Friday 5: School Design

This week, school design is on my mind. I'm heading to New York next Wednesday to serve on a panel at the American Architectural Foundation’s summit entitled Schoolhouse 3.0: Designing Educational Facilities for 21st Century Technologies and Curriculums. The goal of this panel (which also includes Frank Kelly of the SHW Group, Tom Carroll of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, and Charles Fadel of Cisco Systems) is to set the stage for summit participants around the role of educational technology and school design. Infinite Thinking Machine founder and New Tech Network Director of Innovation and Design Chris Walsh will be keynoting this event. We'll be discussing the need for transformation in our schools, and future implications for school planning teams.

I anticipate that this will be an amazing learning experience; I appreciate good design and believe that it is a critical component to creating effective learning environments. I particularly think that schools serving at risk populations really need to focus on the impact of design on learning; good design is not something we should reserve for better resourced communities.

So, as I think about conversations that will take place next week, here are a few web sites that I will be consulting or referring to:

1. DesignShare

http://www.designshare.com/

2. Don't Just Rebuild Schools - Reinvent Them

http://www.fieldingnair.com/Press/Education_Week_Dont_Just_Rebuild_Schools_Reinvent_Them.pdf

A recent EdWeek article by DesignShare Managing Director Prakash Nair.

3. Design Matters

http://designmatters.art.uiuc.edu/

Not directly related to school design, this web site from the University of Illinois contains video lectures given by prominent people in the design field. Thanks for Doris Wells-Papanek for this link.

4. Schools Designed for Learning: The Denver School of Science and Technology

From the American Architectural Foundation's Great Schools by Design Initiative

http://www.archfoundation.org/aaf/gsbd/Video.Denver.Short.htm

This is an online exhibit from the group that is sponsoring the aforementioned summit.

5. Horizon Report 2009 K12 Edition

http://www.nmc.org/publications/2009-horizon-k12-report

I served on the advisory board for this report, and will be referencing it during our panel discussion. The report names future trends in educational technology; these trends will definitely impact future school design.

6. The Third Teacher

http://www.thethirdteacher.com/home/home-third-teacher

Via Christian Long