Rethink and Redesign for Learning
Jun 24th, 2010 by Cathy Jo Nelson
Yesterday I reflected on the presentation I helped with at the Upstate Technology Conference. If you haven’t read it yet, you may want to go read it, as this is a follow-up of that.
We were assigned to a lab that apparently had been a former classroom. There were rows of computers with boxy CRT monitors sitting on tables with chairs pulled up to them. Now note I am not criticising this set up for this school. I wish my own school would take a section of my instructional area in the library and create an additional lab–tables, chairs, and big, boxy CRT monitors are just fine with me! Not my idea of ideal, but when your in need, who’s going to complain? The room looked much like the picture here. Replace those kiddos with adults (and probably most high-schoolers) and you get a crowded situation. Forget aesthetics.
Layout from Hades!
Here is a drawing I made to represent what we faced in our presentation. The flat side of the pentagon represents the screen of the monitor, and the students sit and face their monitor and the front of the room where a Promethean Board/Projector resides. I’m sure you can pick out the teacher’s computer.
Why? How?
My question for this set up is this: How can you or even neighboring students maneuver to collaborate or help each other? Not conducive at all for that type of activity. Not only that, but even standing at the back of the room, it would be VERY difficult to monitor what is going on in here. I can envision kids a multitasking away if the assignment is not that engaging (which is a totally different problem and another post for another time) and their teacher would never be the wiser.
So how can it be fixed?
If this were my assigned teaching area, I would ask permission to re-layout the room. Now I know some schools are limited by where their drops are, but there are ways around it with switches and other equipment. Here is how I would change this room if it were assigned for my instruction. Not the BEST situation still, but at least those helping could walk around and be able to look over the shoulder as communication takes place. Also, me as the instructor or any visitors with one stroll around the class can see that students are on task. The adult in the room can visually see 65-70% of activities at all times despite the crowded room.
Would it have made a difference?
Had we a layout like this yesterday, we still would have had problems because there were just too many people there. But the collaborative nature of educators would have worked in our favor as they probably would have helped one another more freely–as I know from experience students do.
Not the best layout by any means. IMHO, if it HAS to be a lab, an over-sized room with all workstations on the peripheral walls is best, with tables in the middle for planning or other types of work. Of course best scenario is laptops (and/or other smart handheld devices) and flexible seating arrangements.
So what do you think would have worked better?
Image: ‘Another view of working students‘
I’ve been teaching in a computer lab and was very lucky to have the computers set up in a U. This year, I’m going to have laptops up the center – just like your after picture. I agree that it is most conducive to students collaborating with each other and teachers monitoring all the work. I’ve been teaching work workshop to adults in a different location for the last two years with the first set up. It really makes it very hard to help. I usually end up walking to the back row and scanning to the front to see that everyone is one the same page. It makes it difficult to help the people locked into the middle of the block of desks at the wall. I like your diagrams! Clever use of the pentagon shape to note the monitor position.
[...] Comments « Rethink and Redesign for Learning [...]
[...] This was a good and bad thing – good because lots of people were interested in our session, bad because it was so full we were unable to move around. Our original plan was to introduce the tools and then allow attendees to play with the tools while we circulated and answered any questions/problems. Unfortunately, I got waylaid at the front of the room and I have not idea where my two co-presenters got waylaid. There was no way we could circulate! Cathy wrote up a good evaluation of this on her blog. [...]