What does 'matter' about space?

The participants in the CETLD Does Space Matter? workshop - mentioned below - were first asked to describe (on a postcard) one 'good' and one 'bad' learning space they had personally experienced, either as a tutor or a student. Then groups compared notes and drew/mapped out key terminology and characteristics.

Not suprisingly, some of the most immediate issues were around basic issues of comfort; rooms that were too hot or cold, too noisy, "unwelcoming", the wrong size, shape or badly planned for the activities that went on in them.

But the more we talked, the more it felt like these issues were just first steps; things that should, after all, 'work' in any space. Whilst some participants emphasised the importance of flexibility and informality, others were also interested in trying to tease out the issues for, and value of, many different types of learning spaces. This involved thinking abut the usefulness of more complex and potentially contradictory terms - beyond simple oppositions (formal/informal, rigid/flexible, single-directional/multi-directional) - such as territory, authority, situation and safety. As one group wrote - "there is no such thing as a good or bad space, it's all contingent."

Evaluating Learning Spaces

One of the key problems - of course - about making better learning spaces, is how to evaluate 'success'. As someone said at our first CETLD Learning Spaces seminar at the University of Brighton last week (Does Space Matter?) a lot of developments seem to be about making spaces 'nicer'; brighter colours, better lighting, more informality, better integrated technologies. But students liking a space is not the same as it enhancing their learning (although it might overlap).

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), who are reponsible for developing UK unniversity and college technology services, have recently funded a study by LSRI at the University of Nottingham to build a compendium of evaluation techniques for learning spaces. This follows on from the JISC Learner Experiences research which is currently offering workshops across the country about evaluation methods (see sidebar). Called JELS, the new work aims to bring together and review the range of methods currently used to investigate the effectiveness of learning spaces: visit their website to find out more and to participate.

Note: The Does Space Matter seminar was the first of 3: for details of the others (and to register) go to the CETLD website.

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 

And then there is Second Life..

Went to the reLIVE conference at the Open University last week, and got my first proper introduction to Second Life, in the company of people who spend as much time there as the real world. For anyone interested in 'space' - and our everyday social and spatial interactions - Second Life is an extraordinary place. It is huge, an enormous world of islands, events and networks. It seems to be a complex mixture which both replicates real world social relationships/spaces and enables surreal, parallel and re-invented ones. So the basic landscapes conform to gravity and people tend to make their avatars face each other at an 'appropriate' social distance when text-talking. But then these figures might have bushy tails, or be dressed in extraordinary costumes, or (if you building skills are good enough) are in the shape of something else like crows or fish. It is quite strange to have a conversation with a fish rotating around your stomach.

With nearly 50 million people globally who are SL members, it feels like we should be understanding what is going on. For people interested in learning in Second Life, the key explorations currently seem to be around simulations (disaster scenarios, historical enactments) and 3D social networking/informal learning. But I think what stunned me the most was the huge amount of creativity going into making artefacts, spaces and developing social (including sexual) connections. From choosing, finding or designing clothes; to creating buildings; to generating events or objects to sell; to playing a game based on having a child and it growing up; personal, social and commercial creatvity is central. And I don't even know how to begin mapping or analysing what is going on.

image from Lars Wieneke workshop entitled 'cultural tinkering', reLIVE conference workshop. OU, 20th Nov 2008

Space costs!

One of the most interesting things about the Explore it! toolkit launch at the University of Dundee (see below) was how many estates and facilities managers were there, keen on finding out how to generate more innovative policies and approaches to learning spaces development and design. Estates people and academics can find it all to easy to stereotype each other: teachers are perceived as unwilling to shift from their existing practices (single offices, course or department 'owned' spaces, last minute planning and and 'just-in-time' room-booking) whilst estates managers are seen as obsessed with space utilisation figures and cost-saving, un-interested in the demands of teaching and learning.

The truth is, space costs - and with increasing pressure on university finances, we all need to be collaborating on how to creatively think/procure/design/implement/manage space better. This is about more than better briefing (although of course that helps too). We also need to develop better understandings of the relationships between material space and the teaching and learning practices which take place in it. It is only when we know more about what actually happens that we can decide priorities and explore what might change. And I should mention that, to date, it has been the estates and facilities management team at the university who have been talking about this to me ( and about the potential to be more adventurous), not academics....

Another day, another building...

Another day, another building visit - this time to Telford College in Edinburgh. This design (the subject of many case studies) is interesting because it offers a very clear 'diagram' of how educational spaces could change as information and communication technologies (ICT) become ubiquitous to learning. 

Telford College (by HOK architects) is formed around a large atrium which combines a cafe with informal learning spaces and wireless connection to the university portal. This high, light and top-lit space is surrounded by several floors of classrooms all linked by spines of 'learning streets' - extra wide double-height corridors. These colour-coded learning streets contain rows of open access computers, together with alcoves at various intervals (and used for various things) and are supported by a help-desk in each spine.

