Changing Spaces for Changing Learning

This is the library computer lab as it appeared when I first began working at this school in 2007. It is almost unchanged for the length of time I served this learning community. I added a blue seating area about four or five years later. More about this in a moment. I primarily taught students general information gathering skills, how to use information databases, Web 2.0 tools for assignments. I would then walk around the room and monitor their progress and help them troubleshoot their topics. If they had been assigned individual topics, it was an okay arrangement. If they were required to do anything beyond individual work, the area was restrictive.

A few years ago, I changed practically all of the areas of the library. This leisure-seating moved from the main floor into the library. I brought the computer tables closer together to accommodate the additional furniture. This furniture is shown in the following picture.

I was surprised by all the different ways this furniture was used in the lab. Students used it as a way to record video for their projects. Teachers would consult with groups about research projects. Kids who brought their own laptops to school and didn't need the desktop gathered there. Students would plan and divide work responsibilities and all right there in that spot.

Even though this room was not aesthetically at it's best, the seating added more functionality. But I'd like to see the furniture streamlined

I would like to make more aggressive changes to the computer lab so that students could work differently and more collaboratively there. If I had more funds, and $1,000 might be a stretch, but I'd recreate this computer lab featured here. I'd make the old space look more like this because it would expand the number of areas that could be used for group work. I would keep the tables, but I'd like to alter or hack them with a tabletop mounted flat-screen tv.

The new space would allow students to work together in small clusters. Even though each student might be using individual laptops to research different aspects of a topic, one laptop would be connected ia an HDMI cable to the flat screen tv so that everyone in the group could see the work and contributions as they are being developed. The dry erase whiteboards would be used to work out ideas.

Click here for the cost of changing the computer lab space.