Sociological and Societal Issues
We are witnessing some key changes in attitude and aspiration in our students. They are increasingly regarded as 'customers', particularly following the introduction of tuition fees in England, although this is somewhat 'distasteful' terminology to many employed in the education sector. However, recent nationally-reported complaints from some student groups on matters such as perceived reductions in lecture and tutorial time indicate that the shift goes beyond student as customer to students as consumers of higher education services. As this trend continues it becomes increasingly important to know and understand 21st century students.
Many are the YouTube generation who have lived their lives in the presence of ubiquitous highly capable technologies and internet connectivity. According to Prensky40 they will have spent 10,000 hours using video games, dealt with 200,000 emails, had 20,000 hours watching TV, and used a mobile phone for over 10,000 hours before the age of 21. Whilst it is difficult to verify the truth in these figures, it is clear that these students get their information, conversations and stimuli in a very different way from those of the early 1990s. There are clearly issues here that need to be considered concerning technology availability in new facilities, modes of communication and social interaction.
Social interaction, in particular, is an important consideration in the design and development of learning space. Over the past 30 years, supported by new thinking on technology and its role in learning, the work of Lev Vygotsky has gained wide acceptance producing a growing recognition that group learning and social interaction are at the heart of the learning process. Alongside this, the writings of John Seely Brown (with John Duguid in 'The Social Life of Information'41) have promoted the importance of conversation as an important tool for learning. How your learning space development project supports the sociality of learning needs careful consideration.
The increasing emphasis on creativity in the curriculum as a key skill to be developed also has implications for the types of learning spaces that we provide. Richard Florida identifies that creative class people, i.e. our connected students engaged in knowledge-intensive learning, value place and community as much (if not more) than their predecessors1. This is contrary to our intuitive expectations as IT facilities become ubiquitous.
The message here is clear. Our institutions have social significance to those that experience them. Every institution is different and has a range of social need that only it can know. When planning new spaces and facilities, therefore, the diversity of local needs should be taken into account from the universality of the notion of the sociality of learning itself, as mentioned above, to specific needs such as the extent of on-campus accommodation, creche facilities, types and levels of security, and balance of learning and teaching space.
