SWALLT Online: If You Build It, Will They Come?

This Friday at 12pm Pacific, we’ll be kicking off the 2011-12 edition of SWALLT Online (details and connection information can be found here). I’ll be giving a brief presentation about the planning and recent opening of UCSF’s new Technology Commons, and then leading the group in a discussion of  learning centers: why do so many stink, and how do we fix them?

photo credit: gc communications (via flickr)

I was lucky to start my educational technology career in a highly-respected language center with a lot of personality. For someone with a background in informational technology, this was a revelation: centers didn’t need to be boring, sterile, and intimidating. In fact it’s better for everyone when they’re not. Every couple of years, someone sounds the death knell for learning centers, and frankly I agree: the old model of rows upon endless rows needs to die. Not because, as Joshua Kim asserts, learning centers are being forced into obsolescence by the influx of students with their laptops and iPads and mobile devices. The old model needs to die because it never worked that well to begin with; for decades students have learned in spite of those environments, not because of them. Increased and widespread access to authentic materials and experiences isn’t making anything obsolete, it’s just making it obvious how wrong we’ve been all along.

So then, what should centers look like? How do you build a space that isn’t obsolete before it opens? What do you when you inherit, are told to build, or have no option other than a center that looks like the one above? Please join us at Friday’s kickoff session, or share your thoughts in the comments!