Teacher, astronaut, doctor, lawyer, pilot. As a kid, these were just a few things I wanted to do growing up. When I started choosing classes for high school, I found my passion for learning languages and cultures, which led me to Cornell University’s Hotel School, where I’m now a proud graduate of. For me, the Hotel School was all about human connections and the desire to create memorable experiences for others. It was this desire that brought me to room2learn, almost two years ago.

I’m Coco, the Marketing Associate at room2learn. Chances are, you’ve already seen my work. Read our weekly blog posts or browsed through our Instagram page? I help curate many of these with the help of the room2learn team and guest bloggers.

My role at room2learn has definitely evolved since I started interning with the team in October 2016. When I first joined team, my role as the marketing intern mainly involved working on two areas: social media platforms and the blog. Facebook was primary channel for room2learn and my goal was to grow its following as well as expand on other platforms such as Instagram. With the blog, Jane and other members of the team had previously wrote a few pieces here and there, but we wanted to formalize a content base by producing more high-quality, research-based content on a weekly basis.

Being a full-time student at Cornell simultaneously meant that most of my involvement has been remote. This meant appear.in-ing for weekly team meetings, updating social media platforms every other day, and coordinating blog posts with various contributors. Although I was held accountable to deadlines and was learning a lot about the impact of space on students’ learning through online research, I knew I was not getting the full room2learn experience. Summer of 2017, I decided to spend a month in Boston to join the team at Harvard’s Innovation Lab.

Working at the i-lab for just that month was one of the best decisions I ever made. Though I had been emailing and video-chatting with folks for over six months, it felt like meeting new people when I got there! It was exciting to work side-by-side with everyone at our room2learn island. Occasionally, I would take advantage of the varied seating and work on the sofas or in the individual pods. It was the perfect setting for writing about flexible seating for more productivity and creativity!

Working at the i-lab also meant a foot into other sides of the business. I worked on additional marketing outreach projects, including attending and organizing events. For the blog, Michelle (our Marketing Manager) and I created the July Redesign Series, a series of blogs that curated classroom redesign methods in preparation for the new school year. Because of room2learn’s strong network at the i-lab and within Boston, we decided to host a public film screening and discussion of Most Likely to Succeed, a documentary about project-based learning at High Tech High.

Since joining the room2learn family in 2016, I have had such a rewarding experience working with and learning from passionate educators and designers. In fact, working at room2learn helped me refine my career goals and I’m excited to share that this fall, I will be starting a Masters program at University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. There, I hope to bring my lessons learned on school design and entrepreneurship into my studies, and continue along my journey of bringing innovation into education.

—

Coco Yang is a content creator interested in merging education in physical and digital spaces. At room2learn, she manages digital marketing through social media and blogs. She brings marketing experience from the hospitality sector, where she worked at Waldorf Astoria and the Four Seasons Hotel. Coco studied hospitality management at Cornell University.

Finding my own room2learn was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The table wasn’t staffed, yet students still flocked to grab laptop stickers and add their info to a sign-up sheet. I walked over to see a banner reading, “Learning Space Design,” and was immediately intrigued. As an educator, I hadn’t thought critically about space design before. That was back in September 2017 at the Harvard Innovation Lab’s startup fair, and there hasn’t been a day since that I have not thought about the intimate relationship between spaces and learning.

John Cary beautifully wrote that “Well-designed spaces are not just a matter of taste or a question of aesthetics; they literally shape our ideas about who we are and what we deserve in the world.” He gestures towards a fundamental value of room2learn: design matters because the spaces in which we inhabit impact learning and teaching. Spaces in which we feel accommodated and comfortable in can help us ease into new experiences. Spaces that are durable and organized help to limit distractions and allow us to focus on the task at hand.

Now, a classroom with fresh paint and bean bags doesn’t guarantee that all students will pay attention, or that their test scores will improve. The design of a learning space is bound to a teacher or school’s available resources and the overall culture the teacher helps foster. Too often, though, teachers don’t have control of all these variables, but if we know anything about most school teachers, they are resilient and inventive. Many teachers adapt the layout of their class based on the day’s activities or how students prefer to organize themselves, and have shared these creative designs on room2learn. There are plenty more teachers who need to hear these stories and think more about the spaces in which they are actively creating and maintaining. There is an appetite for this learning and that is the need room2learn serves.

