrives, she sees that the professor has, as usual, both projection screens lowered, one showing course material, the other displaying the familiar "voting" screen. Sandra finds a seat among some friends and begins "moving in" to her space. This lecture hall is of relatively recent vintage; its seats and paired tables make it much easier to deploy and use her "tools," which include printouts of the day's reading, as well as a small laptop computer. Her fellow students are doing likewise. Each of them is using some device to access the course's Web site — some with laptops, others with tablet computers, still others with handheld computers. Using wireless connections, they all access the course's Web site and navigate to the site's "voting" page.
Figure 1. Technology-supported Lecture Hall
Photograph: Joe Mehling, Dartmouth College
The professor commences her lecture. In one of the older lecture halls, she might have been tied to the lectern so that she could click through her PowerPoint slides. Or, she might have abandoned her slides in order to write on the blackboard while her students scribbled notes in their notebooks. But in this newly renovated lecture hall, she and her students have many more options. She has what the campus technology office calls a "magic wand," a radio-frequency controller that enables her to operate her computer — as well as many of the classroom's functions — wirelessly, from any point in the room. She can capture anything she writes on the blackboard and make it available to her students on the course Web site. Freed from needing to take extensive notes, the students are able to participate more fully in the class discussion. Finally, the professor is carrying a small recorder that captures her lecture, digitizes the audio, and uploads it to the course Web site for the students to review when they prepare for finals.
Figure 2. A PDA/Handheld Computer
Photograph: Joe Mehling, Dartmouth College
Today, she begins class by circulating through the room, using aisles that create paths through the students' seats. As she roams, she calls on students to share reactions to the readings. She encourages other students to offer additional comments. Soon, there is some debate about the reading, which is facilitated by the room's rows of paired tables and swivel chairs, making it possible to maintain eye contact with nearly everyone in the room.
At one point in the discussion, Sandra sketches a diagram on her laptop that she feels helps explain the concepts being discussed. She asks the professor if she could show it to the class. The professor agrees, and Sandra launches the classroom's screen sharing application. Within a few seconds, her computer's screen is projected on the room's main screen. The class discussion focuses on this diagram, and the professor, using a virtual pencil, is able to make notes on the diagram. The diagram and notes are captured and placed on the class Web site for review.
Soon, the debate gets stuck; the students can't resolve the issue. The professor goes to the podium, types briefly, and then asks the students to go to a URL to see a question and to choose the answer they feel is correct. The students access the Web page from laptops, handhelds, or wireless IP-based phones. In two minutes, they have completed the poll and submitted their responses. The results are quickly tabulated and displayed. The wide diversity of opinion surprises everyone. The professor reframes the issue, without giving the answer, and the students continue to discuss it. She repeats the poll; this time there is more agreement among the students, enabling her to move the discussion forward.
Figure 3. Handheld Computers in Class
Photograph: Joe Mehling, Dartmouth College
Halfway through the class period, the professor pauses the conversation. She goes to the podium computer and clicks on a few links, and soon a videoconferencing session is displayed on the right-hand screen. She has arranged to have a colleague of hers "drop in" on the class to discuss a point that is in the colleague's particular area of expertise. The class has a conversation with the expert, who is at a large research institution more than 500 miles away. Students listen to the expert's comments and are able to pose questions using one of the three cordless microphones available to the class. On the left-hand screen, the visiting professor shows some images and charts that help explain the concepts under discussion.
The professor concludes the day's class by showing a lab sign-up form, available on the course's Web site. Sandra is able to access the Web page almost instantly with her handheld computer and succeeds in signing up for lab times that work well with her schedule. It was good she didn't wait, for within 10 minutes of the end of class, the other students in her class have signed up for most of the slots, conferring with friends using chat programs to ensure that they sign up for the same lab slots.
Scenario 2: Using the Virtual Learning Space
When the class concludes, Sandra turns to her neighbor to ask about several points the professor made in class. This attracts two other students, who enter the conversation. As the discussion continues, they are joined by the professor, who is heading out. Since another class is beginning to file in, the professor suggests they move outside the room to continue the discussion. They find one of the "discussion pockets" unoccupied and move in. The discussion pocket is the college's term for a small, curved space with a table and bench to accommodate a meeting of four or five people. Found outside the newer classrooms, they are handy for informal, spontaneous discussions. Sandra's group moves into the pocket and for the next 15 minutes continue their "spill over" discussion of the class.
After this informal discussion concludes, Sandra heads to the library; she has an hour until her next class and needs to get some work done. She finds some table space, pulls out her laptop, books, and iPod and gets to work. She checks on her e-mail and sends some responses. Three friends "drop in" on her via the chat program, and she spends a few more minutes conversing with all three on separate subjects. That done, she fires up her iPod to listen to some music she downloaded using her subscription to the official campus online music service.
Figure 4. Technology in the Library
Photograph: Will Faller, Vassar College
Now she begins work on a term paper for a history class. She rummages through the library's online collection, looking for a map she needs to illustrate a point about 19th-century Asian history. She finds what she is looking for: although the map image is held by the library at a college on the other side of the country, Sandra has access to these resources. She is able to retrieve the map and insert it into her document. She then traces arrows over the image to point out items important to the points she is making.
Again, a friend drops in via chat, but this time, it is about the joint presentation they are preparing for another class.
