At Tampa Preparatory in Tampa, Fla., we created Active Learning Environments (ALEs) to provide students with a technologically advanced, student-centric atmosphere. We started this complete transformation of our traditional classrooms in the lower school, which houses students in grades six through eight, in 2014.

Our goal with this undertaking was to create environments where students could spontaneously collaborate and have equal visual and auditory opportunities regardless of where they were in the classroom. In traditional classrooms, students pay attention to the front of the room, so sitting in the back of the room can be detrimental to a student’s learning. Essentially, we wanted to completely throw out this idea, and choosing the right technology — and furniture — played a big part in making this a reality.

In each of the 12 lower-school classrooms, we installed two Epson BrightLink interactive projectors on opposite walls. We also purchased Steelcase mobile desks for students and an Ergotron mobile desk for teachers, a voice-amplification system, glass walls and LED lighting. We installed dry-erase coverings on the walls to transform all of the wall surfaces into interactive spaces when used with the interactive projectors. Each student is also required to bring an iPad to school. Now, students can project content from their iPad onto the surfaces and annotate it on the wall in real time using their fingers. Students can also see projected content and hear their teacher’s voice from anywhere in the classroom, thus giving every student a virtual “front row” seat in the classroom. The addition of the mobile desks enables increased collaboration and small-group work, as students can now wheel their desks together and spin to see various projected content.

During the planning stages of the redesign, we considered installing interactive flat-panel displays, but a head-to-head comparison proved they did not fit into our new design or our budget. In fact, we were able to buy two projectors for the price of one flat-panel display. These projectors transformed entire walls in our classrooms into interactive surfaces, as their image size was significantly larger than that of the LED display. Our decision to opt for interactive projectors, as the predominant display technology, has been further reinforced by a recent study conducted by Radius Global Market Research. The group evaluated the readability of content displayed on a 70-inch flat panel in an average-sized classroom and found that 58 percent of students could not read content displayed.

By redesigning our classrooms and implementing the technology that we did, we were able to improve the teaching and learning process. Students collaborate and engage with each other more, and teachers have more freedom. They can use small-group work activities to differentiate instruction and then visit with groups of students, talk to them and provide additional guidance as needed because they are no longer tethered to their computers at a desk in the front of the room. The ability to easily project multiple examples of students’ work at once now facilitates classroom-wide group discussions and critical thinking. We are now replicating this same ALE model in our upper school and are confident we will see the same positive results.

Overall, we’ve found that taking an innovative approach to classroom design has changed the way our teachers teach and our students learn, and we are looking forward to seeing the success of having ALEs in every classroom at Tampa Prep. To learn more about Tampa Prep and the school’s ALEs, visit: www.tampaprep.org/page.cfm?p=1271.

Chad Lewis is director of technology at Tampa Preparatory School in Tampa, Fla.

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Technology is not the only thing that is advancing in the classroom. Steelcase Education Solutions developed furniture that can fit the ever-changing needs of a students’ learning environment. Furniture is not just stationary anymore, as Steelcase shows with its focus on active learning, according to Barry Brennand, sales representative for Steelcase Education Solutions.

“We focus on classrooms, social learning spaces, places where frankly real learning gets done,” Brennand said.

While 21st century learning is becoming increasingly popular with schools, students and architects — furniture companies must adapt to the change in design as well. One example of how Steelcase incorporated furniture to transform learning took place in the main library at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock, Texas.

Collaborative work settings were designed where students could gather around a desk and work off their laptops or set up a web cam to be projected on the flat screen television attached to each workstation. TTU calls the space GroupWorks, and it has become a popular destination on campus.

“The idea is to provide an environment for the way students work now, and it’s all about group work. It’s about students working together, from on campus, across campus, across the state — wherever the group members may be,” said Justin Daniel, systems librarian for TTU, who hatched the idea for the GroupWorks area.

The GroupWorks space occupies 3,200 square feet of the library’s first floor and is opened 24 hours a day for students to utilize.

“We’re open 24 hours a day. Anytime you go out there, there are people using them, and in different ways, too,” Daniel said. “Groups and individuals use them. Sometimes they multitask to the point I can hardly believe. They’ll have a video on one monitor, a Word document on another monitor, and they’re listening to something with their ear buds.”

Along with Steelcase providing furniture for interactive and collaborative study areas in the library at TTU, the company also produces furniture for K-12 classrooms.

Northview High School in Grand Rapids, Mich., was looking for a solution for its classrooms. They wanted to incorporate a variety of learning modes into classroom space including lecture, large group discussions, small project groups and presentation space. They also wanted to make sure the classroom could be flexible and convert quickly to the changing needs of the students and/or lesson.

“When I went to school we all sat in rows and faced the front of the classroom, but now most K-12 classrooms are taught in a different way where student participation and collaboration is key,” explained Brennand.

Steelcase Design Studio, in collaboration with the design and innovation consulting firm IDEO, created node — a chair designed to meet the many styles of learning. Northview was a beta site for the new chair, which caused significant improvement in classroom collaboration and engagement.

After several surveys and studies, node was found to improve the overall classroom experience for 97 percent of students.

“The next step is collaboration with peers, and that’s the piece that’s so amazing with these desks, and it’s also one of the steps that gets skipped,” said Sheri Steelman, Northview High School teacher. “[Some teachers] might lecture the whole time, but this way, it makes it so easy for students to work together.”

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Our first stop was the Council for Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), in San Antonio, Texas. The trade show floor was filled with impressive displays, including the highly anticipated and talked about “classrooms of the future.” The four classrooms of the future featured innovative technology and equipment that those at the show could see and experience first hand. Students from neighboring districts were also invited to demonstrate how the technology could be implemented in the classroom by participating in guided lessons. The classrooms featured everything from smartboards, flexible furniture, video conferencing systems, and more. School Construction News will be giving a more in-depth look at the classrooms in the November/December issue of the magazine.

We were also introduced to many new products including Shaw Contract Group’s LokDots, which help to install carpet tiles even in high moisture or occupied space. Wanda Dunaway, director of education and government markets for Shaw, demonstrated the fast, easy and efficient delivery of LokDots for us at CEFPI. Steelcase Education Solutions also gave us a tour of their new innovative furniture that was on display in a classroom of the future model as well.

After meeting with clients and new friends at CEFPI, we flew to Pasadena, Calif., where we attended the Green California Schools Summit. While the weather was warm, the show floor was full of “cool” technology to save schools money on electricity bills, including our tradeshow neighbor, Jeanne Knobbe with IGSHPA, showing us how geothermal systems are utilized in school environments.

The Green California Schools Summit featured breakout sessions throughout the two-day show, including meetings specifically for K-12 and for college/universities. School Construction News attended several sessions and received valuable information on school construction trends, projects, challenges and triumphs. Many of the sessions focused on schools going beyond the necessary energy-efficient requirements put in place by some institutions. Instead of pursuing the minimum energy-efficient requirements, many schools are raising the bar and pursuing net-zero energy.

Some of the projects discussed in the sessions will be featured in School Construction News’ first issue in 2013 that focuses on green schools.

After absorbing all the knowledge from CEFPI and the Green California Schools Summit, we are back in the office until November — when we head down the street to tour the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

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