On the web: social learning space

Berry O’Donovan
Principal Lecturer in Learning and Teaching, Business School

In higher education there is currently animated conversation about such ‘social learning space’ whatever that is! Two years ago in the original bid for the ASKe Centre for Excellence we wrote about the idea of a ‘third space’ or ‘social learning space’ which we interpreted as a physical and or virtual area that is not predominantly identified with either social or work/study perspectives but transcends both and facilitates both formal and informal student-centred collaborative learning (Oldenburg, 1991 cited in Williamson & Nodder 2002). Spaces that combine:

social activities (eg eating and drinking, getting to know people, staying in touch with people, hanging out, meeting in groups)
learning (eg studying with others, group project work, meeting with advisors, student rep. meetings)
technology (eg writing, editing, printing, online research, email, online discussion, online workshops/collaboration, playing games (?) and socialising online

Internationally, Scandinavia and the US were seen to be leading the field in social learning space. In the States, the notion of providing a college ‘commons’ is becoming widespread – a central area that provides a raft of student and staff support facilities often with a library and student study spaces (group and individual) as a central focus. I have always assumed the term ‘commons’ is used to describe these spaces in the same way as a village ‘common’ depicts a central tract of land belonging to the village community as a whole.

Dartmouth College in the US not only has an extensive ‘commons’ but also hosts a ‘collaborative facilities’ site in which they are attempting to collate information on model facilities. Their website is www.dartmouth.edu/~collab/.
Although the interest in social learning space may have started elsewhere we do seem to be catching up in the UK. The new Saltire Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University has just opened and looks tremendous. Their website includes interesting video and audio clips www.caledonian.ac.uk/thesaltirecentre/.
Warwick’s ‘Learning Grid’ as described in the Space Symposium last week is also a learning environment well worth a tour; their web site is still under development www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/grid/
Cass Business School in London describes itself as a ‘machine for learning’ and clearly a lot of thought went into its design, with wide corridors with ‘water cooler’ spaces for both students and staff to stop and have informal conversations www.cass.city.ac.uk/about/building/

Moving a little further on from the commons/social learning space concept there are places that have a reputation for innovative teaching spaces. Many such spaces, disappointingly, seem merely to be rather slick lecture halls - geared for traditional ‘sage on the stage’ type teaching.

However, Queens University in Ontario has a number of spaces of interest. We particularly like the one depicted in the following link which shows IT for ‘groups’ of students rather than usual focus on individuals; movable and flexible furniture on smooth floors that allow the furniture to be reconfigured easily, students facing each other but with the capability of facing a lecturer. All in all, money spent on collaborative technology and flexible furnishings rather than architecture. appsci.queensu.ca/ilc/facilities/designStudio/ .
Back over in the States (isn’t the web wonderful?) MIT also has some great teaching spaces – in particular the TEAL space www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/icampus/projects/teal.html. Wouldn’t we all like to teach in this space!