How could you design the physical environment of the classroom, including technology, to be conducive to student-centered learning? (McCarthy, 2015)

What does a student centered class look like?

1. As we walk around the room we should see students working on assignments and projects with the teacher facilitating.
   1. Students get to explore their interests
   2. Students should be working as a group and building on each others knowledge - this enhances cooperative learning and student collaboration in the classroom.
   3. Both the student and teacher should be working hand in hand to achieve mutual learning goals, creating a partnership between the teacher and student.
   4. Example of student work should be found in the classroom - projects, posters, and writing samples - to allow students more ownership of their work.
   5. Students should also be comfortable using technology in the classroom - this technology should be used to help students solve problems, just like in the real world situations
   6. The classroom should not be a quiet place, students should be debating ideas with each other so that they can be given a voice and feel empowered. This is facilitated by the teacher by providing students with choices in their assignments.

Tips for the classroom

1. Try to teach ‘big’ ideas to your students - allow students to discover the details of these big ideas for themselves.
2. Give students the opportunity to evaluate their own learning - these reflections can be part of the teachers grading and assessment.
3. Performance based, as well as authentic assessments are an integral component to this style of learning as these types of assessments are what students will be confronted with in a real world environment.
4. The teacher should be moving around the classroom to allow for formative assessment of students' progress in the class. Asking friendly questioning, facilitating higher order thinking, and this is all done without grading the student.

1. Allow Students to Share in Decision-Making by placing students in the center of their own learning they need a voice in why, what, and how learning experiences take shape.
   1. Why is about relevance - learners need to understand the value of the subject and skills before they are willing to invest in the effort to learn them. Once we show students the relevance of the subject matter students will be more likely to become engaged.
   2. What is learned involves students choosing the focus of content. Letting the students interest drive the content that teaches skills and concepts. By asking students what they want to explore within the subject matter, you can start a dialog together to match their interests with the skills and components that need to be taught.
   3. How learning is demonstrated will be dependent on the different ways that students processes understanding. With a variety of product options based on what you know about your students you gain give students the ability to choose their learning, rather than being force fed their learning.
   4. Believe in your students’ capacity to lead - give students a chance to take charge of their activities, they know what types of learning experiences work best for themselves.
   5. Recognize that students are a reflection of us as learners, when you feel that your professional experiences are respected during workshops your involvement is more likely to increase. Students like us, need work to be presented in a context that is meaningful to them. Once they understand how their talents fit into the class the can confidently apply these skills in a meaningful way to their lives not only within the classroom, but outside in the real world as well. By providing real world relationships to these lessons a deeper experiences is created and students engage in 21st Century skills in ways to enhance and support their current real world.
   6. Give up your need for control - allow students to generate work by using their passions. Students bring a lot to the table that can and should engage and deepen their learning.

3. Using technology in student based learning classes.

Today’s learners are required to understand and learn by using 21st Century Skills, education institutions should be leading the way in substitution traditional resources with educational technologies, to keep up with our current digital learning population. (Sutherland, 2019)

