Classrooms of the future?
July 12th, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
Have you ever had an ideal learning space–a classroom, library, common room or study that you wanted to spend time in? More and more universities are looking at ways in which they can make students more comfortable in their learning environments. Here is an interesting example. Oxford Brookes University has created a space for undergraduate students that is bright, snazzy and equipped with swish gadgetry where they can do collaborative study. There are some doubts about exactly how useful this room will be because of its specific attributes and you can head over to the article to read about them. Meanwhile, I’m going to do a bit of daydreaming of my own.
My ideal group study area would have a warm, homey feel to it–wooden floors, a comfy armchair or two, some beanbags, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers on the wall, bookshelves lining the walls, and many rounds of tea and coffee available easily. I think I’d be distracted by shiny modern gadgetry. Can you get your reading done when bright knobs and buttons are beckoning and the sofas resemble something you’d find in a lounge bar? More power to you, if you can. Me, I’d want to get up and play. Something resembling a favourite author’s study, say like this one, would do very nicely instead.
One of the challenges of studying with other people is the tendency to get distracted. There’s always the faint, nagging urge to chew the fat, gossip, or discuss the match instead of focusing on Foucault or Smith. Before you know it, the discussion has been derailed and you’re all heading out for a drink with solemn promises that you’ll finish today’s work tomorrow. I think a place like this would gently tug you back to study mode every now and then. A useful thing.
At the same time, nobody likes to be uncomfortable and this is the problem with traditional classrooms and libraries a lot of the time. Hard plastic or wooden furniture, straight-backed chairs that hurt the back, and vacant walls appeal to very few people. Reading feels like a penance of sorts rather than something enjoyable, which it is meant to be. Mayo Clinic has a different take on it though. They have designed the classroom of the future, where children learn at ’standing desks’ using laptops and iPods. They feel that this active method of learning could help tackle the US’s problem of child obesity.
Meanwhile, as a nod to the flavour of the week–Pottermania!–I will leave you with a J.K. Rowling’s description of a Hogwarts classroom:
He emerged into the strangest-looking classroom he had ever seen. In fact, it didn’t look like a classroom at all, more like a cross between someone’s attic and an old-fashioned tea shop. At least twenty small, circular tables were crammed inside it, all surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light; the curtains at the windows were all closed, and the many lamps were draped with red scarves. It was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle. The shelves running around the circular walls were crammed with dusty-looking feathers, stubs of candles, many packs of tattered playing cards, countless silvery crystal balls, and a huge array of teacups.