Durham University, Techno-Café [CETL for Active Learning In Computing]
| Contact Details: | E L Burd, liz.burd@durham.ac.uk For photos of Techno-Café go to www.durham.ac.uk/alic/technocafe/ |
| Type of Project: | A refurbishment to create a Techno-Café as a prototype for a future development in a new build. |
| Start/End Date: | December 2005 - January 2006 (a 6-8 week timeframe over the Christmas vacation). |
Success Factors
What Makes The Space Successful?
It was designed with the 'youth of today' in mind. The use of chrome rather than white plastic, whilst adding to the cost, can actually make a huge difference to the look and feel. Using soft materials with soft lighting does make a difference to the way it is perceived. Bright colours in the Techno-Café are done in the traditional Durham palatinate (purple) again giving it a sense of Durham identity but also giving it in a colour that isn't the traditional magnolia. There is 'wavy' lighting on the ceiling that breaks up the hardness of a ceiling and looks a bit towards science fiction.
Giving students a nice facility that enables them to do the kind of work they wanted to do in a very relaxed and supportive environment makes them react very differently to the obvious pressures in an academic programme that is trying to get them to stretch themselves.
Previously they used to get people to log in and log out as a means of recording their stint to make sure they stayed there for two hours. Many are now staying for three or four hours at a time. If you give students the respect and the facilities they appreciate that: they work better and they work longer and they work more effectively.
There is an issue of identity that students feel they need their own space and they like working in there. There seems to be a consensus of ownership of each of the booths: an unwritten rule about whose booth is whose. That degree of ownership is helping the process of bonding which is all very critical if you are going to get a group of six to eight students working together successfully and over a long period of time.
Interestingly students are now concerned about privacy with regard to the competitive element of the project to a much greater extent than when they were in a traditional PC lab. They have even asked for curtains at the end of the booth (much to the hilarity of the designer). They wanted to be closed in and encapsulated in their little booth which is an interesting concept in terms of how they perceive ownership in terms of the location and how they really want to preserve that degree of space as being their own.
What Is Innovative About The Design And The Use Of The Space?
The minimisation of electronic equipment. There isn't one machine each. In situations where they need more they can go to a central facility and collect one. This promotes collaboration.
The lighting is mainly back-lighting rather than overhead. It minimises glare on screens is a lit through plastic material that gives a very warm atmosphere.
The individual tablet PCs are used in a highly interactive way and rather than the interactive white board just being used by a member of staff the interactive white board is for the students. The whiteboard manufacturers had never actually connected a tablet PC directly to a Smart Board before. It is a student-centred approach and it's a natural part of 'no no I want to try I'll show you what I mean' you just hand the tablet to the next student and it's not intrusive.
