Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2016: EDspaces Edition | Page 6

21st Century Schools

Learning Spaces
for

Gen

4 Tips to Help Educators
Create 21st Century Schools
BY DWIGHT CARTER AND MARK WHITE

Z

O

ne of the hottest topics in education today is space redesign.
Educators see how their operations are being buffeted by the
global disruptions that are reshaping society — and they are
beginning to envision new ways to design schools.

Here are four quick tips applied in
the design of Clark Hall, an award-winning high school building in Gahanna,
Ohio, that effectively combines space,
global skills, and technology with the
needs of today’s learners.

TIP 1:
Think Starbucks
As educators ask how to redesign
their schools, a quick answer should be:
“Think Starbucks!”
When we walk into Starbucks, we
have lots of choices: we can drink hot or

6 essentials | fall 2016

cold coffee, eat croissants or cookies, sit
at the bar or a table, or perhaps in a soft
chair or even outside beneath an umbrella. Starbucks is all about giving the customer options in a relaxed atmosphere.
And that’s the way learning spaces
need to be designed today.
Today’s students are Gen Z. They
text, swipe, connect, hangout in person
and virtually, and view the world differently than their predecessors. They have
been using the internet since before
they began to walk, and it’s given them
choices their entire lives. When they get
tired of Netflix, they might change to

Hulu or YouTube. When they get tired
of one song they switch to another one
on their streaming iTunes or Spotify. When they skim articles on their
phones, they are scanning the bullet
points and looking for videos to speed
up their learning.
Gen Z students love options; they
love Starbucks. But when they walk
into schools today, they usually power
off their devices and sit in classrooms
designed for a 20th century industrial
learning model — an era that has been
replaced by the Knowledge Age and the
global economy. They often sit in straight
rows in square classrooms and do the
assignments the teachers have designed
and in the time allotted to them.
Instead, Gen Z students should be
given options in:
• how they choose to complete their
assignments