Not So Distant Future

As the culture outside our schools change, are our buildings changing to reflect the “outside” world?    

   Mitchell Joel’s interesting Six Pixels of Separation blog comments on a fascinating article in the Economist, “The New Oases,” about how people now are much more nomadic in their use of spaces.  (I found Joel’s blog via Garr Reynold’s excellent Presentation Zen blog).

Wi-fi, mobility,  and portability allow people to connect wherever they go, and so people gravitate to both indoor and outdoor spaces where they can conveniently “connect” or gather.

As the architect professor William Mitchell points out:

“The fact that people are no longer tied to specific places for functions such as studying or learning, says Mr Mitchell, means that there is ‘a huge drop in demand for traditional, private, enclosed spaces’ such as offices or classrooms, and simultaneously ‘a huge rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad-hoc workspaces’. . . . The new architecture, says Mr Mitchell, will ‘make spaces intentionally multifunctional.’

These seem very significant things to be thinking about as we continue to design new libraries and school buildings.   Are they flexible?  Are spaces multi-purpose?  Are there ad-hoc gathering areas?  Separate nooks for individual laptop work?   Wi-fi and open networks?   How are nearby outdoor spaces used? 

School libraries can function as these sort of information commons in schools–providing this sort of flexibility and multi-purposing.

But eventually this sort of design should filter throughout the school–with comfortable learning nooks for students to gather, as the article describes at the new Gehry designed student building at MIT whose “student street”

“ is dotted with nooks and crannies. Cafés and lounges are interspersed with work desks and whiteboards, and there is free Wi-Fi everywhere. Students, teachers and visitors are cramming for exams, flirting, napping, instant-messaging, researching, reading and discussing.”

Sometimes it seems that school building designs are impervious to the changes in the culture outside the building.   But as Mitch Joel points out,

“We have all become Digital Nomads. Able to work wherever we’re feeling most inspired (as long as there is wi-fi). I wonder how the masses will deal with this?”

What I wonder is how schools will deal with this?

  Things of beauty attract our eye, refresh our spirits, calm a troubled moment, and bring joy and inspiration to our lives. 

I would even posit that good design can encourage us to “do better.”

Continuing my thoughts from previous posts about design, I’m contemplating points that Daniel Pink made in Whole New Mind regarding the significance of it.   He writes about a study at Pittsburg’s Montefiore Hospital that demonstrated that patients in well designed rooms have quicker recovery times, and a study at Georgetown University that enhancing a school’s appearance could even increase test scores.

Design really is about communicating something to the receiver–whether it’s the special lilt of a well-put written phrase, or the feeling of luxuriousness that a fine hotel imparts, or the comic turn of a slapstick movie, or the inspiration that society cares enough to make a beautiful learning space for students.  

On Beyond School, there’s been an ongoing discussion about written versus nonwritten communication.  But somehow I still think this all goes back to the idea of the audience and the issue of design.

Sentences and writing are things that are designed.  Presentations are something that are designed.  Videos are designed.   Maybe students don’t realize they are designing something–but there is an element of choice in every thing we create.   And we should scaffold students in understanding that.

For example, you can have written the most elegant of books, but if the publisher picks a poor cover design, chances are, the book will sit on the library shelves and be rarely read.   If you can write the most eloquent of essays but can’t stand before a class and present your ideas, then your communication with your audience is hampered.    If you memorize every joke in the book, but can’t deliver the joke with panache, then the joke falls flat and the message never is conveyed.

The point is, there is design behind everything we should be teaching students.   Yes, truly, they are sometimes struggling to master the basics, but almost all students can respond to the effective design of a story, of a YouTube video, of a superbowl commercial, of a poem, of a painting.   By illustrating the technique–by having conversations about how things are constructed, we really deepen their understanding of something–but we also are giving them important tools for communicating more effectively themselves.

Showing students two items they could purchase like these air cleaners (pictured below) and asking them which is more appealing to them helps them flesh out those ideas about what important intangibles design communicates. (I of course got this idea from Daniel Pink’s discussion of toilet brushes–but these two designs just were begging for me to compare them in the store).

Which one would you want in your bedroom or kitchen?

