IS_LT 9440 Jahnke

Learning with the Internet

Rachel Piland
LU‐2b: K‐12 Online Conference

Reimagining the Spaces in Which We Learn

November 14, 2016

Presenter: David Jakes, Naperville, IL

http://k12onlineconference.org/2016/11/14/reimagining-the-
spaces-in-which-we-learn/

Description:

It’s not hard to recognize the typical “classroom.” They haven’t

changed much. And while we can and should honor all the learning
that has taken place in that space, students today have an
opportunity to learn within an ever‐expanding learning space that
supports entirely new connections and possibilities for their
learning. Join David Jakes as we explore the critical issues
surrounding the relationship of space to learning, and how you can
begin to take the steps that are necessary to create inspiring and
transformative physical and virtual spaces that afford students
choice and ownership of their learning.

In this video series, David Jakes talks about 4 catergories to reimagine
the spaces in which we learn: Mindset, Landscape, Process, and Impact.
The goal is to develop a wider range of capability to create experiences
that expose kids in development of content understanding, skills, and
mindsets, all leading to dispositions of independent learners. Spaces
should be designed and redesigned to cater to the needs of the students
and what objectives and experiences need to be learned.
The video I will be expanding on will be Part 3, the process of
reimagining the spaces in which we learn, as a way to engage the spaces
to have a logical end.

Explain how ideas from the session might be implemented with

your students or, if not teaching, applied with learners in a broader
context (be specific in your explanation, particularly if not
addressing a K‐12 population).

In David Jakes third video, he focuses on the process of designing and
implementing spaces to promote the best learning for students. Starting
to think about the way in which the spaces can be created to support the
development of the expectation of the drivers of learning. In early
elementary classrooms, such as my first grade classroom, it is important
to have many different spaces for many different purposes. The
classroom spaces must be shaped accordingly. Spaces should exist as
ecology and not in isolation. You don’t want to design just classrooms,
but ecology of spaces. Spaces, at any given time, should be able to
support any range across many behaviors: from academic to social,
formal, to informal, individual to collaborative, analog to digital, and
school to home.
The Iterative process of designing learning spaces begins with
discovery, leads to designing drivers and assembling creative
prototypes that could possibly be taken to scale. One of the first steps in
creating a flexible space is gaining information about the students and
their learning expectations in the classroom and getting them to
coincide with the learning goals and expectations of the district.
Communication with students, parents, administration, and other staff
is key in discovering what learning looks like. Designing spaces doesn’t
just include furniture; it encompasses every aspect of the learning
environment. The next step would be to define a framework that will
direct what learning should look like to provide teachers with direction
and intent for the learners. Then ideation takes place to create potential
ways to take the factors and shape them into special realities with
prototypes. Testing prototypes is important to see if the new spaces
designed work for the students. Since it is an iterative process, constant
reflection is needed to see if the spaces need to be redesigned for the
benefit of students learning process.
Jakes mentions incorporating 7 different ideas when reimagining
learning spaces in a classroom. The space must be flexible and agile so
the classroom can be reshaped quickly for different learning
experiences. Spaces are designed based on student experience, so
spaces must be adaptive to the change in expectations. The
technological perspective must be addressed to decide what technology
is available and how it allows the spaces to be linked and
interconnected for optimal learning. Spaces created must be intentional
and inherently linked to personalized student learning. Since every
space is a learning space, we must ask ourselves, as designers, how we
will utilize all the spaces to promote the best learning experiences.

Discuss the two readings of inquiry‐based learning and reflective

crossaction from LU‐2 while relating them to the presentation you
watched online. Do the speakers somehow implicitly or explicitly
refer to learning as reflective crossaction or inquiring with web‐
based technologies, to what extent?

Jakes refers to reimagining learning spaces to cater to the learner and
their creativity. Jahnke has a very similar view when creating conditions
for creativity in crossaction spaces. She states that “creating conditions
for creative learning expeditions involve 1) students’ self-reflections, 2)
that they can make autonomous and independent decisions during the
learning process, 3) design fosters engagement, curiosity and
motivation, 4) students are able to produce something, 5)
multiperspective thinking (students show more than one perspective,
contradictory views, on the same topic), and 6) developing original, new
ideas” (Jahnke &Haertel, 2010; Jahnke, 2013). Spaces must be
personalized to allow for personal interpretation on how the space
promotes learning. Students should be able to arrange spaces in how it
supports their own learning.
According to Jakes, there are 7 different design drivers that become a
part of the everyday experience of reimagining the spaces in which we
learn that coincide with learning as reflective crossaction spaces. Since
learning begins at the doorframe, there must be an inviting space to
entice the learners. The designed space must promote different types of
interactions that serve to connect students and teachers together as
learners. Discovery learning, as stated by Jahnke, encourages the learner
to carry out experiments and to uncover relationships (Jahnke, 2013).
Jakes explicitly refers to learning as reflective crossaction and is
successfully obtained by creating spacesthat supports collaboration,
making, risk-taking, comfort, adaption, creation, and inspiration.
Both Jahnke and Jakes talk about how physical rooms are not the only
spaces in which we learn. Incorporating technology in education has
changed the game to where there are many spaces to learn. In the
virtual world, we must decide how technology is used to support and
reshape teaching and learning. Designers must support the linkage of
technology and the learning spaces to promote interactions and
discovery. “Learning without reflection and without a social group is
merely behavior without further development” (Jahnke, 2013). By
developing quality crossaction spaces, the design will promote different
types of interactions that serve to connect students and teachers
together as learners.

Share your perceptions regarding the viability and value of such

types of online conferences: Are online conferences useful for
learning?

Online conferences are of high value to educators because it is a field
where everything is changing and at a fast pace. Ongoing professional
development keeps teachers up to date on new research, emerging
technology, new curriculum and more. Educators who do not
experience effective professional development do not improve their
skills, and learning suffers. Ongoing learning is the link between
teachers’ individual skills and knowledge and the contribution they
make to a school district and students. It is vital to find time to
participate in professional learning, because technology is continuously
changing and subject knowledge is updated. What teachers know is a
major influence on how students learn. The classroom is continuously
changing and teachers must be prepared to meet the needs of their
students.