dgilbert's blog

I am thinking about the implications for learning spaces connected to the new C6 room at Iowa State. 100 million pixels in what sounds like the most sophisticated virtual reality environment in the world. This Iowa State News Service article describes in depth the 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot cube that will be used to conduct sophisticated simulations for urban planning, weather simulations, and defense applications (sounds like DOD put some money into this.) Sounds about as close to the Star Trek Holodeck as exists today. This experimental space surely costs more than the $4million figure the article cites, but what are the implications when the price point drops down to $4,000? Perhaps this is 10-15 years off which is not that long when talking about the lifespan of a building.

Many of us believe that this kind of immersive environment holds great potential for reaching all kinds of learners. As always, the most important thing will be the social processes that surround this kind of tool. If the walls and floors of formal learning spaces start to be covered with pixels, what kinds of innovative practices can we come up with to use them well? What roles will the instructor have to take on? What elements of community can be enhanced by this immersive environment?

I am co-teaching (with Deborah Emery of SRI) a graduate class in Stanford's Chool of Education, Designing Learning Spaces This project-based, collaborative course gives students the chance to integrate learning principles into the design of specific spaces for real clients and develop a rubric to assess the impact that spaces have on learning.

The link above leads to our course WIKI with the syllabus, schedule, student reflections, and projects. This is the first time for this coourse to be taught here (and I think anywhere) so we are all in experimental territory. If you are interested, please contribute on the visitors page. We see this course as v1 and are looking far and wide to make v2 even stronger.

Just read about MIT's ambitious project with detailed reporting of the spaces where the campus-wide wireless network gets the most use. The lab that is working on this project is interested in the implications for architects and spce planners. I'm ondering about ways to connect that data with some kind of self-reporting on what people are actually doing: collaborating, surfing, communicating, etc. MIT i spots page Describes the ispots project at MIT MIT Technology Review article Thanks to Jim Browning and Howard Rheingold for posting this on the SmartMobs page.

This morning's Wahsington Post discusses D.C.'s local government insisting that the company that provides the best plan for aiding the poorest citizens with internet access will win the bid to provide the whole city with wireless access. I hope that the verizon's, eartlink's etc. think carefully through the training programs they might include as a part of this. It will also be interesting to see what role K-12 schools play in the proposals that are developed.

Washington Post Article: District to Seek Wireless Internet That Aids Poor

Just read on cnet about the European Commision - a gov't organization - is taking on a task similar to Google's library project; essentially digitizing the entire collections of some of the major libraries of the continent. Overall I find these projects exciting for the opportunities that open up for just-in-time learning and just-about-everywhere learning.

A critical step for space designers will be to create spaces wehre learners will want to congreagate to discuss the artifacts that they access on their mobile devices. How can designers encourage learners to sit in the same physical spaces while they each do their own work (or work on some collaborative project?). Just becasuse everything is available online through the window of a personal device, doesn't mean that leaners should strive to be solitary while learning.

cnet Article: Europe's Digital Library Taking Shape

Google Library Project: Google Book Search Library Project

Today's SF Chronicle has a summary of some studies about impace of everyone having a mobile phone. Not much about learning in this article, but opens some windows for thinking about how a device for one thing can be used for another. My own thought is that people will use their phones for a learning acitivity if it is short, in the right context, and can be connected with some other part of their learning career. SF Gate Article: The World's a Cell Phone Stage

Many already know about efforts in Portland, New Orleans, Philadelphia and San Francicso (to name a few) to offer complete city-wide wireless converage. There was an update in today's San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Wi-Fi Bidding Heats-up

What are the implications for campus space designers when students will be able to do more away from central campus. What kinds of spaces do we need to create to encourage students to choose to stay on campus and in a community for learning. Wireless everywhere raises the possibility of isolating learners from each other physically while connnecting them virtually.

This morning I came across an article describing an organization that takes kids on biblically themed tours of science museums and labs in Colorado. Washington Post.com article: Bible Guides Tour Museums to Counter Science Obviously the particulars of this case will excite some passions. I'd like to save that argument for another forum and instead focus on how spaces that are more informal sometimes generate unintended consequences. This seems to just be a risk that designers need to take into account and then decide what, if any, procedures/policies that organizations need to adopt to keep the mission of the space consistent with the mission of the space.

I'm preparing to teach a grad school course on leanring space design in the spring quarter. I've been thinking a lot about the distinction between designing those spaces where learning is an explicit goal (i.e. classrooms, informal breakout spaces, libraries, museums, zoos, etc. ) and spaces where learning can or should happen even if not explicit. These spaces are everywhere - grocery stores, airport terminals, parks, parking lots, to name a few. It is easy to imagine that in 5-10 years just about everywhere most of us would go would have wireless internet coverage. It is even easier to imagine that the mobile phones and other devices that nearly all of us carry will be far more sophisticated opening the opportunity for just in time learning everywhere. What kinds of prompts or cues can designers include in all spaces that would encourage using these mobile tools for learning? What kinds of assessment activities could be possible? What would people be willing to do?

Just saw this intersting article on Wired about a cardiovascular specialist who creates podcasts for his elderly patients. Interesting way to deliver information to audience not normally targeted for new media. Big element of his plan is that in the waiting room he has replaced some of his magazines with a couple of ipods and docking stations so that patients can listen to health ed talk whiile they are waiting. Wired Magazine Article: Podcast From the Heart