GET ACTIVE Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success Dale Basye Peggy Grant Stefanie Hausman Tod Johnston International Society for Technology in Education EUGENE, OREGON • ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA Get Active Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success Dale Basye, Peggy Grant, Stefanie Hausman, and Tod Johnston © 2015 International Society for Technology in Education World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system—without prior written permission from the publisher. Contact Permissions Editor: www.iste .org/about/permissions-and-reprints; [email protected]; fax: 1.541.302.3780. Editor: Emily Reed Director of Strategy, Clarity Innovations, Inc.: Steve Burt Copy Editor: Mike Van Mantgem Indexer: Wendy Allex Book Design and Production: Ryan Scheife First Edition ISBN: 978-1-56484-365-4 Printed in the United States of America ISTE® is a registered trademark of the International Society for Technology in Education. AU BO T ISTE The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the premier nonprofit organization serving educators and education leaders committed to empowering connected learners in a connected world. ISTE serves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world. ISTE’s innovative offerings include the ISTE Conference & Expo, one of the biggest, most comprehensive ed tech events in the world—as well as the widely adopted ISTE Standards for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age and a robust suite of professional learning resources, including webinars, online courses, consulting services for schools and districts, books, and peer-reviewed journals and publications. Visit iste.org to learn more. Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success iii ABOUT THE AUTHORS Dale Basye is an award-winning writer with more than 20 years of experience developing multimedia experiences for children. He is co-author of Personalized Learning: A Guide for Engaging Students with Technology as well as the author of the Circles of Heck series. Peggy Grant is a senior content developer for Clarity Innovations. She taught junior high English and reading before earning her PhD in literacy education. She is co-author of Personalized Learning: A Guide for Engaging Students with Technology. Stefanie Hausman has been a classroom teacher, a teacher coach, a teacher trainer, an education writer, and is currently the Content Manager at Clarity Innovations, where she leads a team of writers dedicated to improving teaching and learning by focusing on the intersection of technology and instruction. Tod Johnston, a classroom teacher for ten years, focused on creating flexible and student-centered learning experiences for elementary and middle school students both in the United States and abroad. He now uses his classroom expertise as a Content Developer for Clarity Innovations. iv Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank our contributing authors, Donna Teuber, Technology Integration Team Leader for South Carolina’s Richland School District Two, and David Jakes, ed tech leader and blogger, for their invaluable insights. We also would like to express our gratitude to Steelcase Education and Intel Corporation for funding this project. Finally, our thanks go out to all the educators, students, designers, architects, and community members who work every day to create learning environments that educate and inspire. Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success v CNO TENts Foreword . ix Introduction .......................................................... 1 How to Use This Book . 3 Overview . 4 Case Studies . 5 Chapter 1 Learning Spaces of the Future ........................................... .7 Past, Present, and Future Learning . 9 Preparing Students for the Future Workplace . .11 Digital-Age Learners and Technology . 12 Designing Learning Spaces for Digital-Age Students . 14 Case Study: It’s All in the Blend . 18 Chapter 2 Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age ................................ 25 Learning Spaces for Digital-Age Learning Models . 25 Inset: Types of Active Learning Spaces . .30 Components of an Active Learning Space . .34 Learning Spaces for Digital-Age Skills . 36 Technology Integration . 38 Learning Spaces and Academic Achievement . 40 Case Study: Breaking the Norm . .43 Chapter 3 Reimagining the Classroom ............................................ 49 The Impact of Effective Learning Spaces . .49 Inset: Home Work Spaces . 51 Spaces within a Space . 52 Spaces for Optimal Learning Experiences . .53 Classroom Furniture . 56 Furnishing Today’s Classrooms . .58 Accessorizing . .60 Inset: Teacher Research on Learning Spaces . .65 Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success vii Contents Chapter 4 Redesigning Your Classroom. 69 A Process for Redesigning Your Classroom . .69 Repurposing Furniture . 76 Overcoming Challenges . 77 Inset: Managing an Active Learning Space . 80 Case Study: A Place for Every Learner and Learning Activity . .83 Chapter 5 Schools for the Future ................................................. 91 Digital-Age School Architecture . 91 Technology Infrastructure . .94 Sustainability . .96 Safety and Security . 96 Beyond the Classroom . 97 Inset: Maker Education . 101 Case Study: A Digital-Age School . .104 Chapter 6 Digital Spaces for Learning ............................................. 117 The Concept of “Classroom” . .119 The Student Learning Experience as Design Driver . .119 Characteristics of a Digital Learning Space . 120 Tools for Digital Space Creation . .121 Toward a Next Generation Ecology of Spaces . 123 The Impact of Active Digital-Age Learning Spaces . 125 Case Study: Plymouth Rocks Learning Spaces . 126 Chapter 7 Planning for Active Learning Spaces .................................... .133 Engage and Educate Teachers . 135 Steps to School Redesign . 139 Inset: Interview with an Architect . 146 An Iterative Process . .150 Conclusion The End . Or Just the Beginning? ..................................... .153 Appendix A ISTE Standards ..................................................... 155 ISTE Standards for Students (Standards•S) . 155 ISTE Standards for Teachers (Standards•T) . 157 ISTE Standards for Administrators (Standards•A) . 160 References . 163 Index . 169 viii Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success FOREWORD You are about to go on an adventure. In your hands is a ticket to understanding the power of an active learning space. These are places that help students develop the skills they need in the digital age—communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking—and where they become actively involved in the learning process. As someone who spends his days talking with students, faculty and educators while visiting schools, colleges and universities and, I assure you these are trips worth taking. I am confident you too would be inspired and energized by the places and people you meet. And you’ll meet some of them in this book. People like Pamela Kennedy, a one-time illustrator and stay-at-home mom, who now teaches in Room 17, an active classroom she helped design in Portland, Oregon. The third graders in her class also helped customize their own learning experiences. That’s right, third graders. You’ll meet Stacey Roshan, a high school teacher who successfully flipped her calculus class, a notoriously difficult subject to learn. And you’ll meet administrators like Anthony Saba at The Academy, a college-prep school for foster, underserved and community teens. This school has a 97% attendance record thanks in part to the learning spaces that attract kids and help them learn. You’ll tour the Design39Campus, a public school in San Diego where students learn in “studios” with “learning experience designers.” The staff has an audacious goal: to change education for students all over the world. Read their amazing story and you may want to join their effort. Elsewhere in this book you’ll encounter learning spaces that expand the idea of the third teacher—the classroom—into the digital realm. You will also learn how involving students in their own education transforms a learning space into a learning experience, and you will explore useful strategies and tactics to help you revolutionize your own learning spaces. Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success ix Foreword This is a rough guide to the territory with reports from the frontiers of new learning spaces by the people who have spent time there. It’s also a workbook to help you take the journey. But it’s not just about space. I believe, as so many other educators do, that technology, pedagogy, or space alone is not the answer. Pedagogy as the driver, supported by space and technology, all working together, empower teachers to be their most effective and students their most engaged and successful. Active learning spaces have been shown to help improve student success, and they’re real- itvely easy to implement. The emphasis on space comes from what we observe in the classrooms in schools around the world: too many remain single-purpose spaces that only work well for passive teaching methods developed over a century ago. They don’t support active learning. Even teachers who embrace active learning pedagogies and who know how to integrate technology into the curriculum are handcuffed by ineffective learning