1. Classroom to Learning Studio
   
   
2. Library to Learning Commons
   
   
3. Lab to Makerspace

Breaking the 20th Century Learning Space Mold

The three most common learning spaces in a K-12 environment now take on a more flexible function as all can become places for learning, collaboration, individual space and active movement contained within the same room. As classrooms become more mobile and modular, we start to look at the whole space laid out with groupings of 'micro learning spaces' and labs with 'micro making spaces.' In libraries, we typically have more area space to work with and can craft larger groupings of 'learning zones.' These spaces may also be equipped with a variety of making materials and technology tools appropriate to the age group of students. 

Educators are empowered as designers to create learning spaces that now includes a broader mix of hard and soft furniture not only made for schools. This new mix includes furniture from office and work, hotel and restaurant, and home and living space environments.

Also, if you are a K-12 administrator, just go with this mantra, "Design learning spaces with the learners and teachers in mind." I have been in central office meetings with IT, planning facilities, maintenance, and purchasing staffs where the following comments have been seared in my brain with regard to K-12 schools furniture procurement-

• "The furniture needs to be easily stackable to accommodate the custodial crew." 
• "Classrooms need to have all the same desks and chairs with a 20 year life cycle."
• "High school students don't need standing furniture because they only have 50 minute periods."
• "Casters are a student behavioral nightmare for teachers."
• "Having lots of different furniture in a class is a problem for maintaining inventory."
• "If you talk with the site staff, we will throw you out of the bid." Basically, don't muck up our plans with getting the end users input. This thinking is counter intuitive to one of my most learned lessons about design- design like democracy, is a messy process.

Mobile & Modular or in a word, "MobiMod"

One of my great missions in my life has been to help schools begin to replace the 20-30 year old traditional fixed furniture in classrooms, libraries and labs with a variety of mobile and/or modular furniture. As the term, "flexible furniture" caught on like wildfire in the past several years, I had already coined a more descriptive term around 2009 to encapsulate such flexible furniture and called it, "MobiMod." 

The sit to stand height-adjustable mobimod style of using chairs, desks, and tables with casters, combined with some cozy soft furniture is a natural progression once teachers fully experience inquiry-based and project-based models of learning, not to mention student well-being. From these experiences with students, many teachers then want to redesign their room layout to optimize how they now teach.

Having mobile/modular furniture within a project-based classroom changes how activities are set up and group behavior occurs for students. Mobimod is about student interactions, collaboration and movement. It physically alters the notion that learning best occurs while sitting in the same fixed spot everyday, listening to a teacher at the same front wall, teaching mostly in a direct instruction mode. 

A MobiMod Directory of Furniture and Technology

A face-to-face flexible learning space utilizes five essential types of furniture and technology:

(Note - Here in this LED eHandbook, I have not included any specific manufacturer product images as I want the concepts and ideas themselves to shine a light, rather than feature a specific product. Full disclosure, I actually do design learning spaces and sell furniture and technology products that go into these spaces for a living, it's just not going to be part of this eHandbook moving forward in this second edition.)

Tips 'n' Tricks for Student Chairs with Casters

I will repeat this message throughout this book; casters are a low tech feature with a high level of disruptive innovation to traditional K-12 classrooms. I've had many educators tell me how bad casters are for classroom behavioral management. 

I was once part of a new middle school renovation of a computer lab. All the new tables and task chairs (with casters) arrived and were set up in rows. I came back one week later to see that all the casters on all the task chairs had been removed. The chair legs now looked liked stumps on the carpet. 

For me, this was a good lesson in taking transitional steps to change. I should have had a conversation with the staff before we changed up the traditional computer lab with swivel task chairs with casters, not to mention the self-adjustable height up and down lever.

Change takes time. I've had teachers tell me over the years that they couldn't stand student movement during class. I believe this attitude often changes as teachers embark on more project-based activities where the moving furniture can help change up group work setups. In time, many teachers see the calming effect on students as their body movement level increases.

Over the years, I developed a few instructional tips and tricks for any teacher with regard to student behavior using task type chairs with casters and a self-adjustable pneumatic cylinder height lever control.

For most K-12 students, task chairs in learning spaces are few and far between. At first this is a novelty for students who will by nature do several different things that I have given pet behavior names.