In my time as room2learn’s User Experience & Education Specialist, I have had the privilege of talking with teachers and other stakeholders in the learning space design ecosystem. In January, we spoke on the phone with multiple architects and educational planners to learn about their day-to-day procedures and challenges. In short, how were school spaces designed? Who was involved, and how were they involved? Through these conversations, we better understood how each group speaks about their work and about each other; from the third-party position of room2learn, we could start to map out overlapping challenges and opportunities within and across groups.

Being a part of the close-knit room2learn team has been a tremendous learning experience. I have been able to evaluate and audit our website and database, offering recommendations that our superstar programmer Ryan could often deploy within minutes. I have enjoyed the responsibility of championing the voice of the teacher as we defined and met our measures of success, making sure we periodically fielded feedback from new and returning users as we did in mid-April, and bringing teacher anecdotes into team meetings. As we tested each round of website changes with users, it’s been rewarding to give teachers the space and respect they so deserve so that room2learn can truly be the most effective search engine for learning spaces.

—

Andy Ng is an educator & designer committed to racial justice, learning spaces, and bringing people together. At room2learn, Andy has served as User Experience & Education Specialist, contributing to design and strategy decisions. Andy received his Ed.M. in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. After room2learn, he will be joining SYPartners as a Program Manager.

Learning About Learning Space Design: My Time at room2learn was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Drumroll please… announcing the new and improved room2learn 2.0!

Back in 2015, our team of educators, designers, and engineers set out on a mission to improve student learning experiences through space design. To do so, we wanted to empower teachers to think more critically and creatively about learning space design. After months of prototyping, testing, and iterating, we are excited to bring you — our friendly educator and designer community — the best learning space search engine on the Internet.

Are you trying to teach project-based learning in a clunky old classroom? Or find a low-budget hack for organizing materials? Look no further. On room2learn, you can find hundreds of teachers tackling similar problems every day, and peek into their classrooms for actionable ideas. Explore learning spaces from around the world and filter by learning space, class size, grade level, and more.

Here is a simple guide on how to get the most out of room2learn.

1. Identify your teaching and learning needs.

Before browsing options, think about your:

• Problem: What is the main concern you are looking to address? Abundance of resources? Lack of flexible working space?
• Process: What activities are you planning for the classroom?
• Impact on Learning: What educational goal are you trying to achieve?

We suggest involving your students as co-designers in the classroom. Here are some ideas on how to include students.

2. Explore designs for…

Now you’re ready to head over to room2learn. You can start with popular learning styles like collaboration, personalized learning, and blended learning in the tag cloud. Mix and match up to 3 tags or type in your own search terms.

3. Keep filtering

If you want to drill down further, use the drop-down filters to narrow down rooms by School Space, Grade Level, Room Type, and Number of Students.

Keep an open mind! Remember that inspiration can spark anywhere. You might want to browse ideas from other grade levels or class sizes, just to see what other teachers are doing.

Search Tip!

Like someone’s room? Be sure to save it, and check out their profile to discover all their submissions.

4. Put ideas into action

Seeing is not the same as doing! What one teacher does in Moses Lake might work great for you, but it might not. Match these ideas with your own teaching needs and resources to find the right designs.

5. Iterate, iterate, iterate!

Adjusting to a new design change might take a class period — or it could take months! Monitor the change you see in your own and your students’ habits over time. Did you solve your initial problem and improve the learning experience? If yes, congratulations!

If not, reflect on why. Did the students react differently than you had expected? Did you lack resources to make the change you wanted? There are so many friction points in taking an idea to implementation. You probably experienced bumps in the road you hadn’t expected. These things are great feedback for the teacher you got the idea from — you can use the Comments section to start a conversation.

Remember, this is an iterative process — your first prototype may not be the best fit. Keep looking, keep trying, and prepare yourself for the ongoing process of redesign.

6. Share your creation*

Ok, you’ve finally implemented a design you’re excited about. Or, maybe you’re stuck on a challenge and want feedback from other teachers. It’s time to share your space with the world! It’s easy and free to upload a room! Simply click on the red “+” button in the bottom right of the page.

Select what room type you’re uploading, answer a few questions, and add some tags to identify your room.

