The Learning Commons, One Year On

It's been just over a year since the Learning Commons opened its doors, and what a year it's been! I'm going to limit the writing here and let the images speak for themselves. I am so excited by what we've been able to achieve and am even more thrilled at the prospect of many more successful years!

Laptops are just some of the new devices that are available.

With all the furniture on wheels, it's easy to fit the whole College in for a meeting.

It's not often that I get a photo with no students in it - clearly the term is almost at an end!

The mural behind the reception desk is meant to illustrate school life in all its facets. We're holistic here, so every pursuit is equally important.

Despite all the technological implements, this white board is probably the most-used resource in the room!

LEGO Mindstorms Robotics

Custom beanbags, affectionately known as Plops

It's been an exciting road and there's only more to come. This year alone we've added over 1300 media items to the collection and it's just going to grow bigger and bigger.

Next stop: 1:1 devices!

Reading Material

And so begins the first day of using the writing prompt book, and the topic for today is ‘Reading material: how do you pick what to read?’ This is one of those instances where I found myself marvelling at the fact that I’d never really considered this before. I didn’t know I have some set of criteria I apply when I’m looking for new things to read, but of course this has to be the case. We need some set of filtration device otherwise we just read everything. In the past this might have been possible, but with the wealth of information out there now, there’s no way any person could read all of it.

So what do I do when I decide what to read?

I must be honest and say that when it comes to fiction, I’m a sucker for a catchy cover. If it looks appealing and draws me to select it from the shelf before something else, then it’s already going the right direction towards getting read. This has changed somewhat with the introduction of eBooks which cannot lure me in with beautifully embossed covers or specially-cut pages, but the graphics and the general aesthetic still play a huge part. That being said, some of the most amazing books I’ve ever read have had completely nondescript covers. ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley springs to mind immediately. Even ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern has a fairly bland cover, but its contents are anything but bland. I suppose I’m proving the point of the old cliché, but regardless of this fact, a beautiful cover still draws me in. ‘The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet’ by Reif Larson and ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell both have gorgeous covers with content to match and I was enthralled immediately.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and there are a number of novels with amazing designs that just don’t do anything for me at all, because the writing is, as far as I’m concerned, dull and lifeless. And I suppose that’s the real truth of it all: while appearance might lure one in, it’s the actual content that matters most. The design definitely works to get me interested, but to sustain that interest, there needs to be more than glossy and pretty pictures.

It’s much the same when it comes to digital content, I suppose.

When I come across a site or a blog that has been poorly laid out, where I have to dig to find what I’m really looking for or that doesn’t do what it claims to do, then I’m out of there. However, if the designer has taken time to think about how the elements on the page work together, has put more interesting things for me to follow if I’m interested, has avoided the urge of having endless things pop up at me, then I’m more likely to stay for a while and keep looking. Sites like www.edudemic.com and www.fashionbeans.com will have me going back again and again, because they have what I want and they give it to me in a way that makes accessing it a pleasure. Time is precious on the internet and if I have to spend time learning how to navigate a site, it had better not be too long. If I can’t find what I want in a minute or so, cheers. I know I’ll find something better without too much digging around.

I think this same principle applies to assignments and tasks I create for my students. If they are not visually appealing, it makes engaging with them different. Likewise if it takes my students too long to get to the bottom of what needs to happen, they’ve also failed.

It’s important to remember that our students are consumers who are growing up in a culture of mass consumerism. If teachers don’t buy into that mentality by making an effort to make their work stand out and be noticed, then it’s unlikely students are going to be all that interested in engaging with it. However, it’s also important to remember why we’re setting the work in the first place, and if your assignment is just a bunch of pretty pictures, you’re unlikely to keep them engaged and interested for very long.

A final point to note is that if there’s too much, people also tend not to want to read, and I suppose on that note, I had best end today’s thought.

More tomorrow, if you’ve been drawn into reading this, that is!

You do what?

When people ask me what it is I do, I often find it difficult to respond. The standard answer, though, has been that I run a collaborative learning centre. The focus of the centre is to promote the acquisition of 21^st Century Skills which will enable students to lead more meaningful lives in the ever-changing world. This generally cues the next standard response, which can be summarised as ‘Huh?’

          So, what exactly does all this mean?

