CLASSROOMS: SPACES AND PLACES

Educational Designs:Craftsmanship, obsession

and the sketch

CLASSROOMS: SPACES AND PLACES

Educational Designs:Craftsmanship, obsession

and the sketch

Rob Walker

http://eastanglia.academia.edu/RobWalker

Rob Walker

http://eastanglia.academia.edu/RobWalker

Early in 2009, Catherine Burke arranged for David Medd to visit some of the schools he had designed in the 1950s and 60s with his wife Mary. He was accompanied by a group

of architects and educationalists and the visits were videotaped.

Each member of the team has developed ‘a treatment’ for editing, of which this is one.

Early in 2009, Catherine Burke arranged for David Medd to visit some of the schools he had designed in the 1950s and 60s with his wife Mary. He was accompanied by a group

of architects and educationalists and the visits were videotaped.

Each member of the team has developed ‘a treatment’ for editing, of which this is one.

David Medd 1917-2009

Today’s Aerial Geography LessonToday’s Aerial Geography Lesson

Classrooms: theme and variations

Classrooms: theme and variations

Open classrooms = Open schooling?

‘Hard fun’ at Hennigan School

Open classrooms = Open schooling?

‘Hard fun’ at Hennigan School

The Medds’ schools have inside and outside spaces

The Medds’ schools have inside and outside spaces

Inside there are typically bays designated for different activities

Inside there are typically bays designated for different activities

Environments and Activities

Environments and Activities

There is an isomorphism between Medd the

craftsman and his view of schools as places

where children can learn by making things

There is an isomorphism between Medd the

craftsman and his view of schools as places

where children can learn by making things

‘Afraid of boring children, avid to present ever-different stimulation, the enlightened

teacher may avoid routine - but thus deprives children of the experience of

studying their own ingrained practice and modulating it from within.

Richard Sennett (2008), p38

‘Afraid of boring children, avid to present ever-different stimulation, the enlightened

teacher may avoid routine - but thus deprives children of the experience of

studying their own ingrained practice and modulating it from within.

Richard Sennett (2008), p38

Learning by repetition reconnects the mind with the hand and the body

On being part of a skilled community

What is important, says Sennett, is that learning by repetition should be in the context of an

open system, not a closed curriculum

Learning skills becomes empty if it is not also an act of the imagination

Two forms of obsession

Two modernist houses in 1920s Vienna

Two architects: Wittgenstein and Loos

“I am not interested in

erecting a building, but in[…]

presenting to myself the

foundations of all possible buildings.”Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I am not interested in

erecting a building, but in[…]

presenting to myself the

foundations of all possible buildings.”Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Even though I admired the house very much, I always knew that I

neither wanted to, nor could, live in it myself. It seemed indeed to be

much more a dwelling for the gods than for a small mortal like me”

Hermine Wittgenstein

"Even though I admired the house very much, I always knew that I

neither wanted to, nor could, live in it myself. It seemed indeed to be

much more a dwelling for the gods than for a small mortal like me”

Hermine Wittgenstein

The Good Craftsman:(adapted from Sennett)

• Understands the importance of the sketch – that is ensuring that you do not know too precisely what you are about when you begin.

• Values contingency and constraint and knows when and how to admit them to the design process.

• Needs to step away from obsession when a problem becomes self-contained.

• Avoids pursuing perfectionism to the point where it becomes purely self-referential.

• Learns when it is time to stop (short of over-design).

But doesn’t Educational Technology change everything?

Sennett’s notion of ‘the sketch’ is key to understanding the educational potential of the new media

Too often, computer applications are used in the classroom to close the scope of activities and to limit the play of imagination

But there are many ways in which software can be used to ‘sketch’ ideas: in words, in images, in sounds, but we need to be alive to these possibilities and to encourage forms of experimentation and playfulness that welcome risk and see mistakes as opportunities for learning

Just as we see children’s involvement as critical to building design, so too with technology

A good example is The Rug Room, where the students worked with the software designers to create a VLE and a media studio that did the things they wanted for their work, to communicate and to express their ideas

Quote Steve Hempel

Ursula FranklinUniversity of Toronto

• Physicist• Engineer• Expert on Chinese bronzes and Inca silver• Educator• Peace Activist

Buildings as Educational Technology

Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920. Teachers College Press, New York.