So, let students see one another’s projects in progress and see if that inspires them to better work themselves.    Share good presentations with them, good writing with them, good video work with them, good advertising with them–and see what it inspires.  

As one student on David Truss’s blog commented about a wiki project he did with students,

“I thought this was a great project because it was always fun, and when you needed inspiration, it was easy to just click on someone else’s page, and see all the neat stuff that they’ve done, and then it makes you want to make your page just as good (or, it did for me).”

Interesting and good design inspires students to reach farther, to stretch themselves.

Daniel Pink shares some excellent ideas in Whole New Mind for encouraging students to think about how things are designed –like keeping a design notebook, asking students to redesign a product they dislike, looking at magazine layouts, writing about an object they love because of its design, etc.

If writing or making a video or anything our students do is about conveying who they are, then what is really important?   The grammar details will come, the spelling can be fixed, the lingo can work, but if they know what they want to say, and how they want to convey it, their message will come through clearly and with impact.

Daniel Pink shared a quote which summarizes it well: 

“Aesthetics matter.  Attractive things work better.”  (Don Norman, author)

Shouldn’t this be a significant part of Language Arts and information literacy curricula?

Rather than write about ideas for improving presentations that I’ve gleaned from wiser minds than mine, I decided to just “present” them:

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Design

Are we challenging our students enough when it comes to design?   A recent article in Library Media Collection by Joyce Valenza, led me to consider how we need to take more leadership to help students improve their presentation skills.   

With great thanks to Joyce–whose links led me to other links( in the random, yet not so random way that happens online)–I’m sharing some hints and tools that can help students be more innovative and effective presenters.

Dean Shareski’s helpful “Powerpoint Extreme Makeover” presentation is one that could be easily shared with teachers and they can watch it on their own or it could be used in a presentation.  He taps into the frustrations that probably many teachers are aware of with using the tool and offers some helpful suggestions.   I think a fun take off of this would be to have STUDENTS design a presentation on how to improve powerpoint presentations (as I am sure they have also sat through many poor ones!)

By following some links to Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen’s website, I found a wealth of ideas (of course–love his site) about different methods for teaching presentation design to students.  For example, Reynolds shares:

–Guy Kawasaki’s method of presenting 10 simple slides each with one key point.  Reynolds explains that “His talks usually evolve around ten key points, no matter the topic. His visuals, then, will consist of ten slides each with one key message spelled out. That’s it. Simple. The visuals keep Guy on track and help him tell his story and give a strong feeling of organization to the tone of the talk.”

Imagine scaffolding this for students. Assign them ten slides.  Each with one key message.  How would that change their approach to their presentation?

Reynolds also shared:

–The Takahashi Method–Masayoshi Takahashi created a style of presenting slides with only text–but the difference is that he uses GIANT text, and tries to simplify by having a few key words(in Japanese) on each slide.  According to Reynolds this style has become so popular in Japan that it has been named the Takahashi method.  Lawrence Lessig has similarly pioneered the use of just text, black and white, to convey ideas simply and at a very rapid presentation pace.

Again, imagine the student assignment.   ”Your presentation can only be done with one GIANT word per slide, but must convey the key ideas.  You do the talking.  The slides convey what’s important.”

I found more presentation links via this site which  led me to an excellent presentation by Dick Hardt, CEO of Sxip.  (Click on one of the versions of his presentation to see its simplicity combined with his clever delivery.)

One thing that Guy Kawasaki points out, according to Reynolds, is that for a presentation to be really good, if you are using just images or simple text, you really have to be prepared.  You have to “know” the information.  How often do we have students begin with the design and the content is just the add-on, rather than the design growing out of the content, or the content being the real focus?    If we don’t want students to just read off of the screen, they have to have been focused on the content and also the presentation of that content.

The Challenge

Another really playful use of powerpoint I discovered was musician’s David Byrne’s artful attempt to play havoc with powerpoint, as he explains here.  Why don’t we ask our students to stand the software on end and play with its boundaries?   Challenge them to shake it up a little?  And to venture outside the templates, and design art to appear on their own slides.

