Learning Community Celebration: Learning for Student Success 21 April 2006

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Learning Community CelebrationLearning for
Student Success21 April 2006
First-Year Technologies

• We want Kent State University to be the Ohio
  university that offers the most fully engaging
  learning experience.
• Paul Gaston, Stater 2.22.2006

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First-Year TechnologiesLearning Community
Margaret Shaw Associate Professor English Kent
Campus
Jeanne R. Smith NTT-Lecturer English Director of
the Writing Center Kent Campus
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First-Year TechnologiesLearning Community
Elizabeth Wagoner PhD Candidate English Kent
Campus
KrisAnn Norby-Jahner PhD Candidate English Kent
Campus
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First-Year TechnologiesLearning Community
Gary Hanson Associate Professor JMC/Electronic
Media Kent Campus
Molly Lindner Assistant Professor Art Stark Campus
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First-Year TechnologiesLearning Community
Eric Smith Lecturer English Kent Campus Leader
and Technology Nudge
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We know the right answers to the questions asked
of us today.

• Weve gone to the right meetings.
• Weve read our Fink.
• Were pretty good at doing college.

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What characterizes that learning experience?

• student-centered
• instructor-facilitated
• technologically-aided
• problem-based
• project-oriented
• civic-minded

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What are students doing?

• Learning deeply, significantly, actively.
• Doing what they cannot do elsewhere more easily.
• Using a high-speed connection to gather materials.

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What are students doing?

• Information Literacy
• Human interactions
• Face-to-face
• Mediated
• Reporting field work
• Connecting
• to gather information and ideas
• to disseminate information and ideas
• Composing multi-modal artifacts

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What are faculty doing?

• Keeping out of the way of learning
• Providing questions
• Offering ways of thinking
• Pointing/Guiding
• Encouraging

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What are faculty not doing?

• Presenting images for class consumption?
• Leading the experience and deciding what matters
  most?
• Whose classroom is it?

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What do faculty have to learn or how do faculty
have to change in order for this ideal learning
experience to occur?

• Surrender the front of the room.
• Present-less.
• Teach students to ask the right questions.

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Can we consider learning experiences without
considering learning spaces?

• First-year courses dont often get prime real
  estate.
• Instructors of these courses dont often know how
  to ask for additional resources.
• Students in some first-year classrooms are
  place-holders occupying a seat without becoming
  stakeholders who are invested in being here.

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Learning-centered campus Planning principles

• Every space on campus is a learning environment.
• Resources must be allocated to create, sustain,
  and use learning-centered spaces.

from Bickford and Dittoes Learning Environment
Design presentation at the Student Success
Conference 3/23/06
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There is a concept called built pedagogy.
Basically the design of a space will lead you to
a certain type of pedagogy. If all the chairs are
facing forward and there is only a single focal
point to the room, youre probably going to
lecture in that space. The way it is built pretty
much dictates the pedagogy. - Diana Oblinger in
Looking Forward to the Campus of the Future An
Interview with Richard Katz and Diana Oblinger
by Terry Calhoun
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Most DEEP schools artfully plan and maintain
their physical facilities to promote student
engagement. Space is dedicated for socially
catalytic interactions, areas where students and
faculty can meet informally or where students can
work together on projects.Manning and Kuh,
Student Success in College, Occasional Paper 13
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We dont teach to rows upon rows.
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We dont teach in studios.
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Does teaching space matter to students?

• Table from The Impact of Facilities on
  Recruitment and Retention of Students by David
  Cain, Ph.D. Gary L. Reynolds, P.E. Facilities
  Manager, 22.2. March/April 2006

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Decisions about space (re)enforce instructor
positions and types of teaching styles.
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How can you challenge the teaching space to
enable different learning experiences?
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• Where are you coming from?
• Where are you going?
• And why are you in my classroom at 725 in the
  morning?

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Follow the light, the wires, and the wide-open
spaces.
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Ideal Space

• Flexible seating
• Cluster collaborative groups
• Present information on several walls
• Accessible to those with various disabilities
• Some specialized areas or work-surfaces for
  physical projects
• Student access to rooms technology
• Personal or workgroup technology
• Laptops
• Mini-projectors
• A lot of open, flexible space

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Thanks to Dean Steven Fong for calling our
attention to The Impact of Facilities on
Recruitment and Retention of Students APPA,
March/April 2006. KSU photography by Jeanne and
Eric Smith.Other photos from Learning
Environment DesignDeborah BickfordAssociate
Provost for Academic Affairs Learning
InitiativesUniversity of DaytonWilliam
DittoeEducational Facilities Consultants, LLC