Hit submit, and voilà! Your room is live and ready to share. If you Tweet, be sure to tag us at @HackClassrooms — we’ll be sure to give you some love. Check back to see if other users have liked or commented on your space. You might even see your room featured in blog or social media one day!

How has room2learn helped you with your classroom? Tag us at @room2learn on Instagram, or Tweet us at @HackClassrooms. We can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!

How to use room2learn 2.0 was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Instagram, Pinterest, Blogger… There are so many platforms for browsing classroom designs and setups. But have you ever thought about the why behind each layout choice? Why is flexible seating becoming more popular among teachers, and what’s the science behind having students sit in a circle for better discussion? Here’s where room2learn comes in.

You can think of our web platform like a “Pinterest for teachers.” Thousands of teachers have joined the community to browse and upload “rooms” — social posts that real teachers share about what learning looks like in their classrooms. Unlike other platforms which focus heavily on visuals and aesthetic, we want to provide educators with more than that! Each “room” outlines details about the space design, layout or DIY hack, and how it ties into learning. Think function over form.

Since we launched room2learn.org in 2016, we’ve heard from hundreds of teachers that they love seeing these classroom designs, but that it’s hard to search for content — especially when you don’t know what problem you’re solving for!

So, we set out to create the best user experience possible for teachers to find learning-focused classroom designs.

What we Learned from Teachers

We surveyed elementary, middle school, and high school teachers around the US and Canada.

When it comes to classroom design, we found that teachers struggle most with solutions for group work and project-based learning. Additionally, teachers want to create spaces in which students can feel safe and included.

The survey surfaced some of the hairy challenges teachers faced on a day-to-day basis:

Teachers are working in tight spaces and are in need of more ideas and low-budget space hacks. In fact, budget was a recurring issue among teachers:

• “I really enjoyed exploring all the hacks. That seemed like the most realistic application of room2learn for me (given budget and physical constraints).”
• “As a teacher, I had neither the budget or power to make such large purchases, so I’d be most interested in ideas, use studies and an easy way to present it to the people with the money.”

With this feedback in mind, we set out to redesign the platform experience. The full search engine will be unveiled next Wednesday, May 9, so check your inbox for the announcement. (Sign up for our weekly newsletter if you’re not on it already.)

For now, you can browse rooms by learning style, right on the home page! Here’s a sampling of some classrooms you’ll find:

Quick Tip

It’s easy to land in a rabbit hole of browsing for inspiration, so it’s important to focus your search with a purpose. Before browsing room2learn, think about your main teaching goals. Some questions to ponder:

• Problem: What is the main concern you are looking to address? Abundance of resources? Lack of flexible working space?
• Process: What activities are you planning for the classroom?
• Impact on Learning: What educational goal are you trying to achieve?

Happy searching!

We want to hear from you! What do you think of this new search? Have you found some cool new rooms? Let us know how room2learn can best serve your classroom design needs at team@room2learn.org.

Redesigning the room2learn platform was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“You have to choose between taking a business path or a technical one. You can’t do both.”

This was the advice that a mentor gave me while in my Freshman year of college. I was struggling in my Computer Science program; I often felt like I was missing a significant portion of what was being taught in the classroom. As I took each successive required CS class, I felt more and more lost. My grades fell from A’s to B’s and then to C’s.

Despair set in. It felt like my dream of studying Computer Science and starting a business was coming to an end. I loved technology and the idea of being able to build products through code. But, somehow I was getting more lost as time went on.

What crushed me the most during this time was the lack of encouragement and support by those around me. My friends and professors didn’t believe I could overcome my challenges in the classroom and actually be able to write code and build a business. They encouraged me to take the easy path: focus on graduating and getting an “average” job. While I knew this path wasn’t true to myself, I began to believe them.

Learning for myself

I had tried learning to code many times in the past, but failed every single time. After college, I picked up Michael Hartl’s Ruby on Rails Tutorial and began to follow every section, step-by-step. In a few short weeks, I had built my first web application.

Since I was learning with the purpose of building a product for a business I was starting, staying committed to the journey became a lot easier. I wasn’t simply learning for the sake of learning; I was learning to create something valuable to the world. Learning shifted from being all about me to serving a greater purpose.