Seth Godin talks about the idea of an “idea virus” which spreads rapidly by word of mouth.  So maybe what we need to do is unleash an idea virus that student presentations can be dazzling, and continue as Joyce Valenza and Dean Shareski have done so well to share with teachers and students the creative approaches they can take to these tools, and then watch it spread by example and word of mouth?

We need to throw the gauntlet down, and part of that is expecting more from our students.  We should ask them to dazzle us.   Challenge them to step out of their powerpoint rut, and show us what visuals mean.  

How can we help students convey their messages better, and “make them stick”?

You can observe a lot by watching.
YOGI BERRA

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.
VICTOR PAPANEK

One of the interesting things about planning a new library is thinking about design. This is another area where we have to begin with the end in mind and to know what our goals are, so that we aren’t just following a pre-set template of what a library “looks like.”

After visiting High Tech High in San Diego last year, and thinking about how our library could apply “web 2.0″ principles to our physical space, I envisioned the metaphor of a transparent library–where you could see collaboration and learning going on in the space. The book Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools by Prakash Nair and Randall Fielding, as well as their website, DesignShare, (which I have to thank Christian Long’s blog for leading me to) helped me think about how the different areas of the library could be designed.

In her article, “Power Users” in Library Journal (Dec. 2005), Beth Dempsey led me to think about obstacles users face because of library design. She chronicles Carnegie Library’s use of focus groups that determined how confusing and jargony libraries can be, which led them to try to design a library whose “focus was to remove barriers, ease access to resources, and encourage the development of self-reliant users,” according to Mike McConnell, their coordinating librarian.

I knew that I wanted the library to be a campfire space where students could gather, a collaborative space where they could work together in small groups, a transparent space, where learning in the school could be “seen” through the windows, a more barrier free space in terms of student use, and an innovative space, where the design would reflect the innovations that are going on inside our campus.

So how to get there? For one thing–as Yogi Berra said, you learn a lot by watching.

Watch how students are using your current space. Watch what is giving them problems or causing confusion. Watch what their preferences are. Try to identify those key things about the space that do or do not work for your customers.

Secondly, observe other places. Carry some sort of camera with you everywhere–a cell phone or digital camera or iPhone, and snap photos of places that work, designs you like, color combinations that appeal to you, furniture that looks comfortable. (Use a site like I used my flickr site to collect sets of design photos that I’ve shared with the architects). Browse Google images for photos of new libraries. Tear out photos out of design magazines and create an idea collection.

Begin observing how places that are attractive are designed. Look everywhere–at the ceiling and how it looks–at the lighting fixtures–at the seating–at the colors used–at details small and large. For example, we ended up with a somewhat different circulation desk than is typical because I found a reception desk I liked at our architect’s warehouse-style offices.

Be willing to use all of these observations to think outside of the traditional box. Why not use bookstore signage to help students navigate dewey better? Does the circ desk have to be a large immobile behemoth that separates you from students and has no flexibility of use? Can bookcases be more mobile for rearrangement so the library can be used for different gatherings?

How will the space be used ten years from now? If you don’t know, and you probably don’t, plan for some flexibility of space. Can walls be moveable? Should you put wiring scattered about, so when you rearrange, you aren’t without any wiring in some areas?

I was influenced in some design features by Prakash Nair and Randall Fielding’s concepts. They envision a learning studio type of space for classrooms, but that can be related to modern library spaces as well, where you have students creating projects using computers, books, and many other materials that you might have available. How can you design some spaces that are flexible and can be merged or separated, depending on the collaboration needs of various projects/groups? Is your physical system reflecting the way you envision the space being used by real students?

Another area that is important to observe is how teachers use the space, and to think about what spaces teachers have in a building to gather or work together(usually not many). Nair and Fielding refer to these gathering areas as watering holes. The library is really a natural watering hole, where both students and teachers gather to relax, read, work, and collaborate, so the space needs to be designed with that in mind. Creating a comfortable teacher area that is near students but away from them invites them into the library, but also gives them an area to come collaborate with library staff or with one another.

