Campus og studiemiljø - Bygningsstyrelsen

easy to change between different work methods
The advantage of working with a subject in different ways – by listening,
acting and asking questions – is that the students remember
the material better and become able to use it. Several universities
therefore now try to mix different teaching methods but it can be
difficult to apply different methods in the same room. It also takes
time to move from lecture room to group room and back again. Technology
helps mix the teaching methods at MIT. Students can quickly
and easily change between different teaching methods, as the lecture
room has been done away with and the students sit at round tables
and work in groups. The teacher can walk around and supervise or
display examples of group work on large screens on the walls. Presentations,
group work and summing up for the more than 100 students
can easily succeed one another in the same room.
new role for the teacher
The teacher is more of a supervisor in the technology-supported learning
environment than in the traditional lecture room. The teacher’s
desk has perhaps been replaced by the mixer desk since subjectspecific
knowledge is available at a click of the mouse. It is the responsibility
of the teacher to place all the bits of information in a context.
Whereas in the past, the students had fixed seats in the classrooms,
both students and teacher can now move around. The teacher can
therefore mingle with the students and help them navigate and find
information, create hypotheses and test them. Whereas, in the past,
the classrooms were hierarchically structured, today’s classroom allows
collaboration between the students and the teacher. The teacher
and the students stand at the electronic board when exploring an issue
together to develop their own – and preferably brand new – solutions.
In that way, technology and the newly fitted rooms create an optimum
framework for problem-orientated teaching. The teaching is
based on the knowledge the students already possess and constantly
generate new questions that expand the students’ understanding of
the material.
technology tests understanding
Technology can be used for different educational purposes, and the
survey provides some examples. At the University of Strathclyde, the
students are equipped with an electronic voice; much like a normal
remote control. They can use this voice, to give quick and anonymous
answers to the teacher’s questions about facts or opinions
about a topic. This gives the teacher a quick overview. In this way,
technology can be used to measure the level of the class. However,
the main advantage is that the answers provide a good basis for a
discussion in class. The feedback system does not affect the room in
the above example, but in the future, the students could also become
physically involved. Today, school pupils in Aarhus move around
electronically generated maps or simulated environments as part of
knowledge games. Light and images are projected up through the
floor, and the floor is equipped with sensors, which react to the way
the students physically move across it. The question is whether we
will see the same technological knowledge game environment at the
university in the future.
tema: ikt støttede læringsrum / tHeme: iCt-supported learning spaCes
technology and learning as a field of knowledge
To develop learning, rooms and technology is a field of knowledge
in its own right. Foreign universities use virtual and physical rooms
not only to improve their teaching. The teaching concepts are also a
source of income for international universities and therefore given
high priority in the universities’ development strategies. Collaboration
between Stanford University and manufacturers of IT products
results in new technological products and learning environments
adapted to the wishes of the university’s own teachers, which can
also inspire and be purchased by others. Danish universities are well
placed to contribute to this development, as Danish universities
and other educational institutions have been working with different
teaching and collaboration methods for a long time. To abandon
lectures in favour of teaching methods that involve the students is
nothing new to the Danes. The challenge is to support these new
working methods with the new technology. The university students
of the future will, however, be familiar with technology and different
forms of learning from primary, secondary and upper secondary
school.
the situation in denmark
The Danish ‘Folkeskole’ (primary and secondary school) has experimented
with the combination of technology and rooms that create
new possibilities for learning through movement. These experiments
have not yet been introduced at the universities. It therefore
remains an open question what the future integrated virtual and
physical rooms will look like at university level. Perhaps technology
will result in a more effective use of the rooms with nomadic
project rooms; rooms covered with interactive boards and scanners
that transmit and store data directly on the computer. Here,
project groups can perhaps quickly surround themselves with
mind maps, notes and outlines for assignments. The tabs on the
computer screen will be displayed in the room, and after finishing,
the group will switch off the equipment and leave the room for the
next group to develop its own projects. Especially in science and
health science subjects, rooms for computer-generated simulation
could help make issues less theoretical and training more realistic.
Perhaps games and role-play will no longer be limited to primary
and secondary school. Perhaps virtual and physical rooms will help
students assume different roles when working with learning scenarios
and cases.
Barriers to technology, rooms and learning
There are different potential barriers to the development of technology,
rooms and learning. An example of an organisational barrier
could be that the technology strategies lack management support.
Support requires more than financial prioritisation. The technology
must be incorporated in the focus areas of the universities. One way
of doing this is to harmonise teaching methods, room and technology
the way it has been done at MIT. MIT has also created entire
degree programmes around technology-based collaboration between
universities in the USA and Singapore.
The technology has to be adapted to the planned collaboration,
whether you wish to combine different university subjects and cam-
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