Students prepare for a future no one can predict and jobs that, in many cases, haven’t been invented yet. Educators are responding to these diverse forces with a refreshing openness, adopting active learning and embracing new technology. Yet, both students and educators must operate in learning environments built for age-old ways. This Insights and Applications Guide by Steelcase Inc., provides the latest thinking on classroom design and learning spaces, including research, design principles and applications. View insights + Applications Guide DESIGNING FOR BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Steelcase Education researchers conducted a design research study of 16 schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States to understand the dynamics and spatial implications of technology-empowered learning. Six spatial insights emerged for blended learning environments. These include designing for flexibility, the loosening of spatial boundries and increased need to support video capture and streaming, and continued use of analog and digital tools for effective learning.
Clintondale High School used flipped learning to improve student outcomes. They worked with Steelcase as they transformed a classroom into an active learning space with Verb tables, Node chairs, and more. STUDY PROVES CLASSROOM DESIGN AFFECTS STUDENT ENGAGEMENT New data from ongoing Steelcase Education post-occupancy evaluations studies show that classrooms designed for active learning have a significant effect on student engagement. Comparisons between old and new classrooms were statistically significant on all 12 factors measured for both instructors and learners. The Steelcase survey tool can now be used to reliably measure the impact of engagement in learning environments. The University of Florida developed two active learning spaces designed to foster communication, collaboration and problem solving. Their solutions were a media:scape LearnLab and the AHA! Why try node in MY CLASSROOM or learning space? The Node chair is mobile and flexible. It’s designed for active learning and to support all styles of teaching within one space.
With Node, a classroom can transition from lecture mode to team mode and back again, without interruption. Collaboration between students is not only enhanced, it’s natural. HOW DOES THE TEST-DRIVE WORK? For an entire month experience the difference 30 Node student desks can make in your learning space. We handle all delivery and pick up! We would love to hear from you! Please fill out this form and we will get in touch with you shortly.Fans of industrial design objects like Brooks England's stylish leather bike seat, Oral-B’s Squish Grip toothbrush, and the modern whisk have Thomas Overthun of IDEO to thank. IDEO celebrated the associate partner and design director, who's been with the company since 1993, with a 20-year retrospective of the objects he’s influenced—including those above—at their San Francisco headquarters on February 26. We caught up with the innovator to reflect back on his design legacy and tell us what he has in the works: Schuyler Bailey:
What object that you've designed over the past 20 years is your favorite?
Thomas Overthun: The Zyliss kitchen tools were the largest range of products we had designed at IDEO at the time, and cooking is something I love to do. The most difficult one to design was the whisk, and for that reason it is my favorite. It was just so hard to think of something new to do with a whisk. People seemed to be happy in general with the way whisks up until that point had worked, apart from the fact that it can take a lot of time and strength to whip up some egg whites, and they are not easy to clean. Then I came across the Japanese tea whisk, which is a beautifully crafted thing made of bamboo. It became the inspiration for the Zyliss whisk with the open end that doesn’t trap gunk and soft wires that froth liquids faster. SB:
Which design do you consider your most successful? TO: The Steelcase Node chair, for its impact on students’ life in the classroom. Our client saw the chance to have an impact in the educational furniture category—a space that had been lacking in innovation.
We learned that the old tablet arm chair had become a negative icon and representative of the old way of top-down teaching. It was very static, confining the students in a rigid and unforgiving mini-environment. We designed the Node chair to give students the possibility to move, turn, interact with their peers, adjust it to their needs - overall it embraced a more human approach. We use them a lot in our studio when all the hot desks are booked up. SB:
If you could go back and change the design of one object, what would it be? TO: When I was a student, my friend and I designed a BB gun. I think that we were inspired by the first Rambo movie—and the possibility to make a little money. I remember having an uneasy feeling doing it. However, the client in question never manufactured any of our designs. My worry was somewhat unfounded until about a year later, when my friend called me and made me look into a store window, and there it was. It was as if my flashy marker rendering had become three dimensional—they had made the design real and bought it to life down to the last detail.
SB:
What's the biggest change at IDEO since you started 20 years ago? TO: The breadth of design challenges that our clients throw at us has really evolved. When I started at IDEO, it was called IDEO Product Development, and that’s what we did. Today, our definition of design is much broader, and it’s because our clients are curious to see if design can solve much more complex, sticky problems, from products, to services, to experiences, to many parts of an entire system. We find ourselves asking ourselves, “We have never done this before; can we do it? What might our answer to this question be?” It’s almost impossible to resist if someone asks you a good question, and our clients tend to ask really good questions... SB:
What are you working on that you're most excited about? TO: Currently, my team and I are working on technology that is implanted into people. This is an amazing area that is both very advanced and rife with opportunity for improvement, particularly from a human point of view.
We’re always thinking—if this implanted technology is helpful for sick people—there might also be positive applications for healthy people. That’s a very fine ethical line emerging. SB:
How does the Bay Area influence your work? TO: In the Bay Area, we have a unique mix and lovely balance of technology, food, and access to nature—three things that I love. For me, technology often equals career, food is indulgence and enjoyment, and nature is relaxation, inspiration, and health. For other people living here, food might be their career, and they might use technology to get people to know about it, and nature to source it. As a result, the presence of the three groups makes it possible for an interesting variety of people to live here together. SB:
What kinds of innovations do you look forward to in the next 20 years? TO: I look forward to some big and some small things: shorter commutes because of better public transport and denser, more mixed neighborhoods;