4 Tips to Help Educators Create 21st Century Schools
21st Century Schools
Learning Spaces forGen
4 Tips to Help Educators Create 21st Century Schools
Z
BY DWIGHT CARTER AND MARK WHITE
One 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 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power off their devices and sit in classrooms designed for a 20th century industrial learning model — an era that has been replaced by the Knowledge Age and the global economy .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
6 essentials | fall 2016