1. Students use personalized technology to produce as well as consume. Student-centered learning demands students spend at least some portion of their day working on personalized learning tasks or projects. Use of technology such as the Summit platform or the SeeSaw platform during part of their school day, allows students to post their work and projects or experiences, both parents and teachers can comment on this pursuing all members to work together to ensure the learning is not just individualized but that it is also meaningful and connected to the real-world. (Liebtag, 2017)
2. It is recommended that technology be small and portable so that it can be stored away easily when not in use and not become a distraction (Knaub et al, 2016).
3. Teachers can use social feedback tools to help them discover which teaching style works best by identifying student needs based on real-time feedback. Bluepulse is an application designed for that exact purpose.
4. Teachers should also regularly use technology to organize the classroom structure and provide assignments digitally. Google Classroom and WebAssign are great for these (Knaub et al, 2016).
5. Engaging in game-based learning teachers can deliver the lesson via interactive games. This is a type of game with defined learning outcomes, generally the game is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply subject matter to the real world. (EdTechReview, 2013)The concept of gamifying learning has been proven the capacity to motivate students, activate knowledge, and enhance critical thinking capacities. (Edutopia, 2018) Well designed games support students by scaffolding work, enhancing content learned, incorporate kinesthetic movement as well as repetition that leads toward mastery, and reduction of students fear of failure.
   1. Activate - game rooted in civic participation.
   2. Stop Disasters - designed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, students work to reduce the impact of natural disasters.
   3. Brothers Across Borders - crated by Danish Red Cross, combines storytelling and gameplay to introduce students to the Syrian refugee crisis.
   4. Planet Hunters - created by NASA, invites students to discover new planets.
   5. Foldit - players contribute to critical scientific research around protein folding - work with actual scientists to find ways to solve unknowns in protein structure and design.
6. Text-Based Gaming, allows for interactive fiction, the player/reader makes choices that determine the outcome of the narrative (similar to Dungeons and Dragons). Because players change the narrative arc, the interactive fiction can be used to teach empathy. (Farber, 2015).
   1. Begscape, puts the reader in the role of a beggar
   2. Inform, to advance the story players must type what will happen next
   3. Twine, allows for multiple endings that can be posted (Free)
   4. A Dark Room - resource management game
   5. Inklewriter, where aspiring writers can share links to stories or export stories to a Kindle device.

Sources

1. ASCDInservice. (2019, October 1). Five Elements of a Positive Classroom Environment for Students Living with Adversity. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttp://inservice.ascd.org/five-elements-of-a-positive-classroom-environment-for-students-living-with-adversity/.
2. Beichner, R (2008). The SCALE-UP project: A student-centered active learning environment for undergraduate programs. Invited paper for the National Academy of Sciences.
3. Cotner, S., Loper, J., Walker, J. D., & Brooks, D. C. (2013). “It’s not you, it’s the room”— Are the high-tech, active learning classrooms worth it? Journal of College Science Teaching, 42(6), 82–89.
4. EdTechReview. (2013, April 23). What is GBL (Game-Based Learning)? Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://edtechreview.in/dictionary/298-what-is-game-based-learning.
5. Educationrickshaw. (2018, February 7). Learner-Centered Experiences Through the Lens of Technology. Retrieved October 21, 2019, from https://educationrickshaw.com/2018/02/07/learner-centered-experiences-through-the-lens-of-technology/.
6. Edutopia. (2018). Game-Based Learning. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://www.edutopia.org/topic/game-based-learning.
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8. Farnsworth, S. (2016, January 15). Retrieved from https://alicekeeler.com/2016/01/12/5-quick-wins-for-a-student-centered-classroom-by-shfarnsworth-2/
9. Heick, T. (2019, June 8). 28 Student-Centered Instructional Strategies -. Retrieved October 21, 2019, from https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/28-student-centered-instructional-strategies/
10. Knaub, A. V, Foote, K. T., Henderson, C., Dancy, M., & Beichner, R. J. (2016). Get a room: The role of classroom space in sustained implementation of studio style instruction. International Journal of STEM Education, 3(8), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-016-0042-3.
11. Keeler, A. (2016, January 15). 5 Quick Wins for a Student Centered Classroom by @shfarnsworth. Retrieved October 21, 2019, from https://alicekeeler.com/2016/01/12/5-quick-wins-for-a-student-centered-classroom-by-shfarnsworth-2/.
12. Liebtag, E. (2017, August 10). 8 Things to Look For in a Student-Centered Learning Environment. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/08/8-things-look-student-centered-learning-environment/.
13. McCarthy, J. (2015, September 9). Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-centered-learning-starts-with-teacher-john-mccarthy.
14. Rands, M. L. & Gansemer-Topf, A. M. (2017). The room itself is active: How classroom design impacts student engagement. Journal Of Learning Spaces, 6(1), 26-33.
15. Shalaway, L. (2015). Classroom Organization: The Physical Environment. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/classroom-organization-physical-environment/.
16. Sutherland, C. (2019, March 6). 7 Reasons why Students Need Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved October 15, 2019, fromhttps://explorance.com/blog/7-reasons-students-need-technology-classroom/.