This is part of Maricopa, called Estrella Mountain Community College - so I am expecting something interesting, and hoping that I dont start craving decomposing pigs.
Most of these sessions have shown us Learning Studios - which by and large look like the Blackwell's conversion but with lots and lots of computers.
They have a partnership with Herman Miller, as do Georgia Tech. Herman Miller do have a UK office, maybe we should have an exploratory chat with them. The watchword for this project was radical flexibility. There were rumours that they would be portakabins on wheels.
The question they asked the academics wasnt "what kind of space do you want?" but "How is your discipline changing?" followed by "how is the teaching of your discipline changing?" answers were desk space, good lighting, storage areas, ubiquitous access, etc etc They had 3 levels of learning studio, where level 1 is like a traditional classroom with flexible furniture, level 2 has more laptops, level 3 every student a laptop. Teachers have to justify using a level 3 by outlining their plans and pedagogic approach. They built some prototypes to influence academics, then built 22 learning studios.
Their evaluation of the studios compared what happens in traditional classrooms with the studios. The methodology looks a bit weird though, I will try find the link later on.
here it is:
http://www.estrellamountain.edu/awareness/studio.asp
Making huge claims for enhancement, eg things like asking active questions in clasee, all as a result of the studions. CCSSE.org is where the data is - go to
http://www.ccsse.org/
to have a peep at the US community college equivalent of the NSS. Have a go at drilling down a bit to see the number of options on offer - phew.
mentioned using Gartner research, which hadnt occurred to me, but we do have a subscription and we should definitely explore that.
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