{"id":2154,"date":"2004-12-07T09:08:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-07T09:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2026-10-22T07:41:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T07:41:53","slug":"learning-spaces-moving-beyond-the-confines-of-the-classroom-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/?p=2154","title":{"rendered":"Learning Spaces Moving Beyond the Confines of the \u201cClassroom Walls\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally published on:<\/strong> December 7, 2004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudies show that when classrooms and lecture halls are designed for the delivery of information, only <\/em>5%<\/em><\/strong> of that knowledge is retained.\u00a0 Conversely, when space is designed for learning, knowledge retention jumps to <\/em>85%<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lennie Scott Webber reminds us that instructional space is \u201ca place where both faculty members and students go to \u2018work\u2019 every day.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0As such, it constitutes the physical environment within which universities carry out their main activity, learning.\u00a0 Learning, however, takes on a variety of forms and involves a plethora of very distinct activities, all of which need to be reflected and accommodated within such instructional spaces.\u00a0 In other words, we need to find ways of matching \u201cthe physical environment with the intended behavior \u2013 whether it be knowledge delivery, application, creation, communication, or decision making<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 This is particularly important as it is widely recognized today that the physical environment does affect intended behavior, and thus the type of instructional space provided plays a critical role in the way in which students learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above achieves even greater significance when it is noted that not only should instructional space accommodate the needs of the learning experience, but that the very concepts of learning and \u201clearning spaces\u201d have also changed significantly during the last decade.\u00a0Thus, if we referred to \u201clearning spaces\u201d at all in the past, we invariably meant physical spaces (classrooms), with a long history and a multiplicity of renovations over the decades and even centuries in some cases, in which conventional learning and teaching (face-to-face) took place.\u00a0Instructional technology and new pedagogic approaches, however, have dramatically expanded and transformed both concepts.\u00a0As Brown and Lippincott argue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026the concept of the classroom is both expanding and evolving\u2026as classrooms receive technology installations and so acquire new functionality.\u00a0As the functionality expands, new learning activities become possible.\u00a0But the concept of the classroom is evolving as well.\u00a0New conceptions of the classroom are being introduced by the emergence of new methods of teaching and learning, made possible by the rapid evolution and adoption of information technology.\u00a0Wireless networking, for example, makes real-time or synchronous interaction among students and between students and faculty a very real possibility\u2026this is why the term classroom, at least in its traditional sense, can no longer encompass the teaching and learning options today.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, substantial evidence from pedagogic research shows that more learning is taking place outside of the traditional classroom and that students make use of information technology to \u201clearn\u201d in a variety of spaces both on and off campus.\u00a0Furthermore, as technology evolves even further and the cost is reduced, virtual spaces for learning start to challenge traditional physical spaces as the sole reflection of current student behavior in education.\u00a0Thus, it becomes imperative that all educational institutions must change rapidly their thinking about \u201clearning spaces\u201d in two important ways: \u201cfirst, we must think in terms of a variety of both real and virtual learning spaces\u2026and we must think about all the support needed to make these learning spaces successful.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, of course, implies a variety of new and costly activities for the conventional university which include a variety of activities extending from faculty training and the development of new curricula to establishing effective help-desk support and an expanded IT maintenance structure.\u00a0 It is by far the most important challenge facing universities in the new millennium: how \u201c\u2026to create a seamless, technology-enabled learning environment for faculty and students\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key issue in meeting this challenge, of course, is how to formulate a strategy for evolving the conventional university without a major drain on resources (both human and financial).\u00a0This requires both a vision of how instructional technology will continue to transform technology-enabled learning and teaching, as well as new forms of \u201cflexibility\u201d in physical design to allow for a multipurpose use of all the physical spaces available to a university (including classrooms, libraries, dormitories, coffee shops, etc.).\u00a0 Nevertheless, evidence suggests that most universities tend to approach this challenge by adopting a singular and linear pattern of thinking which tends to lead them down the path of equipping both lecture halls and classrooms with IT.\u00a0This, of course, is a most welcome first step but should be seen as being just that.\u00a0 What is needed instead, however, is a more comprehensive and all-encompassing campus- wide strategy to transform the conventional university into a dynamic, flexible and multidimensional \u201clearning space\u201d.\u00a0Thus, the challenge requires also a very different approach to planning.\u00a0 Whereas in the past universities could approach such problems from the perspective of planning and maintaining a \u201cphysical environment\u201d only, in the millennium they have to integrate into such thinking the need for faculty training, development of new curricula, installation and maintenance of digital and analog equipment, networks, etc. In other words, in addition to lighting, carpeting, seating and decoration, the strategy has to involve, as part of an integrated whole, a new layer of support requiring a wide range of technical and pedagogic skills.\u00a0As Brown and Lippincott argue<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you unpack the modern concept of a learning space, you discover a set of layers or components all of which must be on hand if the use of the learning spaces is to succeed\u2026Our constituents <\/em>[faculty and students] must be able to prepare materials to present in those classrooms and have the capability to use sophisticated software and hardware for their presentations.\u00a0They require access to equipment and networks in good working order, and ready access to staff if problems arise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As our approach to learning changes, so must our thinking about physical space and its planning and maintenance.\u00a0Modern \u201clearning spaces\u201d can no longer be perceived solely in physical terms and thus their evolution also requires more than just physical planning and maintenance.\u00a0Students will not learn if we try to locate them in modern classrooms packed solid with technology that neither they nor their faculty know how to use.\u00a0Thus, developing an integrated approach to new \u201clearning spaces\u201d requires both a clear recognition of the centrality of environment in determining intended behavior and \u201cnew thinking\u201d with respect to physical planning.\u00a0This challenge, alas, has yet to be met in most colleges and universities.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on: December 7, 2004 \u201cStudies show that when classrooms and lecture halls are designed for the delivery of information, only 5% of that … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":3369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,178],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-active-learning","category-volume-4","tag-issue-4"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/12\/DSC_9061.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3230,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/3230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}