          Firstly, it’s important to remember why the centre has been called ‘The Learning Commons’. In a previous post, I outlined the reasons for its name, but, just in case you’re only joining the conversation now, the short and simple explanation is: Learning – more than simply acquiring knowledge. Real learning means engaging with content, making sense of it and using it to generate new ideas that have value and personal relevance. Commons – after the village commons: a place where all could come together to use the space as they needed. A place for meeting, for interacting or simply a place to settle down to some quiet reading.

         The next term that requires delving into is ‘collaboration’. For most people working in education, this term has typically been translated into group work, and this is not entirely incorrect. Obviously, for collaboration to take place, several people will need to work together and they will need to reach some kind of common goal. This is a good practice for students to become accustomed to, because it is one of the most needed skills for the workplace. People need to know how to work with others, to discuss, to throw ideas around, to argue and to come to an agreed solution. Without this skill, students do not know how to draw the best from a group and how to contribute meaningfully.

        However, what has tended to happen with group work is that the whole group does not get as involved as would be helpful. Typically, group work involves a conversation with one person ‘scribing’ and writing down the group’s decision. This means that those who do not want to speak up are not heard, and they can get away with it, because ‘the group’ only has to submit one assignment. There has been an attempt to remedy this by including group assessment grids with the other assessment stuff, but this generally results in two things: the group members, not wanting to be unkind to their peers, rates everyone highly regardless of their input, and the assessment is not actually used in anything substantial, rendering it completely pointless.

         For the practice of working in teams to be meaningful to all those involved, there needs to be some kind of shift in the way that it is conducted. The skills inherent in working with others are invaluable, so it important that students are exposed to it, but there needs to be a way to make it more engaging. This is where collaboration comes in.

       Collaboration – real collaboration that is – means working together in such a way that each individual’s personal abilities are utilised to the best of the group.

           Let’s use an analogy to make this a bit easier to understand.

         Some of you may be familiar with the programme called ‘Extreme Makeover – Home Edition’. For those who aren’t, the basic premise is that a needy family has their home completely rebuilt by a team of constructors and designers. The reason I’m making this comparison is because it is a team who take on the project. While everyone participates in getting the house completed, each member of the team speaks to someone in the family and assigns him or herself this room as a personal project. The rooms are then customised according to the recipients’ tastes and likings as well as having the designers’ personal flair added to them. When this all comes together, the house is completed and each room has its own personality, depending on the occupant.

            The reason I’m making this analogy is because this is what happens when people collaborate: a central goal is completed by combining the skill sets of the members within the group. Real collaboration involves having each member of the team take on a ‘personal project’, an aspect of the task that speaks to his or her individual skills and interests. This means that each member is given the chance to use their talents to the benefit of the group as a whole. Furthermore, the fact that each person is tasked with a different aspect to complete means they are accountable to their peers, because if they do not complete their part, the group as a whole will lose out.

           This is what it is like in the workplace: individuals are assigned different aspects of a task and they are expected to complete those aspects. There are more careers than I have time to mention here which make use of this approach and if we want to equip children to be ready for the world of work, then we need to ensure that they are well acquainted with the idea of working collaboratively to reach a common goal.

          The next aspect to the answer regarding what it is I do involves talking about 21^st Century Skills. This is a term that gets bandied about fairly cavalierly in educational circles, but it is seldom explained in any real depth. I shall try to give an overview now, but many of the terms are going to need further examination at a later stage.

                In a nutshell, 21^st Century Skills are:

·         Ways of thinking (including problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking)

·         Ways of working (including collaboration and communication)

·         Tools for working (including ICT and Information Literacy)

·         Skills for living in the world (including citizenship, career guidance and personal responsibility)

Together, these skills are meant to equip individuals for meaningful life in the 21^st Century, a time of great change in nearly every sphere of the way society operates, and in so doing, change the face and shape of the world in which we live.

Hello and welcome to the Learning Commons

Welcome to what I hope will be an ever-growing collection of thoughts, discussion starters, musings and vents from my desk in the Bridge House Learning Commons. 

I plan to use this blog as a way of communicating the ideas which underpin the way we run the centre and as a means for opening up discussions about developments in the world of education. I'm not going to make any promises about the frequency of posts, but I hope there will be a steady flow of ideas from now on.