Accelerating that Growth

In 2017, I joined a startup at the Harvard Innovation Labs. There, I found a supportive community that encourages everyone to do their best work. In contrast with my college experience, my peers demonstrated persistence, commitment and perseverance. They readily shared their experience, knowledge and insights with me.

Shortly after arriving at the iLab, I had a highly transformative conversation with one of my mentors. She recommended I read Nail it, then Scale It by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom as it changed her way of thinking about building startups. In reading the book, I began to reflect on many of the mistakes I had made in my own journey.

For some, mistakes would spell defeat, but I was more driven than ever. I began looking for more books to read on business, leadership, and personal development. I did this haphazardly in the past, but now I had a dogmatic approach to reading books and incorporating the learning.

For the first time, I had an immediate feedback loop. The knowledge in the books I read could be directly applied to many of the immediate issues the startup was facing as it scaled. I was grew as quickly as the company did. I learned more in the past 6 months than I did in the 4 years I spent in college. The stakes are higher too: successfully accomplishing a task was now a matter of survival for the company

Joining room2learn

These experiences led me to join room2learn as the Chief Technology Officer. I met Jane during my last months at the iLab, and we bonded over the importance of the right environments for learning.

While my technical skills were certainly an important factor in joining the team, even more important was my ability to develop relationships and apply my business acumen to technical issues. According to a 2013 NACE study, technical skill is the 7th most important factor companies consider when considering a candidate for a position. The rest are “soft” skills.

I spend a large chunk of my time on non-technical topics. As the company grows and the scope of the product increases, my ability to find, recruit, lead, and manage a team of people to build the room2learn platform becomes more essential. A successful CTO brings not only deep technical knowledge but inspires and directs others to do great work.

One recent project I worked on that bridged technology and people at room2learn is the new and improved search feature.

The focus of the new search implementation is to make discovering content easier, helping teachers find designs for specific learning and teaching styles. At room2learn, we’re committed to helping teachers make the most of their learning spaces to help their students find purpose in their learning journey.

Looking for layouts and DIY hacks for “collaboration” or “personalized learning”? Check our our new and improved search feature at room2learn.org today! What do you think? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!

Ryan Leaf is an entrepreneur, technologist, and software engineer who is passionate about the intersection of technology and education. At room2learn, Ryan leads product development and technical strategy. Previously, Ryan was a software architect at Doorbell and founded Minsilo. Ryan received his B.S. in Management Information Systems from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Purpose-Driven Learning: How I became CTO of room2learn was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Matt O’Donnell

Matt is a Tech Innovation Specialist and one of the Geniuses at our Learning Space Genius Bar at SXSWedu 2018. This week, he shares with us some simple hacks for bringing student voice into the classroom.

Walking into a classroom, you might see a banner from a sports team, a movie poster, or knick knack from a band. Most of the time, these objects give you a clue into the teacher’s hobbies or interests outside of school. Most teachers have freedom to give their classroom a personal touch since it is where they spend most of their day.

But what about students? They are often restricted to a specific seat, let alone have say in designing their school environments. In many cases, they can’t even decorate their locker.

We know students do much better when they have a voice at school. According to Dr. Russell Qualia’s Student Voice Report, students who have a voice at school are:

• 4x more likely to experience self-worth in school
• 8x more likely to experience engagement in school
• 9x more likely to experience a sense of purpose in school

Clearly, it’s important that students feel ownership over their learning experience in school. The good news is — you can give students voice without giving up oversight of the classroom. And, you can make changes incrementally, as we learned from architect Aaron Jobson last week.

Here are 5 simple hacks to make your students feel at home in the classroom.

Start with language.

Teacher often say “my classroom,” especially when enforcing rules. Simply by saying “our classroom,” you can acknowledge your students as part owners of the classroom space. This can make students feel more welcome and opens up a conversation

Choice in Seating

Shifting classroom furniture around to suit the learning activity is great, but we should not stop there. Students need seating that fits their body size. School seating is mostly designed for the average student and we know there is no average student. (Watch this great Ted Talk by Todd Rose to learn more about the ‘Myth of Average.” ) Students also have different movement needs throughout the day, so having options is important. Can they switch between sitting and standing? Or soft and hard furniture? All these options allow students to self-regulate so they can attend to the learning.

