Education Week - April 15, 2015 - Special Report - S22

S22 |
EDUCATION WEEK n
April 15, 2015
Blended Learning: Breaking Down Barriers > www.edweek.org/go/blended-barriers
"
I say we've failed if this can't work
in a normal school."
HELEN GRIFFITH
Executive Director, e3 Civic High School, San Diego
Seminar Room
A room with a number of movable tables, which teachers, such as Mike Walsh, above, can
reorganize based on planned activities. The space, used mostly for social science lessons,
can be set up as a small-scale version of a college lecture hall, or as a smaller version of the
pod, with a centrally located Shade and tables mimicking the Coastline on the perimeter.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE S21
The Ocean
An arrangement of staggered seats where teachers can hold group discussions or
allow students to read independently. According to 9th grade English/language
arts teacher Ashley Haywood, students tend to gravitate toward the Ocean
whenever teachers allow them to use the space.
a 7th grader who transferred to Intrinsic this academic year.
"In his old classes, he wasn't paying attention because it
wasn't challenging," the teenager said. "Here, the school challenges
him and he's on a roll right now."
Before attempting to design and build schools with academic
goals in mind, using technology or other means, school officials
must first have a clear sense of what their instructional goals
are, and how the physical environment will contribute to them,
said Tom G. Carroll, a Design for Learning senior fellow at the
American Architectural Foundation, in Washington.
"Start with the function, start with the learning activity you're
trying to facilitate or support," he said, "and then make the space
support that."
Questions of Scale
where
past & present
create the
future
Ted Hasselbring understands the promise of
technology. The senior author of Read 180 was
doing blended learning before it had a name. As
a visionary special educator, he also knows the
benefits of technology are too often denied to
those who struggle to read. Hasselbring's research
benefiting millions of learners is one reason why
Vanderbilt's Peabody College is esteemed as one of
the leading education schools in the nation.
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San Diego's e3 Civic High School, located on two floors of the
new San Diego Central Library, has fashioned a look to match its
academic ambitions. Helen V. Griffith, executive director of e3, as
it is known, believes traditional school buildings don't necessarily
preclude schools from thinking differently about how space is
used, but that those environments require "a visionary leader" or
a group of teachers capable of pushing for innovation.
"If you look at the school in terms of 'How can we best use all
of these spaces and use them in a different way?', then you can
scale up," Ms. Griffith said.
Many school officials have sought to redesign their schools
without building a campus from scratch like Intrinsic did. The
Washington-based Horace Mann Elementary School, for instance,
renovated its existing building and built two additions
to help facilitate across-grade and small-group collaboration.
"Flexibility is absolutely the thing we were aiming for," said
Horace Mann principal Elizabeth Whisnant. "A lot of ability to
choose, as teachers and as students."
Not everyone is sold on the idea that the Intrinsic model is
worthy of replication. The Chicago Teachers Union, for instance,
which has been critical of charter schools' growth in the city, was
skeptical about Intrinsic's structure and whether students benefit,
said a research facilitator for the union, Sarah J. Hainds.
"Modern design is great. We love that kind of concept," Ms.
Hainds said. "Even with these rotating stations, we're still very
leery of having so many children in a classroom."
Melissa Zaikos, a founder of Intrinsic and the principal of the
Belmont campus, acknowledges that not every school will have
the luxury of a near-$20-million renovation to put in place its
vision. And the idea of having 65 students in a single classroom
isn't feasible for many schools. But she believes Intrinsic's underlying
pedagogy can translate to regular public schools.
"I say we've failed if this can't work in a normal school," Ms. Zaikos
said. "I would hate for people to come here and say, 'I can't do
this because [they don't have the physical space to accommodate
the pods],' because I don't think that's what's making it work." n
peabody.vanderbilt.edu
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Education Week - April 15, 2015 - Special Report

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