Friday, November 21, 2008

More on Learning Space design

Educause has a good webpage that focuses on Learning space design.

Included is a section on conference resources which have the following topics :
* Teaching and Learning in Two New Smart Classrooms: Research Findings on the Pedagogical Implications of Space Design (11/18/2008)
* Laying the Foundation for Innovative, Flexible, and Consistent Classroom Technology (11/11/2008)
* Bringing the Information Commons Home (11/10/2008)
* Emerging Learning Spaces (11/10/2008)
* A Planning Process for Successful Learning/Information Commons (11/07/2008)

as well as Publications:

Friday, November 14, 2008

Jump into the Creativity Pool


Our national broadcaster has recently launched a new collaborative social media space called Pool. A site that could be a very useful resource for schools.

Creative Commons Australia had the following to say about Pool.
Australia’s iconic public broadcaster, the ABC, has just launched a new CC-friendly social media space, Pool, designed to provide a “place for creative content makers to upload their work, publish and collaborate.”

Pool lets creators working in all mediums - from animation, to music, to video, to text - share and broadcast their work to others. Like most participatory media sites, users can create profiles, upload and download material, and search tags for related material. But unlike other popular sites, the focus at Pool is very clearly on quality and experimentation.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

School design/ learning spaces

Schools for the future: designs for
lea
rning communities:
Building Bulletin 95, 2002.

download a copy from Teachernet


Schools for the future
Teachernet Ideas for building design, teaching innovations and environments for the future. pdf documents for downloading. ...

OECD Programme for educational building
The OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) promotes the exchange and analysis of policy, research and experience in all matters related to educational building. PEB members consist of individual governments and research agencies throughout the world. Its work is of relevance to policy-makers in national and regional authorities responsible for educational facilities, to architects, system level and institutional managers, and to researchers in the field.


PEB Exchange, the journal of the Programme on Educational Building
This journal addresses issues related to providing a quality educational infrastructure in a cost-effective way.
The Journal OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) promotes the exchange and analysis of policy, research and experience in all matters related to educational building.

Designing for the future of learningLinkShare innovative best practices happening around the world in the field of school design. The audience includes architects, educators, planners, builders, policy leaders, school board members, and all stakeholders interested in designing for the future of learning.

School buildings information centre
This is the website of the Schools Capital Assets Design Team of England's Department for Education and Skills, promoting best practice in design, use, and management of school facilities. The website contains information on school building design guidance, asset management, environmental health and safety, including acoustics, energy efficiency, lighting, fire safety, and costs.

Schooldesigns
Searchable database of photos, project descriptions and floor plans for schools across the country that have been featured in American School & University's Architectural Portfolio and Educational Interiors Showcase issues. The database is also searchable by firm name, project city and state, and special subcategory such as renovation or landscape.

School design for inclusion/special needs
Inclusion

Support spaces

Classroom Design for Living and Learning with Autism

Learning space design

The pyschology of learning environments
Ken A. Graetz
EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 6 (November/December 2006): pp. 60–75.
How do we create learning environments that will respond to the increased presence of networked devices, the transition from lecture to collaboration, and the growing importance of virtual environments and build the classrooms of the future that facilitate usability, engagement, collaboration, and learning.

Leading the transition from classrooms to learning spaces,
Diana Oblinger, NLII White Paper, October 2004
Diana discusses learning spaces and how the notion of a classroom has expanded and evolved. The space is no longer defined by "the class" but by "learning".
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NLI0447.pdf

Augsberg Teaching and Learning Spaces
Augsberg College learning spaces design is guided by a set of agreed-upon teaching and learning principles. This document outlines the teaching and learning goals and design principles that can implement them.
http://www.augsburg.edu/ctl/tls/TLSPrinciples.pdf

Designing Spaces for Effective Learning. A guide to 21st century learning space design. (2006).


Innovative school learning spaces (2007)
Albany Junior High School New Zealand

Planning sustainable schools for the future
Presentation by Brian Caldwell
Design should focus on students


Video resources

Glen Waverley Secondary College
Spaces for Learning: designed to support the development and implementation of the Years 7-9 Learning Community through a transformed pedagogical model. The pedagogy aims to support powerful learning and deep understanding through inquiry. The building disturbs a traditional model of schools and learning spaces and will allow teachers and students to be liberated from past practices and organisational structures.