Hack the Wall Space

Wall space is at a premium in classrooms. Often, you’ll see them filled with posters about class content and a bulletin board with past student work. In high school classes where multiple groups of students use the classroom throughout the day, there is rarely anything that represents an individual student on the walls. One simple way to provide student representation on the walls is through digital displays. You can use a TV monitor with an attached chromecast to customize backgrounds. With the Google Home app, you can link a digital display to a shared Google Photos folder. This folder can contain images that the students choose to represent them and their work, and can cycle throughout the period or day on the monitor.

Another way to hack the wall space is with LED lighting. You might not be able to re-paint your classroom walls, but you can probably put up LED light strips that can be set to different colors. The light strips are not very expensive and it is easy to change colors with a remote. Students can pick different colors for different times of the day or learning situations. Some LED lights can be triggered to change colors automatically at a certain time or customized event. Using IFTTT, students can get really creative in how and when lights change.

Mix up the Audio

Add a bluetooth speaker to the classroom and and/or and aux cable so students can play their music when it is appropriate for the learning activity. You can even game-ify this and set this as a reward for students.

At the school level, you can change the bells to audio files where different student can pick the music during passing times.

Reset

The nice thing about all of these classroom changes is they can all be temporary. The furniture can be moved back, the light color can be changed or turned off, they digital display can go to a new folder and the classroom can be ready for a new set of users in under a minute. Co-creating a classroom is an iterative process — not everything will work out, but you won’t know the results until you try it!

What are some ways you make the classroom more homey? Share with us by uploading photos on www.room2learn.org or tag us on Instagram (@room2learn). We love’d love to feature your classroom design and layout on our profile!

Matt is currently the Tech Innovation Specialist at the Sonoma County Office of Education. His work focuses on 21st century learning including technology integration, classroom redesign for student-centered learning, multimedia, design thinking, school communication, STEAM, and maker education. Prior to joining SCOE, Matt spent 15 years as a middle and high school social studies teacher and school administrator in Atlanta, Georgia and in Marin and Sonoma Counties. His experience includes serving as grade level chair, department chair, dean of students, and academic dean. He also served as a trustee for the Oak Grove Union School District.

Transforming “My Classroom” into “Our Classroom” was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Do you want your students to perform as an orchestra or a drum circle?

That’s one way to differentiate between collaboration and cooperation. Collaboration involves co-labor: where everyone is working together towards a single goal, like in an orchestra. Cooperation, on the other hand, involves performing independently, in some shared space. Each student moves to the beat of their own drum, but the collective produces a rhythm.

In today’s workplace, you often have to toggle between playing in an orchestra and playing in a drum circle. At room2learn, collaboration and cooperation are key. When we’re mocking up a new web page design or designing a space for a school client, we come together in a design thinking process to harness everyone’s ideas and expertise. This enables the team to have the freedom to be creative, while channeling that creativity in a structured manner that focuses on results. In between these collective sprints, each team member takes ownership of specific pieces — writing code, crafting blogs, interview teacher users — to build towards our shared vision.

In our school tours across the country, we’ve found dozens of great examples of collaborative classrooms. Here are 3 simple strategies that we’ve learned, to support collaborative work in the classroom.

1. Plan the classroom.

Start by deciding what activities you want to take place in the classroom, and then consider possible classroom layouts that would facilitate those activities.

When facilitating discussions, it’s important to set students up so they face each other and can have eye contact. We love the book club style classroom, where students are grouped and sit in a circle format. Don’t have round tables in the classroom? No worries — this format is easily adapted to having students sit on the ground or by utilizing other soft seating options.

The main goal of this layout is to emphasize the text or topic discussed by circling up and reducing the space between students. One activity could be having students browse or read through a book and have each group be responsible for a certain chapter. Students can take turns reading aloud or read independently, having small group discussions about what each group read, and then a class-wide discussion about what they learned.

2. Choose your working surface.

Papers, Post-Its, and tablets. The number of writing surfaces is endless when it comes to studying, but what’s the optimal setup for collaborative group work? We want to share two of our favorite ideas that teachers uploaded to room2learn.