Another area to consider is how do the outdoor spaces(if there are any) outside the library blend in with the space? Can they be utilized to take the library outdoors? Can they be upgraded to be a part of the library’s “space” to create some comfortable gathering area for a class to engage with books? After visiting schools like Poway(pictured) and seeing their courtyards, or John Jay library in San Antonio, and seeing how they used an outdoor enclosed courtyard as a learning area and extension of the library, we were inspired to find a way to incorporate the outdoor areas around our library as well.

The designing of a space can also be a learning experience for students. Share what you are doing along the way. We conducted a survey to see what features students most valued in a library remodel. Display architectural drawings for students as you go through the process.   We are trying to use green materials and will create a learning display of the green materials used once the new library opens so that it can be a learning tool for students as well.

We have brought in some sample furniture and let students try out some new chair options. And when planning our courtyard, we’ve been calling on the services of one of our seniors who won a national architecture contest for school redesign, and having him actually help do the sketches for the courtyard so that it is student friendly and student driven.

Having a defined sense of what you want the library to become is helpful when faced with the actual planning process with architects and in construction process, because it allows you to be better able to stand up for design features of the library and to explain the purpose of the space overall.  ( And finding a like minded architect is of course very key to the project!)

Think about how to recreate your space so that it is an inviting and comfortable space for your students and staff, whether you can be completely renovated or not.  What can you do to incorporate better design into your space, into flyers you put out, and into the workflow?   Because ultimately it is about creating a positive and inspiring space for people to learn.   As Victor Papanek so aptly writes, “The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.”

quotes courtesy of: http://designjerk.com/quotes.html

Want to design a youth library in Nairobi, Kenya?  Check out more about AMD’s Open Architecture Challenge to design a library and media space, internet cafe, and research center for SIDAREC, the Slums Information Development and Resources Centre.

Their proposal astutely points out the problem of the digital divide:

“Today’s world prosperity is technologically driven. The world has become a global village where the issue of distance is no longer the case. People interact and do business at the click of a mouse.

Currently people living on less than a dollar a day in the slums must pay the same rates as those with means to access the internet. The high costs of accessing internet means that many people living in the slums would continue to be out of touch with the rest of the world and poverty will continue stalking them. . . .Young people would like to be trained in computer skills that will allow them to compete in the job market, communicate with each other and with the world.”

Prosperity and connectivity are intertwined.  Information is becoming the knowledge economy around the world, and children without access to that are at a disadvantage.

If you’re interested, check out the guidelines page–deadlines are coming up soon!  Submissions from any age group are allowed.

Another interesting school building project, Build African Schools, is being supported by HP to bring accessibility to rural African schools using computers and solar power.

So, what would your design look like?

image credit:  http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge/africa

  Probably one of the most frequently asked classroom and library questions about a project, paper, or even when a student is asked to check out book is–”How long does it have to be?”  There are lots of things embedded in that question that bother me.

First off, there is the notion kids have that length equals quality.   I’m sure we’ve enforced that notion ourselves by assigning lengths for papers, powerpoints, # of pages read, etc.  in our attempts to satisfy the students’ “need to know.”   Kids like that concrete definition and aren’t very satisfied by a vague answer.   So they pad their papers with inane expansions of their topic, find thin books with large type so that the book is “long enough,” fill their powerpoints with unnecessary bells and whistles so that they have enough slides, and on and on.   We all know that drill, and it can get downright amusing at times.

Secondly, their question bothers me because of the word “have.”  Students don’t ask us how long it could be, but how long it HAS to be.   The whole question doesn’t conjure up the picture of an assignment in which the students are so engaged that the idea of length doesn’t even occur to them, but rather the image of something onerous, something imposed on them from “above,”  something that as dutiful students they will try to fulfill, without really understanding the why of it.

One of the things I think is really valid about using blogging with students is that the writing is authentic.  Sometimes you have something brief to say, and sometimes it’s lengthy, but always, the length is determined by the content, not the other way around.

Which brings me to the real point of this post, which is brevity.  I’ve really been thinking about lately how we could use brevity and design better in schools.

Can we design mission statements that are short and easy to remember, more like a slogan than a statement?

