Different Learning - Different Spaces

As part of The Manaiakalani Programme an  Innovative Teacher Accademy has been set up. This is to provide an opportunity for  teachers to form a network for support and mentoring as we follow areas of interest an innovation that we want to investigate further. I submitted my plan for an innovative project for 2013 and was lucky enough to be accepted. This was my proposal:

"Open classrooms were a fad in the 70s which didn’t survive, but here we are looking at this again in our planning for a new learning space to be built for the Yr5/6 students at Pt England School.

Based on the fact that we teach digital learners differently, and these students learn differently, the traditional single cell class space has more and more constraints. A new pedagogy is driving a new learning type of learning space.

These things are proven to make a difference in our schooling improvement journey:
*Group teaching, needs specific explicit teaching
*Relationship with teacher
*Digital engagement
*Personal voice

But these things are becoming increasingly apparent:
*Digital learners are connected to each other, the teacher and those outside of their classroom or community online. For Anywhere learners space becomes less relevant.
Teachers don’t have to be physically close to students to be able to give them feedback, keep them motivated or help them out. Furthermore the ‘teaching’ is done by more than the class teacher.
*Learning Anytime - defined curriculum/subject times blurred. Learning times no longer restricted and the pace in which students learn can be differentiated
*Personal voice, personal device, personal learning. Seating, style of learning, area, collaboration, choice, tasks... flexible
*Creators and creative - spaces for this

Flexibility to allow for digital learner pushing us into a different pedagogy and a different kind of space.

Changing practice for 21st Century learners is harder than changing technology or space, but new spaces and tools can inspire teachers and learners to change their practice.
( NLII Fall Focus Session, Learning Space Design in the 21st Century,)

I want to:
1. Investigate what an effective learning space that allows for any place, any space and any pace learning looks like.
2. Develop classroom organisation for our digital learning pedagogy.