Figure 5. IP-based Chat
Photograph: Joe Mehling, Dartmouth College
They are able to have an audio chat; Sandra's friend is in her dorm room, and Sandra is in a remote corner of the library where conversation will not disturb others. As their discussion progresses, they go to the course's Web site and launch the virtual whiteboard to diagram some concepts. They develop a conceptual diagram – drawing, erasing, and revising it until they agree the diagram is correct. They both download a copy. Sandra volunteers to work on polishing the diagram and will leave a copy of the final diagram in her shared folder in her online portfolio "locker."
Figure 6. Virtual Workspace Anywhere
Photograph: Joe Mehling, Dartmouth College
Sandra returns to work on her term paper and decides a half hour later to take a break. She again checks e-mail, chats briefly with a friend about their upcoming soccer game, and switches playlists on her iPod. Then, she remembers that she needs to review some Italian newscasts for her Italian class. The files containing the newscast video are on her iPod, so she plugs her iPod into her laptop, finds the video files, and launches her viewer application. Plugging her headphones into her computer, she is able to watch the entire segment, making notes on parts she did not fully understand. She then checks the class's Web site and sees there is an additional set of video files for reviewing. She downloads these quickly onto her iPod. Noting the time, Sandra packs up her gear and heads off to her next class, stopping once at a stand-up e-mail station to see the latest messages that have arrived in her inbox.
Scenario 3: From the Information Commons to the Learning Commons
Had sophomore Martin come to the university at the same time as his older sister some six years earlier, he would have found, as she did, a computer lab. This was a large room, located in the basement of the science building, filled with benches and seats. At each seat was a computer. A set of documentation racks were on one side of the room; some documents were in short supply, while others were obsolete. On the other side, was a help desk staffed by students with a finite set of answers to the infinite variety of questions directed at them. Finding a free computer, particularly at the end of the term, was a challenge. Once you arrived at an available computer, there was little room for all your study materials: books, backpack, coat, and folders. The administration, anxious to maximize student access to computers, had crammed as many workstations as they could into the space.
While the computers worked fine for the most part (though cleaning them up after previous users was sometimes a chore), getting help was a problem. To get help — for the use of an application or for a research question — required going to the second floor for IT help or to the main floor of the library for research help. That meant leaving your computer unguarded, possibly to be claimed by another student equally hungry for computer time. So you ended up rarely going for help, but instead muddled through as best you could, perhaps asking the student next to you when you were desperate.
But today Martin arrives at the first floor of the library and goes to a set of rooms collectively called the Learning Commons. At the threshold of the commons is the peer-tutoring room, a place where students can drop in and receive peer-based help with writing, research, or IT issues. Martin stops by to ask about incorporating MPEG-4 audio files into a PowerPoint presentation he's due to give next week for an anthropology course. At the same time, he is able to get some questions answered about relevant online journals for his research project in psychology.
Martin checks the time and heads to a work team pod — a small, horseshoe shaped table with a computer and large display — where he meets classmates from his chemistry course. The pod enables the work group to share the display and collectively work on materials. Martin works for an hour with three other students, reviewing drafts for their essays, checking online materials, and revising the Web site they are putting together for their collaborative project on the molecular properties of the surfaces of liquids.
Figure 7. Learning Commons
Photograph: Roberto Marques, USITE/Crerar Computing Laboratory Seminar Area, University of Chicago
Once that meeting is complete, he locates a free spot, pulls his laptop out of his backpack, and spends the half hour before his next team meeting doing a wide variety of things, including chatting with half a dozen friends about their party plans for the weekend. At the same time, he sends an e-mail to one of the TAs for the chemistry course, asking for clarification of an assignment. He also browses the Web, zeroing in on a Web site at another college that is relevant to his anthropology course work, as well as seeing if the latest CD from his favorite band is available through the Music Store. In a few minutes, he has purchased several tracks from it and downloaded them onto his computer.
Martin checks the time again. It's 10:00 p.m., and there's still a great deal to get done. He divides his time across several course assignments, numerous chat sessions, and reading (both from paper and from his computer screen). After a time, feeling drowsy, he goes to the Midnight Cafe, buys a soda and some chips, and returns to his work.
At 11:30 p.m., Martin packs his gear and heads to another part of the commons, the Media Studio, which offers a number of stations for students to use for more advanced work with video and audio. Martin is working with a team of four other students on an assignment for a film studies course. Their task is to find clips from a set of films that illustrate a particular filming technique and to explain why it is effective. They rendezvous at a group station and spend the next hour reviewing films and identifying the clips they will use. They ask the student consultant on duty about whether it would be better to collect these in a single clip or as separate clips. By 12:45 a.m., Martin and his teammates have made their selections and given themselves tasks for the next phase of the assignment.
Figure 8. Media Studio
Photograph: Joe Mehling, Dartmouth College
Martin calls up a Web page that contains a form for reserving one of the small group study rooms. He and some classmates have made an arrangement to meet with their anthropology professor. This meeting is to check on the progress Martin's group is making with their research project. The group wants the professor to review the video clips on their project Web site. Having found the reservation form, Martin is relieved to find that a room is available for the time they need; he reserves it. Noting it is now nearly one in the morning, Martin decides to turn in early for once (he has a language drill session at 7:45 a.m.). While walking back to his dorm, Martin prepares for the drill session by listening to some language lab audio files, which are streamed from the language lab server to his wireless iPod II.
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