Creating a Learning Space for Collaboration, Communication and Interaction

To offer and adapt education to the first generation of digital natives, we need to examine, evaluate, and create new types of learning spaces. The modern student wants to learn at any time, in any format and in any space. We also need to prepare the student for the workplace of the future, where digital technology enables people and processes to connect and interact regardless of physical location, distance and time. Collaboration and communication are done on several types of devices and we have a mixture of social networks, work networks and learning environments.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology is developing a vast selection of learning spaces for blended learning. We will in this paper present an example of a learning space, which supports e-learning, audio/video conference, BYOD (bring your own device) and shared multi-touch surfaces for interaction and collaboration in group work. To facilitate all these features, we must take in account the physical surroundings but also the pedagogy and learning methods to be utilized in this learning space. In this paper, we will discuss the process of designing, utilizing, and evaluating the learning space. 

Robin is an AV/IT expert and has more than 35 years of experience in the design and creation of arenas for interaction, experimentation, collaboration, and communication. In the last 10 years, he has been engaged in several EU projects on the development and use of future learning spaces and interactive tools in higher education. He is currently project manager of the NTNU teaching excellence programme SALTO and does R&D on cross-campus learning scenarios.

George Adrian Stoica is an Associate Professor from Department of Computer Science Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering in NTNU.

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