Can we give students assignments where brevity, clarity, or simplicity of design are the point?    I have in mind assignments like Dan Meyer’s Four Slide contest (where participants were asked to represent themselves in just four, well-designed slides), or assignments like creating a sixty second video message, like these Library of Congress PSAs on literacy.   Or a story in a touching, but brief slide show like Alan Levine’s of his dog Dominoe(using slide.com).

   The point is, we teach students how to expand on their ideas, how to find lots of sources, how to write longer essays, how to read longer books, but when do we teach them the real power of brevity?   

Have them represent themselves in one slide, not four.   Have them read a one page short story or a picture book if they are in high school and consider how shorter stories still manage to convey the whole narrative.   Have them write a story that has just two words.  Have them create a brief public service announcement, a one page ad for a magazine, a powerpoint with just four slides….you get the idea.

If part of web 2.0 is helping our students become effective communicators, then we need to teach them the power of the blank slide, like in the Dominoe movie, or the power of silence, or spaces between things, and how that also conveys something about our human story.  These are things that good storytellers just know. 

Image credits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/docnic/152907531/

http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/882977676/in/set-72157600975093412/

Side by side in Business Week this week:

“Young and Hungry” article about Indian companies and young Indians “desperate to improve their lives.”   Facing that, an ad for steel company Arcelor Mittal, entitled “Boldness Changes Everything.”

Thinking about what it would be like if all our students were “young and hungry” about reading and learning, and wondering what we can do to instill not just knowledge, but hunger.    How can boldness in our schools change that?

Also, thinking about how the company portrays themselves in their new corporate magazine, (scroll through the pages to see their design and branding), and how we in schools portray ourselves to the public.

Their company logo?  “Transforming tomorrow.”

Do we convey ourselves to students or parents with such a good sense of branding?

I met with our architects today for the redesign of our library/research center.  We’ve been working on the plans for several months now, trying to create a new space that fits the philosophy of our library more closely. (I always say we have a 21st century library in a 19th century space!)

The plans are coming to fruition and it’s exciting to see, and to get the opportunity to have so much input into the whole design and process.  Although the librarian should have a lot of input into a space, sometimes it doesn’t happen that way, so I feel grateful that this has all been coming together so positively.

The philosophy behind the library design is to remove “barriers” to students and staff and to create an inviting, flexible, and open place for student research, study, and collaboration.   I’ve been reading widely (especially Christian Long and DesignShare ideas), surveyed students, toured some schools and libraries, and also have been trying to really notice design everywhere I go.  

I’ve found ideas everywhere, from shops in Austin, to restaurants, to the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta, to High Tech High School in San Diego, and from other innovative library spaces.  In fact, if you are doing a project like this, take your camera with you everywhere you go,  because you’ll find ideas in the most unexpected places.

The photo below of a shop window in Austin  inspired a display idea, for example.

So here’s a “window” onto some of the design and planning.

One way we’re going to open up our library is visually.   The library currently has a low ceiling, and some windows but not a lot of natural light.   The new space will incorporate a lot of windows, a raised roof, but also glass inside, like transparent glass walls or some plexiglass dividers.  

We’re planning to incorporate a lot of art, but with glass walls that may be difficult, so we’ve also been talking a lot about using the walls as idea surfaces, like the example above.  

A new glass hallway connecting the library to the main part of the campus gives us the opportunity to make the library more of a hub, since previous construction has moved the cafeteria and other spaces away from the library, and we’re not as central as we once were.   So we’re hoping to use the glass hallway for transparent glass display cases, visible from the library and the hallway,and also  to display quotations which we can have put onto the glass wall, or even use the glass as a projection surface, where we could project quotes or digital art straight onto the glass that would shine into the hallway.

The architects have asked me to start brainstorming key words or ideas that we might want to include in terms of featuring these words in the actual design. (So if you have any you’d like to share, please post them on the blog!)

In the interior of the library, the computer labs will have glass windows, and even connecting classrooms will be glass.  To make some of these spaces more flexible, they will have sliding glass walls so that we can open them out to the library or open two rooms up to each other, like our computer lab and our class area.    I’m trying to plan for the day we may not need a “lab” for computers, when every student has one, and make the space more flexible.

