Learning in Spaces

Learning spaces are constantly changing due to the constant evolution's of the world around us.  We experience change starting all the way from technology in education to foods we eat at home.  With the constant changes in technology comes all the changes in the learning spaces that we use in educational settings.

With the constant changes and advancements with technology we are able to create new designs of chairs, furniture, tables, desks, computers, and even the idea of board usages.  With all these advancements it is becoming a new learning environment for the students.  In the new learning spaces we are making it easier for kids to be able to be engaged in a class and learning by learning to adapt to what the kids actually need.  Learning spaces are adapting to the student behaviors and actions and also how they learn.  By having learning spaces it provides students with a controlled and stable environment and opportunity to enhance their learning.  Learning spaces provides kids with the opportunity to engage in topics and subject matter better than just trying to lecture kids.  Learning spaces are now providing students with the ability to be more active with each other by having easier ways to move around and be comfortable.  One of the main examples with the learning spaces is that they are creating kids with a better sense of closeness with each other, and making it easier to then engage with each other as well as the conversation of topic.  Having chairs that fit kids needs better for movement are a big part of making these spaces more advanced and better for learning.  When the kids are able to quick just roll a chair, or slide a chair it makes group work better engaging the kids into the subject matter faster and with more ease.  That is just talking some PHYSICAL learning space things, we also have the idea of online learning spaces.  In this article they talk about how everything is changing and how we can adjust to them, check it out to see what your thoughts are.



For the most part many school systems, university, colleges, and outside educational places are starting to use the idea of Google in a lot more aspects of learning.  Google is becoming a very big part of our everyday lives, many places are using it to be able connect and share with students via all their new and different apps they now have.  In many cases these apps are making it easier to contact kids, hold assignments, share documents, and even just share more information.  Google Apps are starting to play a much bigger role in how we are learning and teaching kids.  Because of the ever changing world, we are relying more and more on technology of the internet and now we have created so many different learning spaces online.  Google Apps plays the role of now being a central hub for all the information within a learning space.  It creates the different abilities for accessing the information as well as creating and sharing. Learning spaces such as Google Apps is now what we consider to be a very big impact on how students are learning and also how teachers are teaching.

For the future the learning spaces will continuously change and be redesigned based on the new kinds of technology that is being invented and used by children and teachers.  In the future though we need to be taking on the idea that learning cannot all be just online, so we need to challenge the facts and be able to keep a balance between face to face and technology based learning spaces. As we become more and more advanced in the field of technology we will want to keep the idea that technology is the BEST way for kids to learn.  But that will not and should not be the case, creating learning spaces in the future there will have to be a line drawn for the fact of human interaction and group based learning. These learning centers need to be well adjusted to the new forms of technology but also then adaptive only incorporating them not be solely based around them.  This will be a major challenge as we look to the future for education and learning spaces. Many schools have different ideas and many different ways of being able to add in numerous kids of learning spaces, the future is here and changing.  This school Woorana understands that and is already looking to the future for education for kids with different learning spaces.

Being part of the University of Akron, and as an active student we have the learning spaces of very traditional based classrooms, as well as library based traditions.  We use online sites such as springboard as a center for learning in a very informal way, where it is just based on information and no real interaction between student and teacher.  I personally hate how much that our courses and teachers depend on springboard to get us through the semesters.  My attention span is some what small, and having all these assignments that have to be computer based, I get super side tracked with all the other things that are online. So I personally prefer to be in a traditional setting, even though these learning spaces could be adjusted, they are still better than so much online.  We use Google to share all kinds of information and to keep in contact with our professors and classmates.  This is a good way to keep everyone engaged in project, you do not necessarily have to meet up anymore, due to google docs, several people can be updating and changing the doc at the same time making group work a lot more do able.  There are so many different things that are changing in the ways of learning that adapting and learning how to change the learning spaces is going to be a constant challenge no matter what.