Potential Benefits and Implications of Active Learning Classrooms
Abstract: In April 2014, our center opened its advanced technologies learning lab. The lab is equipped with six interactive displays, five collaboration stations, an AMX switching system, and a variety of devices including tablets, wearable technologies, and laptops. The lab is to provide students, faculty, and K-12 teachers with a space for learning and exploring new technologies in a collaborative, flexible, and innovative manner. Since its opening, multiple sections of our 400-level education course focused on teaching with technology have been taught in this lab, with over one-hundred teacher candidates experiencing the lab as a learning space. It is our goal to understand how spaces like these can help us better prepare teachers for technological challenges they may face in actual classrooms. This panel aims to share our understanding of the benefits of learning in this space and how this understanding can help shape the design of future highly technological collaborative lab spaces.