3 Ways Mobile Technology Is Transforming Learning Spaces

To support creativity and collaborative learning with digital tools, schools are creating flexible environments that give students ownership of the space and their learning. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FROM THE OUTSIDE, Barrow Elementary School in Athens, GA, looks like any traditional school building built in the 1920s. Inside, it looks completely different. Instead of desks arranged in tidy rows, the classrooms have tables that can be reconfigured in seconds by the students themselves, depending on what an assignment calls for. There are spaces where students can work together in teams, and comfortable chairs for individual study. Nooks tucked off hallways enable teachers and students to gather in small groups, and wireless access points allow them to use portable digital devices anywhere in the building. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to Philip Lanoue, the superintendent of Clarke County School District, where Barrow is located, Our goal is that, when you walk into buildings, you're inspired to learn. Barrow Elementary is among a dozen schools in Clarke County --and one of a growing number of schools nationwide--that have been designed or retrofitted to support new ways of learning. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The traditional classroom setup, with rows of desks facing forward, worked just fine when lecturing was the predominant form of instruction. But as more schools have shifted from a teacher-centric to a student-centric approach to learning, the design of K-12 learning spaces is evolving as well. New kinds of learning require different approaches to classroom design, said Leslie Wilson, founder and chief executive officer of the nonprofit One-to-One Institute, which advises schools on how to use technology to transform instruction. Aided by mobile technologies, students are more able to work together in groups to solve problems or challenges, Wilson said. They're also working independently with adaptive online software that tailors the lessons to meet their needs. They're making movie trailers, designing photo books or creating other artifacts to demonstrate their learning. And the environments in which they do these tasks must be flexible enough to support this more active, collaborative style of learning--with students freed from desks and teachers untethered from the front of the room. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] this reason, many schools have begun integrating furniture that students and teachers can move around easily and put together in various configurations to accommodate different groupings. What's more, many of these new desks, chairs and tables are ergonomically designed for greater comfort, so that young people can get up and move around, Wilson said. She noted: Students aren't stationary any more. Enabling Learning Anywhere Clarke County, district leaders are very deliberate about the design of their learning spaces. Lanoue said, In every school project, we create a building design team composed of community members, parents, teachers, school leaders and the architect who facilitates the process, along with a member of the district building team. Each of the district's buildings has a different design based on a set of common principles, such as the use of agile, student-friendly learning spaces throughout the structure and support for wireless and digital learning environments. instance, the hallways and common spaces at Barrow and several of the district's other schools include flat-screen TVs, flexible furniture or simply comfortable places for students to sit and do work. For us, learning can occur anywhere, Lanoue said. Supported by these more flexible learning environments, our teachers have been able to design lessons to take full advantage of engaging students individually, in groups or as a whole class, he explained. …