Connective technologies, mobile devices, and new global learning opportunities are reshaping how, what and where people learn. Conversely, traditional brick and mortar schools are composed of decades-old classrooms designed to support a different type of learning from a different age. So, do our current schools, to maintain relevance and effectiveness, need to rethink how their spaces can be used to reframe teaching and learning, in support of new and emergent learning modalities? Join David Jakes as he shares stories of physical and digital space design that will help you develop an answer to that important question. You'll leave with visionary concepts, practical ideas, and key strategies for creating dynamic learning spaces that engage, energize and empower.

For your consideration:

What do you want learning to look like? Realizing that form follows function, do you have the habitats to support the habits you desire to develop in your students? (Ryan Bretag)

What skills would you identify as important? What habits of the mind? And the experiences that you provide that help students build skills and habits? All of this occurs in some space, how does your current space support (or impede) this?

What constitutes a successful space? When designing learning experiences, how often do you consider the role that space plays in a successful learning experience?

Where does learning occur in your building? In all spaces or just classrooms? How can all spaces support learning in some way? Can you take traditional non-learning spaces and convert them to non-traditional learning spaces? For example, what do you do with walls in your classrooms and schools? Where are your learning surfaces?

How do emerging digital learning environments inform K-12 teaching and learning? How do these environments inform the decisions we make (or don't make) about the spaces for learning in our schools?

Is school now a contributory node in the assemblage of spaces students now utilize for learning?

How do mobile technologies challenge your vision of school as learning venue?

Do you believe that digital spaces are as important as your physical spaces for learning?

How can work in the digital domain contribute to learning in the physical domain?

How does your knowledge and work in brick and mortar classrooms inform practice in a cloud-based digital platform?

Do you know what your kids know about technology and don't know? How do you know, and what are you missing?

Do the entry level skills of your students match the prerequisite competencies required to successfully manage and negotiate learning in the digital domain?

Do you believe that the spaces in a school should be owned by students? Or should adults dictate the purpose of space?

Students need their own spaces. Especially digital ones. How will you support the growth and development of skills and habits in a digital space that they own, but you provide?

Resources: Learning Spaces

Educating the Net Generation | see Chapter 12 on Learning Spaces

Learning Spaces | See all 43 Chapters | Educause

The Third Teacher | Cannon Design, VS, Bruce Mau Design

Designing Spaces for Effective Learning: A Guide to 21st Century Space Design | JISC

Leading the Transition from Classroom to Learning Space | NLII White Paper

Schools Designed for Learning | American Architectural Foundation

Importance of Informal Spaces for Learning, Collaboration, and Socialization |Hajduk and Gee

The Great Learning Street Debate | Nair

Spaces, Places and Future Learning | A collection of papers and presentations from FutureLab

Flexible Space & Built Pedagogy: Emerging IT Embodiments | Monahan

Opening Up Learning: From Spaces to Environments | Educause

Learning Spaces: More Than Meets the Eye | Brown and Lippincott

Learning Environments: Where Space Technology and Culture Converge | Wargar and Dobbin

Learning Spaces-Images on Flickr

Infocommons- Images on Flickr

What to do next? Download this and get started

Learning Spaces Suggestions | My list of 29 things to do to get started on creating true learning spaces. This list contains actionable items that can be done tomorrow, require at one week to a month to accomplish, or need a year or later to be actualized.

David Jakes Presentation Resources

Pages in this Section

Habits and Habitats: Rethinking Learning Spaces for the 21st Century