I’m also trying to break up the barrier of the “circulation” desk or front desk, which is sort of an monolithic island that divides most libraries into “staff” and ”student” areas.  Today I think we had a good breakthrough on that.  The architects’ office actually has a really interesting curved office desk that is moveable, rather than being a huge fixed piece of furniture.   But it’s plenty long enough to accommodate circulation functions and the undulating curves create a couple of different workspaces to accommodate multiple staff.  But instead of being this huge structure, it’ll feel more like a welcoming desk, as well as a workspace for the staff.   And it’s flexible.  I’m hoping this idea works, because it felt like a breakthrough.

Another barrier reducing plan is to do signage that is more functional for our students;  rather than using as much Dewey signage, we are planning more bookstore type of signage.  

Students specifically requested some comfortable seating areas or gathering areas, and some quiet areas, so we are creating some niches for quiet reading or studying.  (Because though many people think libraries are quiet, ours is busy and extremely loud!)

Another thing I’m excited about is that we are hoping to use quite a few natural materials or green materials in the construction, so we can model good environmental practices for our students in the very building.  We saw a great outdoor courtyard at a library in San Antonio (John Jay) which gave us the idea to build a deck off of the side of the library in this little nook we already had.   And we’re going to do some green building with the help of our PTO to provide shade cover there.

 I hope that as we finish, we can design a sign or poster that shows what recycled materials were used in the building of the space, and use that as a learning tool also.

It’s a fascinating process trying to match the form and the function and try to rethink our space in terms of what it could be, not what it has been.    As the quote in the window pictured above says, “What you make is important.” 

I’m envisioning that when we’re done making this space, we’ll have a bright, engaging, whimsical, and flexible learning space that encourages innovation, creativity, reading, and research.   After reading Daniel Pink’s Whole New Mind and working on this renovation, I’ve been much more attentive to the idea of design and what it adds to our experiences.  And I hope that by taking the time to think through the design, all of those of us who are involved are teaching our students that what people make is important, and that thoughtfulness and craft and design contribute something important.

Tomorrow I’m meeting with the architects to work on our new library design.  I’m starting to feel a little anxious as we move out of the imagination stage and into the design going on paper stage.  This project is one I have been envisioning for so long, yet it’s kind of daunting to actually think about the entire space being gutted and redesigned.

I’ve been trying to guide the design with the principles of web 2.0, of a collaborative, student oriented space,  and also “future proof” our space as much as possible.  Tonight I was reading a fascinating article on the Design Share website by Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia about the process he went through as principal in designing a “School 2.0″ space at SLA.

I love the question he poses:

• What happens when a design idea becomes an educational idea?

He concludes that the design of the building can and should serve the pedagogy, but comments:

“What was frightening to me was, even with that idea in hand and a lot of experience with progressive curricular design, I had little idea how to make that idea come to life in the physical spaces of the building.”

I’m thankful for discovering this article tonight because I am also feeling the panic and fear he mentions in it;  I know the decisions we make for the library will be part of our campus and part of how the space “works” for the school for a very long time.

But it’s reassuring to read that creating a building with an end in mind facilitated the decisions they made along the way, and that the space is serving their campus well.  

I really want our library to be a space for teachers and students alike, a learning hub, a web 2.0 type space where all of us are contributors to the space, not just the library staff.

Chris shared some very helpful mission-oriented questions, many of them ones I have already been considering all year as we’ve been moving through planning the library.

“What is the educational mission of your school?

How can the spaces in the building contribute to that mission?

How flexible and adaptable are your spaces?

How do your spaces support student-centered learning?

How will all the members of your community use 21st Century technology tools, and how does your building support their use?

How can you create spaces that will allow all members of your community to collaborate?

How can you create spaces that allow all members of your community to feel ownership?

How can you build spaces that others may interpret differently than you and find new uses for?”

I’m planning to share the various versions of the floorplans with staff on campus and open up the discussion here as well for ideas or feedback, as we move closer to our “brick and mortar” plans.

And I also feel thankful as I do so many times for the way blogging has made schools and our processes so much more transparent so that we can learn from one another, share with one another and support one another.   Thanks to Chris and Design Share for the article.