Staff accommodation is also different to most universities and colleges - everyone put together into one 3,000 sqm open plan office, with 85% hot-desking supported by a variety of informal and formal social and group spaces.

Interestingly, I combined this visit with going to the launch of the Explore It toolkit at the University of Dundee. Designed by DEGW, together with the University of Strathclyde, the toolkit is crucially about helping  those participating in new buildings or adaptations to imagine the possibilities; through a series of diagrammatic and inter-changeable building plan drawings. 

The Explore It toolkit focusses on academic workplaces, suggesting a series of different core arrangements (called Studies, Quarters, Clusters, Hubs and Clubs) with different implications for staff activities and relationships.  The bottom line is, of course, how to reduce the amount of space most universities allocate to academics and the perceived under-occupation of this space. From this website, you can also download the background research paper entitled "The changing academic workplace" by Andrew Harrison and Antonia Cairns from DEGW - all part of the Effective Spaces for Working in Higher and Further Education project funded by the Scottish  Funding Council.

A space for crossing boundaries

Recently visited Whitespace at the University of Abertay, Dundee. This converted building was opened in 2007, and is intended as a hub for activities bringing together Computer Arts students, PhD students, lecturers, business clients, broadcasters and artists. As well as educational sessions, the space contains in-house graphics and digital media teams providing professional services,  new business start-up units and state-of-the-art digital media suites - all of which offer the  potential to bring students, academics, practitioners and businesses together in many innovative, flexible and creative ways.  The space is zoned into different but overlapping and (mainly) open areas, each with their own spatial and aesthetic characteristics. 

Of course, this only works because the underlying roles, relationships and working practices of the various participants have also been re-orchestrated..... with very interesting implications for curriculum design and working/learning patterns. For me it really expressed what can happen when positive intersections between the campus and its community and business contexts - what the virtual world calls distributed creativity - are embedded into physical space.  

Extending in every direction!

If the notion of learning spaces is already extending in every direction in this blog - beyond the campus, across virtual and physical spaces, linking learning with civic engagement - then here is yet another additional area; universities as sites of urban and cultural regeneration. The RIBA and CABE together run a project called Building Futures one element of which is called 'future scenarios in higher education' looking at the relationship between university campus development and increasing student numbers with the wider environments in which this is taking place. The site includes a position paper, written by Eeva Burglund called "Universities and their cities - some observations for a framing of debate.".  All these developments suggest that it is no longer possible to assume that either the university or 'learning' are simple or bounded spaces; they cannot be isolated from wider contexts and processes.

The value of metaphor?

Went to visit the Public Gallery recently in West Bromwich, both to see the fully interactive exhibition areas and the - as yet undesigned - new Learning Space. The interior is an extraordinary layering of open pods linked via a ramp (you go to the top and then circulate down), interweaved with a Ben Kelly designed set of tree structures with giant computer screen leaves. Visitors to the gallery accumulate personalised data as they journey through the spaces (on an interactive tag they carry), finishing up with the opportunity to translate their collected images into a self-created souvenir. It is not all up and running yet, so still too early to say what kind of impact this environment is going to make on its participants. In the meantime the gallery is exploring what kind of learning space would support and develop its activities.

Zoe Partington-Sollinger, Head of Learning and Tom Hamilton (from InQbate) have together been developing ideas through a workshop, now being discussed with the architect and others. At this stage metaphors seem key - ideas around 'camping' currently to the fore. Other participatory processes, such as the work Woods Bagot did with the University of Melbourne earlier this year, also seem to find metaphors useful - there ideas about cafes, sandpits and gardens. What is nice about these notions is they can help to break away from functional or behaviourist analyses of space; but what is problematic is how they actually translate into spaces that support creative learning.

A forest of educational concepts!

Seem to keep having discussions recently with art and design practitioners and teachers about the 'problem' of educational language. There is a perceived surfeit of pedagogic terms which fail to offer -it seems - much purchase with their interests in, and experiences of, teaching art and design subjects. How important or useful is it to know about constructivist models, experiental learning, resource-based learning, problem-based learning, learning styles, deep and surface learning, threshold concepts or action learning sets?

Will return to this issue. Meanwhile, came across Jame Atherton's website(s) which offers a very wide ranging and informative introduction into the whole subject.

Spaces in-between the Conversational Framework

Laurillard's Conversational Framework has rightly had a strong impact on our understanding of how teaching and learning 'works'. But, increasingly, research about learning is exploring the spaces in-between this framework. Researchers are beginning to examine the emotional/non-verbal aspects of learning as a conversational process; what we each bring to it in terms of hopes, desires, beliefs and confidence, and how this may affect students differently, depending on their backgrounds and attitudes. What if knowledge is also contested, as well as understood/mastered by the student through guidance from the tutor? Or contested between tutors?

