How Space And Time Can Transform A School

I ran across two sites today.

One was about the phenomenon of co-working spaces:

"Office Party? Let's Tweet It"

In an era where more and more people are taking the entrepreneurial spirit and working in coffee shops or in their homes, the idea of a co-working space is something that is quite intriguing from an educational standpoint.

What if schools created spaces and opportunities that centered on the same principles mentioned in the article?

"the group lunches, the whiteboard brainstorming sessions, the Friday beer parties — that puts Studiomates at the forefront of an innovative new model for doing business."

What if our students were given the opportunity to learn in spaces like these? Ok, sans the beer, but still. What defines the success of co-working spaces, like Studiomates or the General Assembly, is the intersection, of play+creativity+productivity+community+inspiration.

We must be more thoughtful about how students worked together and create spaces and opportunities that lead to interactions and ideas like Creative Mornings, which in my opinion offer exactly what students need: a 20 minute break from the day and access to ideas that will broaden their horizons.

When we create spaces and opportunities that allow creativity and play to flow freely, you'd not only be surprised at the quality of what is produced but how much of it.

The other site I found was:

72 Hour Challenge by The Better Block

The team at The Better Block created a website that is

"a demonstration tool that acts as a living charrette so that communities can actively engage in the buildout process and provide feedback in real time"

In other words, they are working to improve city blocks around the country.

Their 72 Hour Challenge asks groups to create a new vision for a street block in 3 days and nights. This same challenge could be applied in schools.

Why can't we give our students a challenge, a deadline, and asked to "make" something? We could ask them questions like:

How could our students revise a playground?
How could you reconstruct a communal space to be more collaborative and fun?

These are challenges that our students would thrive on, it would create a culture of play, and help re-think the idea of school space from our users' point of view. If we can embrace challenges like these, we will breathe a breath of fresh air into our schools and you'd be surprised how much our students are learning.

What does this mean?

If we look at these ideas, they offer people to opportunity to connect, share, learn, play, and make a difference. These are all things that schools are meant to represent as well. While I am not advocating that schools need to be co-working spaces or have all learning happen through 72 hour challenges, I do believe the core ideas behind these initiatives can help improve our schools.

Photo credit: duncan