The first example is a vertical work space where teams of students gets a designated board where they could work out problems together. The goal of this hack is to allow students to take risks while doing the “rough draft” of thinking, while at the same time pushing them to display their thinking clearly. It also helps them to develop their confidence sharing their ideas in a group setting, which is a crucial skill in today’s knowledge economy. Since students are working on dry erase and chalkboards, they feel less stressed to get the correct answer the first time because they can easily erase any rough sketches or outside-the-box ideas.

To flip that horizontally, you can have students write on tables! This teacher hacked her classroom tables by painting them with IdeaPaint. Form follows function, but function can also follow form. Changing the writing surface is an effective way to engage reluctant writers in giving them more freedom to jot notes down or sketch a quick visual. After each use, give students time to wipe the tables clean, and don’t forget to remind them to document their work (on paper or with a picture)! Another variation of dry erase tables is to cover them with dry-erase contact paper.

3. Take advantage of spacing — literally!

While different group discussions may be going on at the same time, the classroom space could get tight. Here are some tips and tricks on making the most use of space.

You can easily change a room simply with the rolling up blinds! This urban classroom is situated in the middle of a bustling city, which limits the amount of outdoors interactions that could take place. However, the window shades are like an “on-off” switch that can either invite in natural lighting or temporarily blur out city-life, depending on the needs of the students. Plus, if writable wall surface is scarce, you can even double up the windows as a whiteboard with dry-erase markers!

If your school campus is larger and has more space, why not teach the class outside for a change? This outdoor classroom at DaVinci Innovation Academy encourages students to not only learn actively but also benefit from the natural environment.

What are some of your favorite ways to encourage collaboration in the classroom? Share with us on room2learn.org or tag us on Instagram (@room2learn). If you use our hashtag #myr2l we might feature your post on our profile!

3 Elements for a Collaborative Classroom was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Most teachers and administrators want to implement modern learning environments. But where do they start? Here are seven design principles that came out of my Genius Bar conversations and time at SXSWedu.

1. Flexibility and Variety. These are two common buzzwords with different practical meanings.

Jayna Duke of O’Connell Robertson Architects gave a great definition of flexibility — the ability to use one space in different ways at different times. If you can design a space with two different uses in mind, you will find even more ways to use the space over time.

Variety, on the other hand, is the ability to use a space in different ways at the same time. I discussed this with an educator from Brazil where the current design for a new school included only traditional classrooms. We looked at simple changes to the layout — different types of furniture, varied lighting — that could take a row of classrooms and transform them to a variety of connected learning spaces.

2. Transparency: Once you have variety, you need transparency to connect the varying spaces. This is not only critical for maintaining supervision, but also to support the sharing of ideas and collaboration between students and teachers. Transparency also promotes views of the outdoors and daylight, both of which improve learning.

3. Big ideas can start with incremental changes. One district leader I talked with from California shared how he successfully achieved flexibility by replacing 8 student workstations at a time within a classroom. By slowly experimenting with the furniture, teachers were able to observe the impact on learning. Start with educators in your school that are willing to embrace it first. They can try it out and prove that it works to others who prefer the wait-and-see approach. Incremental change can lead to a lasting change.

4. Light, Sound, and Air. More and more evidence connects the physical environment to learning outcomes. This Clever Classrooms study demonstrates that well-designed learning environments improve learning by 16 percent. Light, sound, and air make up almost half of the improvement.

Increasing daylight and views, improving air quality (especially reducing CO2 levels), and reducing background noise can greatly benefit students and teachers. If students are uncomfortable in one of these areas, it takes away from their brains’ ability to learn. You can start small and still see huge benefits — open your blinds and windows and take students outside even for short periods of time.

5. Variety of conditions: Light and sound comfort zones vary with each individual. It is important to provide a variety of spaces that have different conditions in each of these areas to meet different student needs. Teachers can zone the classroom according to different activities and learning needs.

6. Keep special needs in mind. One of the best sessions I attended at SXSWedu focused on designing spaces for students with Autism. My biggest takeaway is that although all students are sensitive to environmental stimuli, students with Autism are especially sensitive to light, air and sound.

7. Allow students to control their own learning environment quality. I strongly think that students themselves can have a significant role in assessing, monitoring and improving their learning environments. After chatting with Timothy Reidel from the University of Texas at Austin about where to begin engaging students in the process, I’m excited to start working on building light and CO2 sensors with my own kids. Maybe someday there will be an army of students evaluating their classrooms and making changes to get more fresh air, better daylight and to improve their learning environment. If so, I’m sure it will be discussed at a future SXSWedu!

