Big ideas
create a stop-motion movie to demonstrate
Larry, a student at Tilden High School, edits music in the Digital Atelier, an in-school, student-centered makerspace
built in partnership with Bretford furniture. He committed to making a beat a day in order to master the skill.
Learning Outside the BOx:
Creative Learning spaCes
By Sascha Zuger
D
on LaBonte, co-director of
Convergence Academiesa
three-year initiative through the
Department of Education to test
theories around connected learning
to enhance curriculumchats about
the benefits of creative learning spaces.
What do you feel is the biggest benefit of
establishing a creative learning space?
The concept of choice. Give youth the freedom
to direct their own learning, pick their own paths,
with an educational mentor present to guide
them. Currently classrooms are set up for students
to undertake rote memorization, complete a
series of repetitive acts, then move on to the next
set. Our society needs morewe need to help
develop critical thinkers and people who can walk
into situations and work through their options
creatively to find the best possible solutions.
Classrooms have followed largely the same
configuration for a very long timewhy
change?
Classrooms are set up so the teacher,
12 | Aug ust 2 016 | www.techlearning.com
on a stage, can regurgitate content from a
bookexpecting students to absorb, digest,
and regurgitate it to prove they have received
it. When you get into creative learning spaces,
those paths havent been laid out and kids
have opportunities to express themselves in
a variety of ways. We all learn differently and
express ourselves differently. Having a space
where you can get on a computer and journal or
Digital media mentor Luke Sequeira strums
guitar with a small group of Tilden High School
students in Convergence Academies' Digital
Atelier makerspace to share the enjoyments of
tactile performance not always present with
digital media production.
your understanding of the materialits
another way to reach the same end result
and demonstrate that yes, you are gaining
knowledge.
Do you find unique learning spaces to be
a distraction to students learning?
Creative learning spaces are often messy
and loud and they look different from what we
think of as a successful formal classroom,
where everyone is working silently and
independently on identical sheets of paper
but that doesnt mean learning isnt happening.
How do reluctant learners respond to
this type of change in environment?
From our observations, kids come to
school because they have something to look
forward to. If you are in school, then you
are learning, and grades go up. Kids who are
allowed to pursue their passions begin to see
school as a resource to accomplish what they
want to accomplish, rather than something
that takes up their time and gets in their way.
Budgets are tight, so how can teachers
who dont have the financial resources
benefit from the concept without
remodeling their classrooms?
Experiment to find an engaging
environment. Create a shift in the room,
changing the focal points where instruction
happens. Go outside if a lesson lends itself
to that. Unfortunately, teachers need to be
empowered to make those shifts. They often
feel intimidated and unwilling to be the first
ones to take that step. There is a comfort
in the four walls of a formal structure,
surrounded by order, but we need to push
through that as educators to benefit our
students.
Where do you see the future of learning
spaces heading? Will this concept
become more widespread?
How we do things now isnt the way the
world works. There needs to be a compromise
in our thinking. Its a very mixed message. We
want kids to walk down the hall all perfectly
lined up, very ordered and regimented, and
sit up straight at their desks in a row . . . and
then we ask them to think outside the box.
And they cant do it. They havent been given
permission. They havent been let out of the
box.
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