Ideas about threshold concepts (or sticking places) also potentially challenge the smoothness of the Laurillard conversational flow; what if we actually learn in jumps and starts, if there is something we just dont 'get' however well it is explained? Does this change the shape of the framework or merely alters how it operates as a process of conversations through time? And of course - what is the impact of the conceptual, physical and virtual spaces on the conversation? The Conversational Framework is a key starting point, but it raises as many questions as it answers.

Sites of exchange

Updating links to the blog today, I can see myself constantly drawn to sites which seem to be really exploiting web 2.0 not just for social networking-as-gossip but for active social exchange and engagement. These are based on newer understandings, building on the wisdom of crowds concept central to Web 2.0. Interestingly the SITES OF EXCHANGE websites now listed on the sidebar use phrases like civic media (MIT Media Lab), distributed creativity (Re-public) and public authoring (proboscis).

These sites enable individuals and groups to work together, to provide peer support (Horsesmouth) and to undertake creative exchange through real world and virtual interactions (SFZero and Institute of Infinitely Small Things). In short, they are creative spaces, where ideas are shared, explored, transformed and re-made as processes and/or products.

Just as importantly, there is a move to more equal and reciprocal relationships between participants - rather than, say as often assumed between tutor and learner . This suggests some potential not just for virtual learning spaces but also for how to re-think face-to-face learning and teaching. It conceptualises a space where people learn from each other, based on a rcognition and sharing of expertise; and where not just information is exchanged, but also creative actions.

Click here for more on the wisdom of crowds (but note Wikipedia warning)
Image from Inspired Learning Spaces blog (see sidebar) July 21 2008

What counts as a 'good' learning space?

As reported in the newspapers yesterday, despite £35bn spent by the government on revamping educational buildings across the UK, "a new generation of mediocre schools" is in danger of being produced. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has reported that the design quality of many of these new learning spaces is not satisfactory.

What does this mean about spaces for learning at university and college level? Well, first, we need to look hard at what criteria CABE are developing for judging what exactly is a good learning space for secondary school children. For example, they say:

The best designs are getting it right, with plenty of natural light and ventilation; lively and stimulating spaces for learning; generous, atriums and pleasant spaces for pupils to dine and relax; toilets designed to deter bullying; and easy routes to move quickly around the school.

Interestingly, I feel that debates in higher education tend to conceptualise space in different ways to this; and that these differences would be worth unravelling a bit...

Second, we need to consider why these newly built learning spaces are been deemed non-satisfactory. Some would say it is the PFI procurement process; others will blame the architects and others the lack of adequate briefing or understanding by schools themselves. So - what can we learn - how can we not only imagine but also sucessfully realise better learning spaces in and beyond university campuses?

See CABE report "Threshold needed to halt poor school design">
Image: Michael Tippett Special Education Needs school, the first BSF school in London, 2008. Designed by Marks Barfield Architects

Following "Space to Think"

The University of the Arts London (UAL) held a one day conference called "Space to Think" on 2nd July 2008 at the Chelsea School of Art and Design. This event explored the pedagogic, design and development issues around making good learning spaces for art and design; using the examples of the recently completed Chelsea School (next to Tate Britain in London) and the planned new Central Saint Martin (CSM) building at Kings Cross.

These were fascinating topics and many participants that day felt we had only had time to scratch the surface. UAL is planning to host an annual event - in the meantime, we thought that CETLD and this SPACES FOR LEARNING blog could act as a place for comments and debate to develop; for people at that event and elsewhere to network, for knowledge to be shared; and for core resources on learning spaces in art and design to be accumulated.

Download the "Space to Think" conference outline >
Image: Chelsea School of Art and Design refurbishment by architects Allies and Morrison

Why Spaces for Learning in Art and Design?

Learning Spaces is a bit of a buzz topic right now. In the physical world the UK has the Building Schools for the Future programme re-designing secondary schools and a considerable amount of new and refurbished building is also going on in further and higher education. At the same time, the increasing ubiquity of new kinds of non-physical spaces - such as social networking and virtual worlds like Second Life - is leading people (including educationalists) to ask whether people are, could be, or should be learning differently these days.

For me, coming from an architectural background but with a lot of experience in both e-learning and art/design education, it feels like this subject is developing fast. But it remains limited because we are not thinking through the difficulties in connecting across the different perspectives of architects, academics and pedagogic theorists (let alone estates managers or students). So whilst some very interesting buildings and spaces for learning in art and design now exist, we have to ask whether - and how - these really enhance students' creativity, engagement and performance. We have to ask what are the actual relationships between social networking online, virtual environments and improving learning. And we have to ask hard questions about why pedagogic theories and new e-learning approaches continue to fail to appeal to the great majority of art and design tutors.

Image: from 'Own Room' project, exploring the minimum conditions for creativity - Access and Foundation into Architecture and Interiors, London Metropolitan University, 2001.