COMPUTER ROOM DESIGN

All the schools that I have went to for my teaching practicals are situated in the West Rand which is one district that consist of schools which are digital so they invest more on the subject the schools have all the necessary equipment which are needed to facilitate learning.

The computer laboratory in the school has computers which are faced to the two sides of the wall while there are chairs in the middle with the view of the projector. Most of the time when the teacher is teaching for example theory, the learner’s seat in the middle of the class and face the projection of the information and everyone is able to see the content, the chairs have desks were learners are able to write down their notes that is being taught while when they have practical work, each learner seat on the computer which are on the wall sides

The advantage of the arrangements of this laboratory is that every learner has access to the information when the teacher is actually teaching theory and the learners are able to engage with each other and are able to see, the arrangements also allow movement of the teacher while they are teaching in other words the teacher is able to continuously check all learners for example if they are writing notes. And the arrangements of the computers allows movement of the teacher also during presentation and the teacher is also able to individually access each learner when they need help without any difficulties, the open space of the laboratory also allows this free movement. The teacher is also able to see all the faces of the learners in the room while presenting the lesson either they are seating I the middle or on the computers.

One of the major disadvantages was that learners were not able to see what the teacher was teaching while they are performing practical lessons because the projector was not in the view of other learners hence they have to move to a different space when doing theory lessons, so while doing practical lessons learners have no access to what exactly is going on meaning that the teacher needs to individually go to those learners to assist them this leading to the content not being finished by the time it is supposed to be finished.

Also, the arrangements of the computers make it impossible for the learners to work quietly on their own because they are close to one another so learners tend to be discussing things while they are supposed to be working individually especially with assessment.

The computer lab also does not have a sound system which can make learners to hear what they are watching, for example while teaching about the internet we discovered a video which clearly explains the internet but we did not have the sound to this video which made it impossible for us to watch at the computer labs.

I believe that the classroom serves its purpose because firstly it has all the resources which are needed for the teaching and learning of the subject, it also allows learners to collaboratively work with each other and the space also enables free movement of the teacher because when teaching for example a practical lesson on word, you can constantly move around to see if the learners are actually doing what you are doing because most of the time, learners tend to be playing games when you are teaching

so a classroom which allows movement without any struggles is vital and by struggles I mean having to move learners to get to a certain learner meaning that you will have to interrupt other learners etc.

The layout of the computer lab was excellent except that it needs a few improvement, there should be a smart board as well as a sound system otherwise all the other aspects of the lab are well planned,, the classroom size catered for all the learners in the class, the instruction area included a work station which had all the materials the teacher needed to facilitate learning except for sound system and the room arrangements also made learning possible.