Dive Brief:
- The Kildeer Countryside Community Consolidated School District 96 in Buffalo Grove, IL, approached redesigning learning spaces as the next step to helping students achieve success in the 21st century.
- Kevin Ryan, 21st Century Learning Director, writes for eSchool News that school leaders started by identifying an end goal as well as the barriers to achieving it and then they toured other districts to get ideas and phased in reconfigured classrooms — 10 the first year, 22 the second.
- The district’s redesigned classrooms have touch projectors, two walls with 65-inch televisions, an Apple TV to connect all the devices in the room and tables on wheels for easy movement — and student engagement is up as well as differentiated instruction.
Dive Insight:
In the drive toward School 2.0, classroom design is getting a lot of attention. Administrators across the country are realizing traditional classrooms with their neat rows of desks are not conducive to the kinds of collaborative learning that prepares students for the jobs of the future.
Besides classroom design with technology and mobile furniture, some schools are keeping new design principles in mind for building construction. Students perform better in classrooms with more natural light, for example. And research has shown “green schools” end up saving districts money in energy and water use as well as lowered health costs and improved teacher retention.