TY - JOUR
T1 - Making Peace with the Rising Costs of Writing Technologies
T2 - Flexible Classroom Design as a Sustainable Solution
AU - Miller-Cochran, Susan
AU - Gierdowski, Dana
N1 - Funding Information: To develop and effectively launch such a design, we needed to build strategic alliances with partners in our program, department, college, and university. While the initial buy-in for the plan was relatively easy to gain from allies in the writing program, especially the instructors who had enjoyed teaching in the fixed BYOT classrooms but longed for a more flexible design, we needed support—both through budget and infrastructure—to make our classroom design a reality. We began by crafting a brief proposal for the project to present to our department head, who needed to approve classroom space for the project and to support requests for funding from the college and university. As part of our proposal, we described the research design we would implement to collect data that could support a grant proposal to extend the project beyond an initial pilot classroom, and with our department head's blessing, we took this plan to our Dean. We also talked to our college information technology team, who designed the technological infrastructure and support and introduced us to university-level administrators who could help with classroom modifications and equipment purchasing. The university architect/classroom designer became an integral part of the process through her connections with furniture suppliers and her interest in the research focus of the project. By bringing all of these strategic partners to the table from the beginning, we were able to build a design and research team with invaluable experience and connections we would not have had on our own.
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - In a challenging economy where budgets for academic programs seem to shrink each year, writing programs face serious economic challenges. When fiscal challenges are paired with the ever-changing nature of writing technologies and the need to update classroom technologies on a regular basis, the challenges can seem insurmountable. In this article the authors discuss the multiple phases of a classroom redesign project where first-year composition students used their own laptop computers in a flexible classroom, which included mobile furnishings, mobile whiteboards, and multiple LCD screens for projection. The purpose of the project was to design a space that was economically sustainable and would better meet the needs of composition instructors and students. To meet that goal, the First-Year Writing Program partnered with the institution's IT and Design Services to develop the flexible classroom model. The flexible classroom project sought to answer the question: how do we take existing classroom spaces and small/shrinking budgets and make the spaces work well for the teaching of writing? Based on financial comparisons of equipment between the flexible classroom versus classrooms where computers are provided by the university, as well as student surveys, the authors found that a flexible design is a cost-effective solution that is also an effective pedagogical space.
AB - In a challenging economy where budgets for academic programs seem to shrink each year, writing programs face serious economic challenges. When fiscal challenges are paired with the ever-changing nature of writing technologies and the need to update classroom technologies on a regular basis, the challenges can seem insurmountable. In this article the authors discuss the multiple phases of a classroom redesign project where first-year composition students used their own laptop computers in a flexible classroom, which included mobile furnishings, mobile whiteboards, and multiple LCD screens for projection. The purpose of the project was to design a space that was economically sustainable and would better meet the needs of composition instructors and students. To meet that goal, the First-Year Writing Program partnered with the institution's IT and Design Services to develop the flexible classroom model. The flexible classroom project sought to answer the question: how do we take existing classroom spaces and small/shrinking budgets and make the spaces work well for the teaching of writing? Based on financial comparisons of equipment between the flexible classroom versus classrooms where computers are provided by the university, as well as student surveys, the authors found that a flexible design is a cost-effective solution that is also an effective pedagogical space.
KW - Classroom design
KW - Economic sustainability
KW - Flexible design
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875257755&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84875257755&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compcom.2012.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.compcom.2012.12.002
M3 - Article
SN - 8755-4615
VL - 30
SP - 50
EP - 60
JO - Computers and Composition
JF - Computers and Composition
IS - 1
ER -