To start with, allow me to introduce the Learning Commons:

This is a general view of the space, but there are a number of areas within it that all need special mention.

The first area is the junior reading area. The emphasis on this space is on encouraging students to engage with the space and with the books. While I am all for promoting technology in education, books still have a firm place in our schools, at least for the time being.

Instead of being sorted by author, books are shelved by letter, which helps learning them easier. The boxes at the top are for picture books and there is a sense of organised chaos here in that they are randomly arranged to make a good rummaging necessary.

During lessons, students find books, then grab a cushion and they are read to or they are given time to read on their own. Usually when this happens they go off into another nook somewhere in the Learning Commons, but I'll get to those in a little bit.

Soon we will have some rugs and a greater variety of cushions available and this will enable students to tailor make their learning environment to a certain extent.



The highlight of this area, though, is the 'reading fort':

This unit has been included to add a touch of interest to the area and to create variety of spaces. In designing the layout and furnishing of the Learning Commons, the emphasis has been on making the space as multi-functional as possible and to make it appealing to as many students as possible.

The next area is the senior library.

The shelves are looking a tad bare at the moment because of the expansion of storage capacity from the previous library, but there's plenty waiting to be accessioned, covered and put onto them, so they should look at lot healthier soon.

All the shelves are mounted on casters to make it possible to move them around when we need to or when we feel like a change in the space. The odd splashes of colour are just to add variety and, at this stage, have no more significance than looking attractive.

The senior section also moves away from the traditional library model in that each section is sorted by genre and then by author. This was done for a number of reasons, but essentially it makes it easier for students to find books to read. It also makes recommending books easier for teachers. Now all you need to know is the student's interest, and you can find him or her something suitable in a relatively short space of time.

Among the books, there are a few reading nooks that have been designed for students who want somewhere cosy to cuddle up and read. Again, this ties in with the idea of having a variety of spaces available for the students to go.

Even though the space is full of more senior works, when the juniors are given the space to go where they please, the nooks are also a popular choice for them. 

The name Learning Commons was chosen because it implies a shared experience - one where all are always welcome to do as they please as long as they are considerate of others. This is in a bid to encourage behaviours that will be advantageous in the world beyond school. 

As I mentioned before, while we are working on staying on the cutting edge of technological advancements in education, the book's role has not been forgotten. Hence, the non-fiction section:

You might have worked out by now that I'm not a huge fan of straight lines, so there are as many curved units in the centre as we could get to work.

This space is right next to the desktop computer stations, so students can access the non-fiction work close to where they are working on projects. The shelves are low to allow students to put heavy books on top and work on them without having to carry them all over the place.

As we move down towards the 'bottom' end of the Learning Commons, the emphasis is more on quiet, active study than on the more raucous social behaviour encouraged in the other sections. This is why the colours are more muted. The forest vinyl mural which extends over the windows is meant to create a sense of calm and tranquility. There are also plans to lift the carpet in this area and replace it with fake grass which should make the space a really interesting one.

This last area consists of a collaborative work area and individual working stations with 'visors' to help mitigate distractions:

These bean-shaped tables can be configured in a number of ways depending on how the students wish to make use of them.

At the moment, we are still waiting for the proper seating to come through, but soon this will be a far more functional space.

Incidentally, students have found that the little nooks under the tables are wonderful hiding spaces and many have taken to spending break times hidden away beneath them.

Hopefully these cubicles will be conducive to productive individual work. There is enough space for two students to work alongside each other if they so desire, but single users will be able to spread their books and notes out nicely.

There is a plan to include/add pinboards or whiteboards above each station to aid the studying process. The area also has its own dedicated wi-fi access point to ensure that all students can connect their devices if they bring them. Each desk unit also has its own power point to ensure that charging won't be a problem.

There is also an outdoor area, but that's going to stay under wraps until the plans and development have finished (probably another year or so). Needless to say, it's going to extend the Learning Commons into an even more versatile teaching and learning space for all to enjoy.

When people ask what the vision behind the centre is, I direct them to this quote which has been adhered to one of the pillars:

I hope this has piqued some interest, and I hope to keep you intrigued in the coming weeks and with the coming posts. It's an exciting journey ahead, that's for sure!