Given the differences in social, emotional, and physiological development among elementary, middle, and high school students, it should come as no surprise that collaborative spaces should be designed differently for each age group. The needs of younger students do not necessarily mirror those of their older peers. Architect and educator Peter…

Libraries have undergone an extraordinary transformation over the last twenty years--from glorified book warehouse to interactive learning environment. For an architect they are currently amongst the most exciting projects to be commissioned to design. Innovation and "Next Generation" are the buzz words. However instead of exploring a first…

Transformational games are digital computer and video applications purposefully designed to create engaging and immersive learning environments for delivering specified learning goals, outcomes and experiences. The virtual world of a transformational game becomes the social environment within which learning occurs as an outcome of the complex…

The field of instructional design does not collect and share actual completed instructional designs and designers' reflections on the creation of those designs as an integral, widespread aspect of its practice. This article defines the instructional design case as a means of knowledge building. It lays out the components of instructional design…

Instructional design models have been criticized for being too inflexible and taking too long to follow to be useful in today's fast-paced environment. As a result, some have rejected instructional design. This article offers an alternative view of instructional design as flexible and able to be accomplished in much shorter time periods than…

The impact of education decentralization on high-quality education has been mixed at best. This can be attributed to a variety of factors including decentralization itself, ineffectual implementation, political-economic friction, and poor design. This paper focuses largely on the issue of design, contending that if governments or donors aim to…

Students of every age have their own ideas about things...and they certainly have their own ideas about the best ways to learn. Project Tomorrow's annual Speak Up survey asked students from kindergarten through the 12th grade a simple question: "If you could create the ideal mobile app for learning, what would it look like?" Researchers received…

In this article, the author suggests a classroom challenge that will engage students in designing a house on the hill. He suggests teachers ask a local builder to come to the school to discuss the kinds of concerns that must be dealt with when building homes in cold environments. The use of dioramas and cardboard scale models would be very useful…