So, how do you build your dream learning environment? Stay tuned for more articles from our Geniuses experts on understanding the design process and new trends in the design industry.

Aaron Jobson is a Partner at Quattrocchi Kwok Architects. He comes from a family of educators and has a passion for creating dynamic and sustainable learning environments. His philosophy includes pursuing extensive community outreach and participation, allowing for client-and community-responsive design. He is known for his innovative projects, including American Canyon High School, which is one of the highest scoring Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) verified projects in California. He is also one of the creators of Folia, a classroom building solution that dramatically reduces design, permitting and construction time on projects to market. His work, passion and advocacy has garnered his reputation as a thought leader on how school facility design directly impacts academic success — a subject on which Aaron spoke about at SXSWedu, among other national education conferences.

7 Steps to Create an Innovative Learning Environment was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At SXSWEDU 2018, we met over 50 of you at the Learning Space Genius Bar! Educators came from as far as Paris and as close as Dallas, bringing questions about everything from makerspaces, engaging community in the design process, and the perennial question about storage — where do my kids store all their stuff!? Today we’re sharing some of the common themes and ideas that came out of the conversations. Stay tuned for future guest blogs from the Geniuses themselves!

Let’s take a closer look at what we did and and what we learned!

What We Did

In our first iteration of the Learning Space Genius Bar, we brought together a panel of K-12 Learning Space experts — architects, educators, and educational planners — for a 3-hour summit dedicated to educators and their space challenges. In each 20-minute appointment, participants worked with the Geniuses on solving learning space challenges. In many conversations, the Geniuses helped educators problem-find rather than problem-solve, as the first step is determining what problem we are addressing with a design solution.

What We Learned

At the end of each conversation, participants were asked to summarize their one key takeaway on a Post-It, and add it to our community harvest map. Below, our team summarized some key themes that arose.

Here are some of the main themes that stuck with us from this experience.

1. Rethinking the Classroom

“[think] about the function of the space before making decisions on what to buy.”

If we could stand behind one big take-home message, it would be this sticky. This is especially important as working in school often means working with a shoestring budget, so it’s important that each dollar is worth the investment. On room2learn, you’ll find hundreds of low-cost hack ideas for effective learning spaces.

Many participants agreed with us that classrooms nowadays should not “look like a 1980’s office or classroom.” In fact, educators voiced their desires for incorporating more creative thinking when it comes to redesigning learning spaces.

One participant said “A classroom should be a studio” and another said classrooms should incorporate “graphic, visuals, [and] flexible spaces.” What that looks like can be different for every community! At the core, learning spaces should support and empower students in their learning, whether that’s in the form of access to resources of inspiring graphics. A few good examples to check out are Inner-City Arts’ creativity lab and how this group of teachers from Chicago Tech Academy redesigned their art studio.

2. Student-Centered Spaces

According to NCES, students spend on average of 180 days in school and average of 6.6 hours per day in school. That’s a lot of time in a school building! As educators, it is important to help students feel a sense of belonging and provide them with “the freedom to make, create and design.”

One way to do this could be giving students choice in their learning environment; in other words, give students the opportunity to be co-creators in the classroom. With the shared classroom space, try giving students ways to experiment with “audio, lights and digital images.” Need help with a particular theme such as coloring your classroom or flexible seating? Check out our treasure trove of blog pieces for some hands-on inspiration!

3. Makerspaces

Makerspaces are all the rage these days! But before you fundraise for that new 3D printer and laser cutter — think first, who is going to teach and activate this space? What kinds of things do you want your students to be making and learning from? Are you building this because the students and teachers want it, or because you want a shiny lab space to show parents and funders?

Our participants talked about types of shared maker materials and resources that teachers need and currently lack in their own classrooms. This could be solved by having mini makerspaces in each classroom, or having mobile maker carts or kits. But the key question first: why a makerspace?

Check out this post on project-based learning and how Design Tech High and Sycamore School they infuse design and maker education in many aspects of learning.

