Learning Spaces: Resources of Interest

University Projects

• University of Waterloo's LT3/Library FLEX Lab: http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/FLEX
  The Lab is designed to be a flexible educational experience, with moveable tables and laptops for easy reconfiguration (via a raised floor and multiple power/data floor outlets), whiteboards on tracks, and videoconferencing equipment.
• MIT's iCampu TEAL (Teaching Enabled Active Learning): http://www-caes.mit.edu/research/teal/index.html
  MIT's project to revamp introductory Physics classes.
• Georgia Tech's eClass Project: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/eclass/index.html
  Their classrooms use e-whiteboards, audio/video recording, data projectors, etc. to capture the classroom session electronically, freeing students from taking lecture notes and making a record of the classroom experience.
  • You can see the technology list here: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/facilities.html
  • You can hear Gregory Abowd, College of Computing, Georgia Tech, talk about it, captured from a talk Webcast from UoT (March 6th event): http://epresence.kmdi.utoronto.ca/netscape/archived.asp
• Ball State's international videoconferencing project:
  • The classrooms with vc equipment, wireless, laptops: http://web.bsu.edu/tlat/facilities.asp
• University of Chicago "Computing Clusters": http://intech.uchicago.edu/ccc/crerar.html
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's "Collaborative Classroom": http://www.dcr.rpi.edu/colclass.html
  "Seating for teams of two to six students at technology-enhanced conference tables. At each table, a single, shared high-end Windows PC serves students via student-supplied laptop computers, shared keyboards and mice, and large-screen color monitors buried in the table. This arrangement helps preserve natural lines of sight, allowing users to talk freely and to see the front of the classroom. "
  • Also, "Design Conference Room": http://www.dcr.rpi.edu/
    A "regular" conference facility, plus computers buried in side wings of the table. Center tabletop contains three large color monitors visible through glass panels. These central monitors, which show the same image to all users, constitute a public digital workspace, with each user capable of taking control.
    

Papers and Presentations

• Mark Valenti of Sextant Group (academic facilities design for H.E.) address to NLII (Nat. Learning Infrastructure Initiative):
  • In brief: the changing expectations of the typical 18 year old student (wearable tech., online library, mobile, wireless, team-based, "Don't waste my time.", etc.) and how universities need to plan infrastructure for changing times.
  • NLII meeting notes: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NLI0205.pdf
  • Slides from talk at University of Rochester: http://www.thesextantgroup.com/rochester.pdf
  • EDUCAUSE Review article on convergence of IT and AV in new classrooms (Oct. 2002): http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0254.pdf
• EDUCAUSE 2000 Current Issues Roundtable on Electronic Classrooms and Buildings of the Future: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EDU0074.pdf
• Hybrid Campus for the New Millenium by Ron Bleed (EDUCAUSE Review, Jan/Feb 2001): http://www.tcnj.edu/itweb/webinit/library/facBleed.pdf
• Bruce Jilks' article Designing a Model for the Colledge Campus of the Future (have yet to find online!)

Groups and Companies

• Sextant Group
• SCUP (Society for College and University Planning)
• AIA (American Institute of Architects)?
• AMBIENTE division of the Fraunhofer-IPSI research institute
  • i-LAND "interactive Landscape" project
  • Paper about i-LAND

Buildings and Rooms

• College of Business, Iowa State University
  The site is of interest because it exposes lots of process and committee composition information, especially the planning stages and the types of spaces they put in the building. For example, the site has Floor Plans (left menu) for the building showing the floors and see team rooms, classrooms, teaching labs, offices, storage, vending machines, etc. The Web site also gives photos from site visits to other schools (bottom of page) which could also fuel discussions about the types of rooms to plan. E.g., classrooms, conference rooms, labs, coffee areas, offices, attrium, along with their comments from the site visits.
• Columbia Business School
  This building was finished in 1999 and is 83,140 gross square feet, shared with other groups. It has floor plans as well as a FAQ. One of the interesting thing that comes out of their floor plan is an indication of where some of the funding came from. They have various classrooms and lecture halls named after various groups and businesses :-)

PDAs and other personal devices:

• Wake Forest University EDUCAUSE award for Systemic Progress in T&
  http://www.educause.edu/awards/tl/2002/WakeForest.html
• PDAs at University of South Dakota
  http://usd.edu/palm/
• Lots of resources about PDAs in education!
  http://www.cet.middlebury.edu/payne/modules/pda.html
• Xybernaut - a company focused on the mobile work force, with applications also to the mobile learning environment
  http://www.xybernaut.com/newxybernaut/Solutions/product/listing_product.htm
• IPods
  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10117475/site/newsweek/
  http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/podcasting_win.html
  http://ipodgarage.com/article.php?id=602

Considerations!

Stuff to look at sometime:

• EDUCAUSE Effective Practises and Solutions:
  • Strategic Planning for Life-Cycle Funding and Technology Replacement (Indiana U.) http://www.educause.edu/ep/ep_item_detail.asp?ITEM_ID=50
  • Faculty "buy-in" for Multimedia classrooms (East Tennessee State U.) http://www.educause.edu/ep/ep_item_detail.asp?ITEM_ID=82
• **Design Features for Project-Based Learning:
  • Susan J. Wolff, Ed. D. http://www.designshare.com/Research/Wolff/Project_Learning.htm
  • Amsterdam Watershed: alternative learning environments http://www.designshare.com/Research/AIA/AIA_AMS_2000/QA_Jilk/AMS_Watershed_1.htm
  • The Education Environment Program http://www.designshare.com/Research/Anstrand_Kirkbride/EEP.htm
• Designs for Learning: 55 Exemplary Educational Facilities, by Org. for Econ. Co-op. & Dev., 2001 http://www.oecd.org/els/education/facilities (online book: http://oecdpublications.gfi-nb.com/cgi-bin/OECDBookShop.storefront/EN/product/952001011P1)
• Stanford's Wallenberg Hall (possibly for CBET, esp. floor plans): http://www.wgln.org/projects/wallenberg_hall/
• Very nice U. Minnesota e-classroom "Food for Thought" ... lots of interesting links
  http://www.classroom.umn.edu/foodforthought.asp