A Brighter Tomorrow Starts Today!

What changes do you envision in the next ten years?

This past June I blogged about something that I still feel needs to change in the future-the physical learning space of students. I had just attended a Chromebook Institute workshop, learning more and more about how to engage my students with more technology. But actually the thing that piqued my interest more was an area that had a whole bunch of furniture. New age furniture for new age learning. It was very cool. Even though it has been almost 7 months since I attended, I still look around and feel the same.

C'mon, you know the following is true:

ACTIVE LEARNING=PHYSICAL MOVEMENT=INCREASED STUDENT ENGAGEMENT=MORE LEARNING

So why do many areas of our schools still promote seated, arranged, static, cramped and at times robotic learning???

Our physical layouts of classrooms, resource centers, learning commons and offices need to be redefined for the teachers and students as education evolves. For me, it is an essential that our desks and tables and learning spaces should be different if we want to create an environment of student ownership and active learning and professional collaboration. Wouldn't you or your students like to work, design, create and collaborate in these types of spaces with colleagues and classmates?

Images courtesy of Turnstone Office Furniture and Steelcase Office Furniture

Don't you think that this type of environment in your departmental office or learning spaces would get everyone's creative juices flowing more and encourage more thinking, more working together, more creating? Wouldn't the time with collaborative teams or groups be more productive in areas that lend themselves to easier collaboration and sharing of ideas or visions for the future? Me too! If we are changing the ways teachers and students are working and learning, shouldn't we change the physical layouts of our buildings so we can help that process along even more? Me too.