4. Flexibility

One participant learned that “Change is inevitable. Flexibility is critical.” It’s important for teachers to be flexible with how they teach as well as how they structure their classroom space. But what does flexibility mean? For one, you may want to start thinking about how to zone your classroom rather than have the whole space as one setup.

Are you a principal or district leader looking to start the design process? Read our piece on Architecture 101 for educators.

5. Design Process

Redesigning a learning space can be an overwhelming process! Who do you engage? Where do you start? You might have great ideas or solutions in mind already, but lack the tools to implement them. As our participants have learned, and as we always emphasize, process is key. It takes a community to build a makerspace (or new learning space), so organize the time to gather input and get the right people on board.

And of course, we’re here to help! Get inspired by school designs from around the world, find layouts that have worked for other educators, and try out a new space hack or two!

If you have a specific design challenge in mind, email our design team at team@room2learn.org and we will either help you out or connect you to someone who can.

5 Learnings from SXSWEDU Genius Bar was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Remember the last time your iPhone shut off suddenly, or your MacBook started bugging out? What did you do? Chances are you probably hauled yourself over to the nearest Apple store and got support from their Genius Bar.

But what happens when your principal suddenly springs “project-based learning” on you? Or when fidget spinners suddenly start showing up with your students to class? Who do you go to, then, for help?

Here at room2learn, we may not be able change your principal’s mandate or get rid of fidget spinners altogether, but we can certainly show you examples of project-based learning spaces or share design hacks to keep those fidgety hands active. If you weren’t already planning to attend this year’s SXSWedu Conference and Festival, here is your reason: the world’s first Learning Space Genius Bar!

You heard right. room2learn will be hosting a 3-hour summit dedicated to you and your space challenges. Whether you’re a teacher looking to try out flexible seating, a principal hoping to transform your library into a media commons, or a district leader trying to prioritize facilities changes, we’re here to help you begin redesigning your learning space.

Who are the Geniuses and how can they help me?

We’ve scoured the country to bring you the best of K-12 Learning Space expertise — architects, educators, and educational planners who bring decades of experience and expertise working with K-12 schools and districts. Learn more about our Geniuses here. They bring a wide range of expertise, and are here to answer questions like: how do I begin a community planning process?; what kind of furniture works best for my classroom?; or when do I need to hire an architect?

How do I participate?

The Genius Bar is happening on Wednesday, March 7, 11:00am — 2:00pm in Salon K, Hilton Austin Downtown. You can sign up now to reserve a 20-minute appointment with one (or more) of our Geniuses. Drop-ins are welcome too. Simply sign in with us at the welcome desk and get matched with an available Genius.

What should I bring?

The more visual you can get with your question or challenge, the easier it will be for a Genius to give you concrete advice. If you’re a teacher working through a classroom challenge, maybe snap a few pictures of your room to share. If you’re mid-way through a design process, feel free to bring along some design concepts or blueprints. You can either upload these when you sign up online, or bring paper or digital copies in-person. There will be wifi at the conference. Plus, we will have plenty of chart paper and prototyping materials for you to capture ideas while in conversation!

What if I don’t have a specific question?

There will be a Browsing Bar in the room where you can get inspired and learn more about how design impacts learning. We will have laptops for you to access design inspiration, books for you to browse, and prototyping materials for you to build and draw as you please. Our team will be documenting the conversations and sharing learnings on this blog, so stay tuned.

I can’t wait! How can I prepare for the session?

We suggest browsing the room2learn design database for ideas that other schools and educators have tried. It’s free to sign up for an account. You can save rooms to your profile, which you can later revisit and show to your Genius. Twenty minutes isn’t a long time, so think beforehand about one particular question you’d like help on, and gather materials that can help you describe your challenge. Plus, be sure to check out the Learn By Design competition, happening the day before, for even more ideas!

This all sounds great, but I won’t be able to attend SXSWedu this year. Can I still participate?

We still want to include you in the fun! If you have a specific challenge in mind, drop us a line at team@room2learn.org or Tweet us at @HackClassrooms and one of our team members will be in touch. Also, be sure to subscribe to the room2learn newsletter to receive weekly insights on learning space design.

We can’t wait to dig into your design challenges and come up with creative solutions with you. See you in Austin!

SXSWedu 2018: Learning Space Genius Bar was originally published in room2learn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.