tweeting about spaces for learning

i'm so ridiculously excited about this!

a while ago i started playing with twitter, the micro-blogging site. at first, it didn't seem like such a big deal - writing a short update (a 'tweet') about what i was doing at any point in time (usually either "sat at work" or "yay! work's over - off to the pub...") was mildly diverting, and reading other people's tweets was interesting - but just confirmed that everyone else has a much more interesting life than me. and then one day, while on the cross-campus dash between shu's city and psalter lane sites, i sent an update from my phone - and suddenly, i had a hare-brained idea...

at the time we were looking at appropriate methodology for the next phase of learning spaces research. we're particularly interested in how the attributes of spaces make them conducive - or not - to informal learning. we'd been thinking about using reflective diaries - something that had worked well previously as part of our e-learning research - but what if we could get our students to tell us what they were doing at the point in which they were doing it? what if they could tell us where they were learning there and then?

like most hare-brained schemes, we decided to get it up and running as soon as possible (after all, if we waited too long someone might point out its lack of scientific validity or sanity). and so, this week we're starting a 2-week study, whereby 15 students have been recruited to provide around 15 updates a week about where they're learning. a couple of them have started to provide us with updates ahead of time (if you suffer from continuous partial attention like i do, you can check out http://twitter.com/learningspaces/with_friends to see the updates as they come through - otherwise, i'll post occasional summaries and reflections on this blog along the way).

of course, this is the first time we've ever tried this, so it could all go horribly wrong...but i'm excited anyway to see how it works out :)

social learning symposium: post #2 in a series of...

of course, it seems strange to talk about a learning space symposium without talking about the spaces that were used to hold it. so, here's a brief reflection on the spaces themselves.

let's leave aside (for now, at least) the appearance of the wheatley campus itself, and concentrate instead on the simon williams undergraduate centre, which is described here as a dedicated social space 'to support student learning outside structured class time, in which staff and students can meet and develop a shared understanding of academic standards'. here's one image of it:



(you can see more images of the space at this set over on flickr)

we spent the breaks between sessions in this area. now, while it's true that furniture alone can't make a space, it had a mixture of cafe-style seating and sturdier, softer (not necessarily comfy, mind) seating, combined with semi-transparent screens. and this did give the space an open, social atmosphere. some people stood around the edges of the room (no doubt trying to hog the pastries - hmph), some sat in groups at the cafe tables, some on the softer seating in small groups. one thing i did notice, but have only just realised, is that no-one seemed to look alone, or ill-at-ease. which has got me wondering how much of that was due to the layout of the area, how much to the nature of the sysmposium (ie, the type and/or number of people there)? and how much did the space influence the way people behaved - ie, how much they 'appeared' to be relaxed, how much they were willing to talk to others? and how differently would it be used by 'normal' staff and students (ie, non-learning-space-geeks)? and...and...and...

[ok, deep breath, before i start to doubt my own existence. will mull further on this.]

i guess the main point is that this space was an attempt to blend cafeteria-style, conversational spaces, with stand-alone pcs. this learning space geek felt that it worked well - though as above, it'd be interesting to see it outside of vacation, and how it's used by staff/students.

the sessions themselves were held in a nearby building - possibly slightly disappointingly - in standard reconfigurable classrooms (ie, small tables, standard classroom seating) and a horseshoe shaped lecture theatre with fixed tabling. ok, i've crossed out the bit about this being dissappointing - predictable, maybe, i do get a bit weary of people (myself included) who stand at the front of a room to talk about learning spaces, and apologise for standing at the front of a room. memo to self: get over it!

this clearly needs a little more thought - but what kinds of spaces would i *not* be disparaging about? more later...