Learning Spaces conference invitation

The University of Brighton is hosting an international conference and design summer school entitled “Re-shaping Learning? The future of learning spaces in post-compulsory education”.

Dates: 21-23 July 2010 (Conference 21-22 July, Design Summer School 22 -23 July 2010)
Time: 9.30am – 5 pm plus evening social event
Venue: Grand Parade, University of Brighton, UK

Please visit the conference web pages for more details and to register.

 

Lego learning spaces

Images from SEDA annual conference 09 where I asked groups to build their own learning spaces

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylearningspaces/

 

follow up – second meeting

The Brighton meeting was a vibrant and well attended day late in 2009, featuring visits to the CETLDesign spaces (University of Brighton) and InQbate CETLCreativity spaces (University of Sussex) and discussions on evaluation methods participants have used, and methods of embedding innovation into institutional practices.  A summary from the day is available, and feel free to add in extra thoughts or clarifications as comments, on the December 09 meeting page.

 

Sheffield Hallam learning spaces research

I have posted an annotated PowerPoint focusing upon core findings from the research on Sheffield Hallam University learning centre spaces. Content can be found under the learning spaces research page.

 

2nd meeting – 15th December 2009

We’re pleased to announce the second meeting of the UK Learning Space SIG. This will take place on Tuesday 15th December 2009 in Brighton, and will be jointly hosted by the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex.

Further details can be found in the attached pdf: sig meeting brighton

We hope you will be able to join us for what should be an informative and enjoyable day!

 

follow up – first meeting

First of all, many thanks to everyone who contributed to the first UK Learning Space SIG meeting – there were some brilliant conversations over the course of the day, and some excellent inputs from those who attended. We’ll be adding the resources, slides and notes over time – but for now, this is just to apologise for the fact it’s all gone a bit quiet. Unfortunately real life has taken over a bit recently – but enough excuses Here are some of the thoughts collected during our discussions on the future direction of the SIG:

Constitution of group  – attendees were broadly supportive of an inclusive approach to membership, not restricting to HE (it was noted that the fact most attendees represented HE institutions was accidental rather than being designed in!). The thinking was that we should have a broad remit to include schools, FE colleges, architects and other consultancy firms, and that this would be beneficial to group.

Schedule of meetings – opinion was divided here: some members felt that 3-4 meetings per year would be about right; others were concerned about meeting overload. It was suggested that  one way around this could be to establish specific themes for meetings, people could opt-in as appropriate.

Communications – there was support for the idea that the wordpress site (ie, this site!) should be main communications channel for group – we discussed adding a listserve too but the group felt that this could complicate things, and create too many places to look for information.

Profiles – the group agreed that we should maintain profiles of members, including a short description of main interests/expertise, etc, and background – does anyone have a suggestion of a (preferably free) tool that would fulfil this need?

Size of group – value comes from connections and discussions, so a small manageable group at each meeting, and timetable to allow discussion would be best approach. It was also noted that it’s important to recognise connections are forged f2f but can continue outside meetings. There was also no suggestion that we should restrict the overall size or membership of the group, and that this is likely to evolve over time.

Steering group – the group agreed that some level of co-ordination is needed, and for now we propose rolling programme of involvement with main responsibility for each meeting being adopted by hosting institution.

I hope this starts to capture some of the conversations? Any additional thoughts, suggestions or comments more than welcome.

 

welcome!

Welcome to the site for the UK Learning Space Special Interest Group (SIG).

We’re holding the inaugral meeting on Thursday 23rd April 2009 at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield – further information and resources will be added along the way, so please check back for additional details!