This semester I’m on a new committee*: An ad-hoc one that’s looking to re-design the student computer lab. In fact, by the time this post goes live I think we’ll even have had an organizational meeting. I expect that our goals will be to maximize access for students who don’t have their own computers; facilitate students’ work, new-fangled and otherwise; and also to design a space that gets used enough to warrant the expense, at times beyond the final exam period.
The committee has students on it, who aren’t shy about advocating for their peers (one of ‘em’s ProfHacker’s own Alex Jarvis), and obviously I plan to let them take the lead a bit, since it’ll be their space. But what’s the point of having a blog if you can’t ask your readers about it?
If you were given the opportunity to design an up-to-date computer lab, what would be important to you? What features would it absolutely need? What pitfalls are crucial to avoid? What would a successful student lab look like? What services would it provide?
(If you’re wondering why I’m not linking to the awesome K-State Office parody about classroom technology, it’s because Jeff is going to be looking at re-imagining the classroom next week.)
*Five years ago, as a joke, I wondered to a colleague why one couldn’t be on all the committees that seemed interesting. I now know the answer.
Image by Flickr user Extra Ketchup / Creative Commons licensed
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18 Responses to Re-imagining the Student Computer Lab
William Patrick Wend - February 12, 2010 at 5:18 pm
I LOVE this idea!
Alex Jarvis - February 11, 2010 at 11:31 pm
I was surprised to hear myself say it, but i would actually actively dislike smart whiteboards. Honestly, a little cheap whiteboard and some markers would go a long way.
Alex Jarvis - February 11, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Laptop Bars and a Group section are among my proposed suggestions!
joanna - February 11, 2010 at 11:28 pm
How about some scanners and a few alcoves with doors so that students can record podcasts and other audio files?
jmcclurken - February 11, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Hmmm. That’s not exactly the kind of plug I was looking for to promote my post. How am I supposed to compete with a funny, Office-style video?
Oh and I agree with Jonathan. If the default save in a student computer lab could somehow prompt them for a network drive or a USB key, that would be great.
I also think laptop checkout is a nice option; so too would be group work stations with a central big monitor/flat screen and a way to send desktop/laptop information to that screen.
Tom - February 11, 2010 at 9:06 pm
There should be some space available for group work and some private cubicles for making podcasts. For some good group work space ideas, check out the Virginia Tech Math Emporium
Jonathan Dresner - February 11, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Whatever terminals you make available must have NO DISK SPACE WHATSOEVER so that students won’t mistakenly save things to the disk and then forget them, etc. Either they should be working in the cloud, or saving to a USB flash drive (ideally, both). If they have some kind of institutional disk space, that would work, too.
Gabe Tippery - February 11, 2010 at 9:12 pm
It should certainly be cross-platform. My school handles this with dual-booting iMacs. The single most annoying thing my school does is not maintain the printers. I have got to the point that I generally just walk the two blocks to kinko’s rather than even checking if the lab printers are working on any particular day. This might be my biggest pet-peeve about institutions in general, if you can not maintain and support something, then just don’t offer it. Set realistic expectations.
Brian Croxall - February 11, 2010 at 10:02 pm
It would also be useful to have printers that students can print to wirelessly. But that might be hard to finagle when trying to get them to pay for print-outs.
Brian Croxall - February 11, 2010 at 10:03 pm
I would probably avoid interactive white boards. I’ve never seen them used very much in such environments. Big screens in the place of monitors that can be used for group work, however, are useful.
joanna - February 12, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Chairs with wheels and tables that can be moved into a pod or separate. I think that a new lab should look at how much flexibility can be built in so that no one design or seating arrangement is permanent. Also, some tables and chairs without computers, for those who want to work off-computer.
cheryl ball - February 13, 2010 at 10:48 am
I co-authored an article about building my dream lab. It’s available at Programmatic Perspectives, here: http://www.cptsc.org/pp/ under Articles, the second one in. Also, if you’re interested, all of the supplementary documents for that redesign, as well as some others for the redesign of a 200+-seat computer suite that I was more recently involved in, are available under the Spaces week of my grad class readings list: http://www.ceball.com/classes/402/fall09/readings/. (They are highlighted with the word NEW.)
PS: I disagree with only making cloud computing available. That doesn’t work for some kinds of multimedia composition, although I certainly understand the reasoning behind not wanting to give students the option of saving onto the local machine.
Derek Bruff - February 12, 2010 at 9:28 pm
I’ll second Joanna’s suggestion for movable furniture. We have chairs and tables with wheels in the workshop space at the center where I work. I’m so used to movable furniture now that when I sit in a classroom or lab chair that doesn’t have wheels, I wonder if it’s broken.
Are you planning to have computer resources for students without laptops as well as work space for students with laptops? As well as higher-end computers capable of doing things that students’ own computers usually can’t, like big time video editing?
Ed - February 13, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Actually, the parody was done at University of Denver. Great video.
Mary Hoffman - February 12, 2010 at 8:22 am
Regarding printers–at my institution, students are required to provide their own paper for all printers on campus (with a few narrow departmental exceptions.) It is fascinating to see how printer paper has become such a commodity–they are sometimes reluctant to share with one another. They print on backsides, and best of all they think carefully about what really needs to be printed. This is most evident in the library–at my former institution, there were always bins of material that people printed and then forgot. That is not the case here.
Downsides include a reluctance to print materials to bring to class (laptops are not yet common classroom tools here) and some new inventive homework excuses.
Rudolf - February 12, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Please don’t feel the need to set every student in rows and columns, to work independently. That’s great if you’re supervising a factory from 1905, not so good if you want students to work in groups or collaborate.
The layout of the room should allow for multiple types of instruction, including discussions, group work, and individual work.
OPIEWeb - February 12, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Step one though would be to give every student some “cloud” storage either via campus IT or a contracted provider.
OPIEWeb - February 12, 2010 at 1:17 pm
These should be in rooms or alcoves as discussions can become loud.