Texas Wesleyan Flex Classroom Puts Learning on Wheels

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 03/14/11

The ideal space for teaching history should have an eight-foot sofa and two armless chairs all upholstered in dark blue twill, 25 rolling office chairs upholstered in red, and 24 quarter-round tables on wheels, which can be moved together into groups. The floor should be covered with blue carpet tiles, and the walls should be painted soft yellow, though two of those walls should have floor to ceiling corkboard. The room should also include 10 portable 5' x 5' whiteboards, also on wheels, that can be used to divide the space. The room also needs a mobile interactive whiteboard with a wireless instructor station, 25 Dell Latitude laptops, a classroom clicker system, a color printer and scanner, and wireless access to the Internet.

This "radically flexible classroom" proposal took first place in a Texas Wesleyan University competition that called on faculty and students to research and design their ideal classroom. Now the proposal will serve as a blueprint for transforming an existing classroom on campus starting in the summer.

The contest, "classroom.NEXT," was hosted by the university's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Judges included campus administrators, faculty, and staff, along with external classroom design experts.

The winning entry was put together by Elizabeth Alexander, an associate professor of history, and five of her "Methods of Teaching History" students. According to the 40-page proposal submitted by the team, the design they developed played with two characteristics common to today's students: "unconscious integration of technology into their lives" and a desire to "study and socialize as a group."

"I believe the Radically Flexible Classroom name fits perfectly," declared one judge. "The classroom has the ability to form itself to the teaching subject, method, and needs of the students. The room has the ability to focus on group work, presentations, traditional lecture style, all with a medium that moves easily."

The classroom.NEXT Web site shares slides from the other four entries in the competition.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Hand holding a stylus over a tablet with futuristic risk management icons

    Why Universities Are Ransomware's Easy Target: Lessons from the 23% Surge

    Academic environments face heightened risk because their collaboration-driven environments are inherently open, making them more susceptible to attack, while the high-value research data they hold makes them an especially attractive target. The question is not if this data will be targeted, but whether universities can defend it swiftly enough against increasingly AI-powered threats.

  • interconnected blocks of data

    Rubrik Intros Immutable Backup for Okta Environments

    Rubrik has announced Okta Recovery, extending its identity resilience platform to Okta with immutable backups and in-place recovery, while separately detailing its integration with Okta Identity Threat Protection for automated remediation.

  • teenager’s study desk with a laptop displaying an AI symbol, surrounded by books, headphones, a notebook, and a cup of colorful pencils

    Survey: Student AI Use on the Rise

    Ninety-three percent of students across the United States have used AI at least once or twice for school-related purposes, according to the latest AI in Education report from Microsoft.

  • cybersecurity book with a shield and padlock

    NIST Proposes New Cybersecurity Guidelines for AI Systems

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology has unveiled plans to issue a new set of cybersecurity guidelines aimed at safeguarding artificial intelligence systems, citing rising concerns over risks tied to generative models, predictive analytics, and autonomous agents.