First the tricks-

1. Around the World - Basically spinning in the task chair like a top
2. Elevator - Continually pulling the pneumatic lever up and down to lower and raise one's self
3. Bumper Cars - Self propelling with one's feet into another student, or just open space

Now for the tips-

1. In front of class (no matter the K-12 age), demonstrate the disruptive behaviors above, believe me they already have had the idea and in a whole class conversation may share more gems. This is all good as sometimes senior high students need this little pep talk even more than elementary students.
   
   
2. Talk about the difference between 'passive sitting' (little to no movement) and 'active sitting' (gentle movement and positions that do not disrupt the people around them). Discuss different ways students can actively sit or stand during class time. Once you get the buy-in, the disruptive behavior will fade away.
   
   
3. But, and there is always a but, there are a very small number of students, who will still do their 'tricks'. By the way, your 'wiggly kids' (like me) will typically not be part of this as you have helped save them in class by providing 'fidget furniture.'
   
   
4. For students, who can't handle the cool moving furniture just have several old blue chairs with the typical 10 years of rust on the legs, available as back up. Just always have options for your students and yourself as furniture like task chairs can be part of your strategy rather than a problem. 

As a side note- As I often write from the comfort of my home office. I have a self-adjusting electric table for standing and sitting. When I sit, I have a task chair and often sit with my knees bent back with my feet straddled and perched on my task chair legs as I'm gently rocking side to side. 

Social and Emotional Well-being

Many teachers today are part of a growing movement that challenges the mindset that classroom physical space like the carpet or floor is for only the very young. My objectives are to begin to change that mindset by providing alternatives to traditional 'stand and deliver' classroom layouts. Imagine applying Montessori methods with floor matting, low tables and throw pillows for teenagers, then you are starting to get the picture of mobimod learning environments. 

Many American corporations have also transitioned from individual employees working in 'cubicle farms,' to organized teams working in open collaborative spaces that also use private/personalized work spaces for individual work. In the last century, K-12 education modeled the factory-row workplace. We now just need to move American schools into this collaborative century and model our teaming-based workplaces.

Think about Starbucks, Panera, Barnes & Noble and other consumer gathering spaces as eclectic models for 21st century study spaces. K-12 educators can learn something to emulate here from these smart companies that sell comfort as a place to multitask while you consume their products. 

As educators, before we can get into 'collaborative learning,' we first need to talk about 'social and emotional learning' as the heart and soul to student communication and collaboration. As technology has become so ubiquitous in the twenty-first century, many people have come to lean on technology to lead educational systems change. However, I'm more encouraged by the growing movement to focus on crafting 'well-being' into learning environments as a social and emotional support for learning. 

In a word, think of 'cozy' to guide a teacher, librarian, administrator or architect in their design of a learning space or school. Students today, still need the human touch to facilitate their conversations and collaborations as they maturate in both physical and digital learning spaces. 

A Large Wave Coming: Transforming K-12 Classrooms

As a learning environment designer, I work with clients to design from the inside out of a school building. Often, I begin at a school by working with a school Principal who is the local champion of using flexible furniture. He or she helps identify onsite innovative teachers and bring them together as a team. The team then goes to work to transform their physical learning spaces.

By first changing the physical space, we get everyone excited and it rocks the student's world in a very positive and motivating way. And through planning, we connect the constructivist learning and technology design elements. This might sound backwards, but a few pieces of flexible furniture can be a catalyst to rethink teaching and learning practices.

In the 21st century, K-12 education has experienced a couple of large waves. First, the rise of technology in the classroom and second, national standards for the curriculum. Currently STEAM and the 'Maker Movement' are creating quite a swell and are backed by State and Federal funding. However, there are many educators who now see another large wave forming, the transformation of the typical K-12 classroom itself. The classroom is the new 'holy grail' for the K-12 physical space design revolution.

We advocate that we take this wave and make it a top priority in our nation's schools. Infrastructure and modernization funding needs to include the inside furnishings of the buildings too. We need to start looking at flexible furniture being as important as wireless networks with tablet computers.

So, let's create the biggest impact to children by transforming their classroom physical space as flexible furniture becomes an equal partner with technology to help drive an inquiry-based curriculum in this century. 

Think of individual mobile & modular classrooms as rolling waves building momentum off the shore. We are a ways from that big new furniture wave cresting, but I'm paddling to catch it and maybe you are too!