I've arrived at the conclusion that my classroom - the physical space - is one of the major barriers I face when I entertain the dreamscape mindset of a training, a conference session, a Twitter ed chat, or just a water cooler conversation about how we're all going to save the world. How am I to do things in a room that looks like this?
Okay, wait. To be fair, that is NOT my classroom. But frankly, my room doesn't have a whole lot more than that going for it. (And I thought that the window units were a nice touch for a 21st century classroom touted as an "air conditioned high tech classroom".) Both the room above at the University of Connecticut and my classroom here in Beaumont, Texas have several amenities one does not notice at first glance. They have desks that can be reconfigured into multiple arrangements (pairs, tables, arches, circles, and of course, columns & rows). They have mounted data projectors,
something that I know is still not as ubiquitous as it should be. And my classroom, being a secondary public school classroom, does admittedly have a little more tech than the university classroom above.
I have four dedicated desktop workstations and a fifth that drives my data projector but can be used by students if I'm not holding forth. I bring my own laptop to free up one of these, but even just the four is a veritable bounty where I work. I also have a Hitachi StarBoard interactive white board, two RF slates that can be used in conjunction with the StarBoard, and 30 NEO2 student keyboards that can be used as classroom responders and for taking Accelerated Reader quizzes, composing and submitting student writing, and other applications. While that last is a technology that is no longer sold by its most recent distributor, the company continues to support the device, and it remains a tool that I have at my disposal.
So what's the problem, right?
Well, the biggest problem is that very little of what I possess allows for the very much more robust applications available through the use of Web 2.0 and tablet technology. This is where the dream of 1:1 comes from for most educators with whom I discuss ed tech. If we can't have the whole ball of wax, what can we do?
But the next biggest problem, as I suggested above, is the space itself. This is my actual classroom:
Now, pardon the dust. It's been a ridiculously hectic year, but as you can see, I'm basically dealing with a room full of student desks - 36 of them - some counters on two walls, and sundry ancillary furniture (bookshelves, file cabinets, etc.). When I think about something like 20% Time, I can only envision a mad dash for one of the five available computers. When I think about Maker Ed, I just look at my poor broom, the lack of space to lay out materials, and the budget I don't have and weep for the impossibility of it all, not to mention the little holes created at the center of each "table" of desks by the rounded corners where the four desks meet. We get out scissors and glue, that hole becomes the trash can. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
So how do we design a room where we could even begin to do all of this?
For starters, since we're dreaming, I'll either need to cap my students at 20 to a class or expand my space. The tables I want accommodate five students each, so I can take anything the district wants to throw at me provided they move my walls out to accommodate the tables. I want these conference tables made by SmartDesks (http://www.smartdesks.com/HD-conferencing-teleconference-table.asp). They're beefy, so they should hold up to kids, and they're versatile, so we can flip the screens up and use the computers or flip them down and have a work space for pencil and paper work, projects and making, group discussion, or whatever else. I'll need four or five of these in the room so that everyone has a seat at a table.
After finally deciding on what to do about furniture, I put the gadgets in the hands of my students. We had a discussion at the end of a few classes yesterday about what we would need if money were no object. Here is what my 7th and 8th graders came up with:
- Laptops/Tablets - This broke into the familiar debate over laptops vs. tablets. In the end, since my chosen "desks" will accommodate a full desktop CPU for each child, we decided that a set of 10 or 15 tablets for projects requiring portability would be sufficient in addition to the beefy student workstations.
- A 3D Printer - This surprised me a little bit, but I should have known that there are hungry makers among us. This led us into a discussion about how our "desk" area would need to be expanded by about half to provide some standing worktables, counter space, and cabinets to accommodate making "stuff".
- Cameras - I asked whether the tablet cameras would be sufficient, but this young lady said, "No." She wants SLRs. Nice ones. Something with which we could take high quality photographs or shoot long periods of high quality video. Okay.
- Wireless Beats - At first I thought this was just a covetous wish, but then they told me that if we had online video lessons, interactive web-based activities, or were editing video, we would need the serenity provided by headphones. And wireless beats wires. And Beats beat everything else. I yielded at this point.
- A better data projector - Mine is old and sucks. So much so that they can tell. 'Nuff said.
- A telescope - I'm still not sure why, but I promised this young lady she could have one.
- Yoga balls - Some of my kids want these instead of the snazzy desk chairs in the SmartDesk photo. Sounds good to me. If we have to continue to switch classrooms, I suppose I would want a corral of yoga balls with which kids could switch out the standard chair since many students turned their noses up at the suggestion.
- Oculus VR goggles - Sounds cool. I said we could get 10 or 15 and check them out on an "as needed" basis like the tablets just because...come on, man. Really? Who wants to look at a classroom full of zombies jacked into the Matrix?
- Glass - They want Google Glass. Again, a small set on an "as needed" basis because, again, like, "Are you filming me? Creep."
- Touch Screen Smart TVs - They want these for small group presentation at points throughout the room, so I figure we'll have three - one on each wall that doesn't have my StarBoard. I like my StarBoard.
At this point, I reminded them that this was our READING class, and what about just reading? So the discussion shifted to the "tech" we would need for a proper reading space. First, they said that they wanted a reading space removed from our classroom proper. We agreed on the suggestion of a loft - a staircase on one wall leading up to a loft that ran around at least three, if not all four, walls of the room. The short wall at the inside edge of the loft over which they could look upon the classroom workspace would be made entirely of short bookshelves and be full of everything we might want to read. The taller outside wall would have bookshelves, too, but with open spaces for a few other amenities as listed here:
- Hammock Chairs - They asked for alternative seating for reading, and while bubble chairs, egg chairs, bean bag chairs, poufs, couches, and pillows made the list, this idea was a hit. So we figure that periodically throughout the loft, we'll have nooks filled with various seating options.
- A Refrigerator - The kids want this filled with chilled bottled water to which they can help themselves. Why not?
- Fish - They want the bookshelves on the outer wall to be broken up, especially at the reading nooks, with built-in aquariums featuring different varieties of fishes at each nook.
- Music - I argued this one, but when 7th graders told me that soft instrumental music pumping through speakers at the reading nooks would help them focus, I acquiesced.
- E-book access - Finally, they want access to an e-book library that they could get into for new releases, books that we don't have enough copies of, or books we simply don't own.
