Re-shaping Learning - the conference (and the book)

The Re-Shaping Learning conference at the University of Brighton in July 2010 aimed to bring together the best researchers around Learning Spaces - who are usually separated because they work across the different disciplines of educational theory, design teaching, architecture and estates management. One of the things we have been interested in is how to make the best work more easily accessible (since it is scattered across many subjects and locations). So it is great news that Sense want to publish a book collection for us.

The conference was also one of the last events of CETLD, at the end of its five  year life, and - as with the other CETLs - it  is only now that some crucial emerging themes are becoming clear. A key concern of the conference was to widen debate about Learning Spaces beyond building some new innovative informal learning spaces. Many contributors agreed that it also urgently needs to include theoretical research and development, cross-disciplinary critical debate, improved methodologies for designing and evaluating spaces and a much more focussed engagement with the 'big' issues of learning as a social and spatial practice; that is, both unravelling the assumptions about where, how, why and for whom different forms of education are patterned in space and time, and how these might be better organised.

Where do we look for good examples?

One of the important aspects of the recent CETLD-hosted Learning Spaces Special Interest Group (SIG) was the way it brought together people across education, and between educationalists from universities and from other institutions. So in addition to learning development people, there were also librarians and computing specialists; and as well as representatives from Brighton, Sheffield, Sheffield-Hallam, Sussex, Nottingham, Cardiff and Coventry universities there were also participants from the V& A and Writtle College. 

As well as visits to both CETLD and InQbate, part of the CETL-C initiative, the group explored examples they had each been asked to bring of good learning spaces they knew; in terms of what was effective, was what challenging and issues around evaluation. 

As well as some of the more well-known innovative learning spaces recently built in unversities, types of spaces discussed included some from elsewhere:

·       Outdoor formal garden space, Devon  - good for formal, informal, complex, varied, surprising and aspiration reasons; challenges for weather, intrusions

·       Herman Miller National Design Centre, London.  Multi-functional modular open space. Good for flexible, adaptable, “aspirational”, interesting use of partitions; challenges – noisy, flexible, adaptable, jack of all trades etc. and noisy

·       National Art library, V&A museum, good for quiet, peaceful space, old desks, beautiful view, challenges can include high noise at times   

I have also recently been looking at the various Google offices again, and thinking two - potentially contradictory - thoughts. First, that we need to look at these too (and the whole impact of ideas of the 'knowledge economy' on office design. And second, that we need to know more about what is distinctive about spaces for post-compulsory learning, so that we can really understand what kinds of changes (whether physical or virtual) can enhance learning at this level. 

Image shows facade of Herman Miller National Design Centre, recently opened in the Aldwych in London.

Places to study?

As part of my Russian trip, I went on a visit of the Moscow State University - built in the 1950s by Stalin (as one of his infamous Gothic skyscrapers) - which was designed as a self-contained campus with accommodation for 6, 000 students, on Sparrow Hills just to the south of the Moskva river.

I was taken around by students who were well aware of the building's history (it was built by prisoners), but also felt the importance of both remembering and continuing its ethos of good academic education. They showed us these original desks - still in use throughout and facing a traditional chalk blackborad - and said how much they were motivated by sitting where previous generations of scholars had learnt.

For some reason this reminded me of a recent summary of learning spaces at Cambridge University, written as part of the Learning Landscape project, funded by the Higher Education Academy. The learning experience at somewhere like Cambridge is just so different to, for example, one of the ex-polytechnics; both because of the postive echoes of its academic history and because of the range and type of spaces available across both accommodation (the Colleges) and university departments.

As author Dr. Catherine Howell writes, "Colleges are important to students because they provide a spectrum of critical study resources - including study space - within easy reach, and because they are learning and social communities. These communities are especially valued by undergraduate students in view of the study workload, the high-stakes assessment system and the relatively short Cambridge terms, all of which contribute to the '24-hour' work culture." (Howell 2008:4). For nme, this is yet another warning against the glib generalities of 'formal' versus 'informal' learning spaces.