Large Learning Spaces _ John XXIII Primary
News report on the Kinder learning space at John XXIII Catholic Primary School, Stanhope Gardens, NSW, Australia. John XXIII Kinder has 93 students, 3 teachers and a teacher aide in a single open learning space.

Schools designed for learning
For students at the Denver School of Science and Technology, learning takes place in an environment that is engaging, instructive, and comfortable. The building is an example of design supporting learning, and it provides spaces that are both flexible and inspiring. In addition, the school is outfitted with cutting edge technology—the building is a wireless environment, and each student works with a laptop computer. These students learn in new and exciting ways every day. It is truly a school that has been designed to promote student achievement, and you will see many examples of this powerful idea in the video.

Learning spaces
Ever wondered what goes into designing an award winning school? Watch and learn, from The Riverside School (India, Gujarat, Ahmedabad)

Learning spaces: a visual journey
Video from Appalachian State University about learning spaces


Learning spaces


NZ research trip to Christchurch
Video images of open planned learning space. A group of teachers from Victoria, Australia, recently visited Christchurch to see two schools and two libraries looking at the design of learning spaces and how they effect teaching and learning

Resources from the TLRU

The June/July 2008 issue of Teacher: the national education magazine, has the following articles around learning environment design.

Inspiration: environmentally sustainable design
Schools are some of the best places to implement good sustainable building design practices

Learning spaces
If the design is right, students can move effortlessley between online and offline learning spaces and devices.

The above articles are available from the TLRU by request.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Leadership and excellence in schools

Linking leadership to student learning: the contributions of leader efficacy, Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol 44, No 4, Oct 2008, pp 496-528.

Collective leadership effects on student achievement, Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol 44, No 4, Oct 2008, pp 529-592.

Excellence for all, Educational Leadership, Vol 66, No 2, Oct 2008, pp 14-17.

Learning from world class schools, Educational Leadership, Vol 66, No 2, Oct 2008, pp 44-51.

Michael Fullan
- Michael Fullans website contains a large number of resources and articles.

Refugee resources

How can refugee youth make a good start, ATESOL Newsletter Vol 34, No 1, Mar 2008.

Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture or Trauma have a number of useful resources for counsellors and teachers in schools. The following brochures can be downloaded from their site at QPASTT publications

A teachers guide to working with students from refugee and displaced backgrounds

A school counselling guide to working with students from refugee and displaced backgrounds

Students from refugee and displaced backgrounds - a handbook for schools

Refugee student support kit: for teachers, school counsellors and school communities

Monday, November 3, 2008

Emotional intelligence

Developing emotional intelligence: a case study, Principal Matters, Spring 2008, pp36-38.

Emotional intelligence in schools, Directions in education, Vol 17, No 4, 15 August 2008, p2.

Copyright

Copyright resources for schools:

Smartcopying website. The Official Guide to Copyright Issues for Australian Schools and TAFE.

Copyright kitchen

The Copyright Kitchen is a resource for those working in vocational education and training (VET) who deal with copyright issues in their day-to-day work. It breaks up copyright information into categories built around who you are, where you work and the task at hand. To get started, select from one of the categories listed on the left and start browsing.

Australian Copyright Council. Provides information advice and training about copyright in Australia. Produces publications, does research, and make submissions on copyright policy issues.

Copyright or Copywrong. Resources about film and DVD piracy including online and print resources.

Copyright issues

Google booksearch: universal access or copyright breach, Online currents, Vol 22, No 3, 2007, pp 89-95.

Google book search settlement: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reports that a groundbreaking settlement has been reached in the US, after two years of negotiation to settle two class actions brought against Google.

Indigenous education

Curriculum wisdom from the elders, Principal Matters, Winter 2008, pp12-13.

Helping indigenous children manage grief and loss, Every child, Vol 14, No 3, 2008, p11.

Special education - focus on ADHD

Language deficits in ADHD preschoolers, Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, Vol 13, No 1, May, 2008, 39-49.

Are schools meeting the needs of students with ADHD? Australasian Journal of Special Education, vol 32, No 2. Sept 2008, pp 187-198