So far...
Affordances
The displays are really effective. It is handy and helpful to see the work of others on large displays with a bonus being that sitting close to your notepad and a laptop make it a breeze to take notes and search for any desired information.
The teacher has a strong 'command position.'
Limitations
It stinks
- Get some better plastics, glues and paints. Involve some experimental lab, small faculty or small group to help design or acquire materials that are less toxic.
It's unnatural
- Get some plants and flowers that look and smell natural and pleasant.
- Use the projectors/LEDs to change the stark-white walls and ceiling to calmer scenes.
Students are not tech-support
- If Technicians had a job sheet for room set up that included allowing laptops to play video and audio through the room's displays and speakers there would be no need for students to open the cable recess.
- A desktop wallpaper ‘Troubleshooting Guide’ could be an effective back up.
- Replacing the top level's semi-circular barriers with a slim-line bannister (with an open-mesh fence) would greatly improve the sound transference and line-of-sight vision between the three levels.
- Desktop microphones should be sensitive enough to avoid the spread of lipstick.
Projector-rama!
A more cylindrical design with high, flat ceilings that employed multiple projectors with a surround sound system including subwoofers could add to the experience. (LEDs embedded in the walls and ceiling might be a better choice.) 'Movies' could be projected on the walls and ceiling while students heard it all in surround sound. Imagine if teachers could take students ‘inside’ another time and place. For example:
- History: Walk through a Roman town. Stand inside a battlefield while the battle rages around you or be there when the Magna Carta or Declaration of Independence are signed.
- Science: Travel through the body’s bloodstream, examining diseases as you go (like the film ‘Innerspace,’ only good). Walk through the inside of an atom. See what happens when a nuke detonates.... from 100km, 50km, 5km, 5m.
- Social Issues: See what a segregated house on the Ole South was really like or march on Washington with a million others.
- Any lesson: Project a blue sky with fthe occasion fluffy white cloud and bird sounds. Create a nice atmosphere to start a creative activity. If the teacher needs to get attention quickly, the ‘sky’ could reflect this in an instant. If the teacher became angry, storm clouds and thunder (with rumbling floors from the subwoofer) would leave students in no doubt that they should be quiet and listen.
- 3D would be a necessity.
Meh. I'll proofread that later.
ReplyDeleteSome points added:
ReplyDeleteBeing a multiple-purpose classroom, the experimental room should be able to serve different teaching and learning activities, e.g. lecture, tutorials etc. Tables are now fixed with all electricity supplies and wires are embedded on the table are not facilitating changing the classroom settings to suit different activities. Those plugs should be installed on the floor so that movable tables can be used.
Resting areas with facilities like sofa, cushions, drink-retailing machines should be provided to let both teachers and students some spaces to take a short break in class and create a relaxing atmosphere.