As the two main CETLD learning spaces researchers, Hilary and I have been talking a lot recently about what is already available, in terms of appropriate conceptual frameworks, research methods and taxonomies. Hilary has been reviewing the many good practice case studies of contemporary learning spaces in post-compulsory education. There are lots of interesting examples but also some on-going problems: potential citation distortion (where the same examples are referenced again and again without much checking on the validity of the data proffered); difficulties of finding out what is happening across the sector, intersecting with varying degrees of promotion by individual universities and projects; and – because of the recent focus on technology-rich and informal learning spaces – a tendency to ignore (or fail to effectively classify/compare and contrast) the range of developments taking place across the variety of learning spaces from lecture theatres, to labs, to studios to research centres.

In the latter area, for example, Woods Bagot have done an interesting ‘study tour’ of advanced learning institutes, aimed at bringing together researchers from different disciplines; of which the MIT Stata Center (pictured above), designed by Frank Gehry Associates, is probably one of the most famous/infamous.

These are very relevant to CETLD because it brings together HE institutions with non-university partners. Who, for example, is analysing and comparing museum education spaces with HE versions? Well, us I hope!

Finding good examples of learning spaces

Now we have a new Learning Spaces researcher at CETLD - Hilary Smith - we are beginning a piece of work planned for some time; a critical revisit of the most frequently cited 'best practice' UK Learning Spaces case studies. Not surprisingly, the same examples come up again and again in JISC and other reports so we felt it was time to take an overview and explore the underlying intentions, assumptions and evaluation methodologies of these studies. Our aim is to develop richer and more rigorous methods for assessing 'success'; and then test these on some other learning spaces (including more 'traditional' lecture theatres etc.)

Luckily, it looks like the JELS study (see previous post) by LSRI, University of Nottingham has also undertaken such a taxonomy, although it is not in the public domain yet. I have the feeling that this is something that lots of people involved in Learning Spaces are thinking of doing.....


Image by Jos Boys; disabled and deaf artist workshop on 'a space for two people to meet' at InQbate, CETL-C, Summer 2008. Artwork by Mandy Legg and Sabine Gruhn

More on evaluation

The final JISC report “Study of effective evaluation models & practices for technology supported physical learning spaces” has now been published, can be accessed here. Undertaken by the LSRI at the University of Nottingham, the research found that existing evaluations were not, to put it politely, much to write home about:

Our initial investigations showed that although institutions were keen to advertise new or innovative learning spaces, the practice of evaluating such spaces was not made readily visible and was thus harder to identify or track. A key finding to emerge from the study was that if evaluations were undertaken they occurred as part of an internal institutional process, typically prompted as part of a student satisfaction survey, of which the outputs were not ordinarily deemed to be for external consumption. This has limited the extent to which knowledge sharing about learning spaces has been promoted across the whole educational community.

The study suggests that HE and FE need to think harder about how to evaluate physical learning spaces, so as to more clearly assess how they satisfy design intentions and teaching and learning needs. They also propose a conceptual Framework for Evaluating Learning Spaces (FELS), aiming to offer a common vocabulary for evaluation which different institutions could test. And they have started a Learning Spaces social networking site at spacesforlearning.ning.com.

Image from student project Minimum Conditions for Creativity LondonMet University

---

I want social networking +

For people interested in developing new technologies for learning, the enormous growth in online social networking (through Web 2.0 applications like Facebook and MySpace) seems to offer a way forward for student-centred, collaborative approaches. Enthusiasts for new technologies are also hopeful that it will change the way we teach and learn – shifting relationships between tutor and students, and instigating informal and social rather than formal and hierarchical structures.

The big question here is, does social networking translate to education, and if so, how?

At the same time, with virtual and immersive environments like Second Life also becoming popular there is another thread developing which looks to computer gaming for a model; with its task setting, competitive sharing and increasingly difficult levels, is this more like education? As part of the reLIVE Second Life conference (see previous post) I helped a University of Brighton researcher called Lars Wieneke with participant feedback. Lars is developing web interfaces based on task sharing/gameplay for learning about cultural heritage and his audience was asked to ‘perform’ a painting in Second Life. What was most interesting was that, first, everyone found it difficult NOT to engage with the painting by wanting information about it; and that, second, as they performed its characters and their relationships instead, they all wanted to go and see the actual work. So an action in Second Life was leading to a motivation to do something in the real world. That seemed like a positive and creative outcome, even if neither Lars nor I had been expecting it. So that is another thought which may lead somewhere, but not quite sure where...

image of  the painting workshop participants were asked to 'perform' in character - Velazquez's Las Meninas 1656