The impetus for the current educational research was the move to remodel or rebuild schools (particularly following the Earthquakes in Christchurch) in accordance with New Zealand Ministry of Education Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) guidelines. Digitally enabled learning environments with the spatial affordances of innovative learning environments can provide the opportunity for the school environment to be a link to knowledges and understandings within the global world.
The potential of digital technologies to be co-constitutive in the implementation of future-focused learning is a key consideration in facilitating contextually relevant schooling. The traditional classroom is designed for one teacher with a class of students – typically between 20 to 30. In ILEs, the learning spaces aim to accommodate several teachers and a high number of students (100+) in one large space, frequently with some form of break-out areas. These learning environments are meant to be more flexible in their use and provide greater access to a range of online and other modern resources.
Such environments are meant to be more suited to 21st century pedagogies that aim to provide an empowering and challenging learning environment where students are actively participating and involved, self-regulated, while at the same time being connected to the community and relating to others. They also increase the need for teachers to work together and form communities that can support each other and develop mutual skills. Both the type of environment and the different teaching methods needed to work in such environments will have an influence on student learning.
Our current research at the University of Canterbury is looking at the possible effects on teaching and learning using a range of methods to assess the perspectives of school staff (teachers, principals, etc), student teachers (those who are in initial teacher education courses and will be the teachers of tomorrow), and learners (primary and secondary school levels).
