The learning Space is a third teacher providing the setting to nourish creativity, motivation, reflection, and collaboration as much as the teacher or parent. While teachers create conditions by which students develop meaningful projects tied to real pursuits, the learning space should be inviting enough to inspire students to roll up their sleeves and work together to develop ideas and solve problems that matter to them. When students learn and work, their projects evolve through an iterative process much the way spaces must do. So what do these modern constructionist spaces consider and look like?

When I think about where I began with students when we designed the space for the House of Technology, a modern constructionist space, and how that has evolved, I can’t help but stress the importance of defining the intent of what happens in the space and having students involved in the design process. How you design the space will affect the behaviors, culture, and priorities of the people who use it. IDEO, an innovation design firm, offers a useful way that I used with the students to think about the design in four categories including places, properties, actions, and attitudes. Places are spaces that share an overall purpose like hallways, properties are components of a space that can be modified to impact behavior, actions are the behaviors that will occur in the space, and attitudes are the values that are central to the space. Each of the four categories are investigated deeply to identify how the space should look, feel, and function.

There can be overlap in all of the categories. When examining the place category one can determine which of four areas will best support the desired behaviors. Will there be a place where people meet or gather? How will the place connect to other places to set the tone or mood of the place? Will there be a place or individuals or groups to call home to create, store things, or share their projects? What kind of support structures will be necessary to support the behaviors in the room? There are many things to consider that come to light when setting the stage for creative collaboration and many voices to include and consider.

Even today, the space in the House of Technology is in an iterative process as students configure areas to pursue mindful endeavors and recommendations are shared to invest in and continue to improve the space as new ideas and technologies become available to empower students to transform and improve the world in which they live.