Making your mark

I have been inside some unique learning spaces recently. I see it as a part of my job. It's what I like to do. I explore new ideas and then report on them. The Immersive Vision Theatre on the Plymouth University campus is one example of a unique learning space. It's a converted planetarium, and what is unique about it is the way it has been refurbished into an experimental area where users can have 3D immersion experiences without any eye wear. The Theatre uses expensive Blade Network technology to provide the massive rendering power needed to create realistic and real-time visual effects. The surround-sound and the fish-eye projectors together combine to create an exciting, fascinating and at times disorienting visual panorama which totally immerses you in the experience. Experiments are being done into stress and perceptual effects to ascertain exactly how this new space can be applied in learning contexts.

Less high tech, but just as impressive for me, are the spaces I have seen in 'chill out' rooms both at the University of Queensland and just up the road at our own local University College of Marjons. The walls and doors and many other surfaces in these rooms are made of material that can be written on. Similar to whiteboard surfaces, these spaces can be used by students for creating mind-maps, flowcharts, diagrams, brainstorming lists - in fact just about anything that helps them to learn. The students love it, because they can then capture their images with a mobile phone for later use. It's a simple, cost effective idea that to my surprise has not been taken up by other institutions on a grander scale (unless you know differently).

The same concept is appearing in schools, according to Stephen Heppell. In his Pinterest collection of Good Tested Ideas, he features a school that has adopted the idea of writing surfaces for its student desktops. Back in the days when I was at school, we had wooden desktops, and I remember writing my name (and several other things too) onto my desktop in ink. Some went further and carved their names into the desks. We often got into trouble. Children seem to have an innate need to make their mark, to tag, to create graffiti - and often schools are fighting a losing battle trying to stop them from making their mark somewhere in the school - on their desks, the walls, the doors or windows. What better way to capture that energy and channel it creatively than to provide children with wipeable surfaces they can use to help them with their learning. Let us know if your school, college or university is doing similar things. Creative surfaces will mean that 'making your mark' will take on an entirely new meaning.

Image by Stephen Heppell


Making your mark by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.