[ Page 6 of 12 ]

Technology Is Changing the Way Kids Learn
… And the Classrooms in Which They Do It.

Advertising supplement provided by Paxton / Patterson
By Stephen H. Daniels

Space is a critical issue in technology education lab planning, as is the problem of maintaining a line-of-sight between teacher and students. “We often find ourselves trying to put a size-12 foot into a size-nine shoe,” says Waltemeyer. “If I am building a tech lab, the ideal space is open, with the modules against the walls. We find architects frequently trying to create tech labs within a space defined by the traditional classroom—a space of about 900 sq ft. The ideal tech lab space is at least twice that, or even 2,400 sq. ft.”

 

Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles, CA

At the Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif., former science teacher David C. Greenwald now teaches technology in a room that was originally designed for a shop class. Because the education modules, each with its own 19-in.computer monitor, are arranged “traditionally,” in rows across the room as desks might have been arranged, and because Greenwald operates from one end of the room, students are lost behind their computers.

“Keeping everyone on task in the computer classroom is a challenge,” he says. To solve the problem, Greenwald has installed roughly a dozen TV monitors throughout the room and can, thus, watch his students at work. The exercise, he admits, is a little like monitoring a department store security system, but despite classroom limitations he is enthusiastic about modular education: “Because of the nature of the lab, students are exceptionally motivated, and, he says, they are, therefore successful at advanced levels of learning.” This, says Greenwald, “is definitely the most challenging course my students have ever attempted, but it is also the most rewarding.”

The Front of the Classroom is Where?

“When we ask teachers ‘Where is the front of your classroom?’ the answer is ‘there really isn’t one anymore,’” says one architect.

Ideally, says Diedre Weber, a home economics teacher at Eleanor J. Toll Middle School in Glendale, Calif., who for a year-and-a-half has taught a modular education class called Family Consumer Sciences in a converted sewing classroom and who is now working with local architects on a wholesale renovation of the 75-year-old school, the teacher’s station should be in the center of the classroom, and it should be slightly elevated to maintain a line-of-sight between students and teacher.

 

Belmont High School, Los Angeles, CA

A frequent problem, say tech education designers, is getting teachers, themselves, to think beyond traditional classroom settings. At Walnut High School, in Cincinnati, Ohio, teachers were asked to contribute to scoping process for a recently completed Arts & Science center that would house the school’s computer science labs. “Getting the staff to think beyond the basics, like science labs with working sinks and running water was a challenge,” says Deborah Heldman, executive director of the school’s alumni association. “Some wanted enough outlets to plug in extension cords. In a $10.5 million building, we weren’t going to have extension cords,” Heldman says.