+ Flexboards Remake the Classroom

Researching education over the past month, we’ve learned a few things about how people learn. We were particularly inspired by Prakash Nair and Randall Fieldings’ writings in The Language of School Design:

We should be looking beyond the ‘knowledge’ worker who is now a global commodity. Our most valuable export as a country will be creativity and innovation and these skills are not developed in the cells-and-bells model of school.

The problem: Existing classroom furniture dictates teaching style.
The disparity between our school classes and the way we do work as Design professionals struck us as a potential opportunity. By speaking with teachers, we learned that the furniture dictates much of their teaching style, while small budgets keep their hands tied from upgrading to a better system or buying new technology. According to Nair and Fielding, there are 18 different ways of learning, but we see the typical classroom system accommodating only one, lecturing, really well.

The solution: Flexboard
To solve these problems, we created the Flexboard. No one layout works for all classes and teachers. The Flexboard allows teachers (and students!) to pick the best layout for each class, subject, or grade level, freeing them from constant lecturing in favor of team collaborative work, project based learning, and one-on-one mentoring. Students gain independence to work on projects and learn in many new ways. Perhaps most importantly, the Flexboard uses existing technologies that make it both affordable and scalable.

The Flexboard’s multiple positions allow teachers to use it for a variety of learning styles. The base version acts as a magnetic whiteboard, a presentation space, a work table, and a room divider. By configuring groups of these boards together in multiple ways, many of the learning modalities can be accommodated in addition to lecture, especially team collaborative work, one-on-one learning with the teacher, project based learning, and student presentations. Check out Design Share for more on learning modalities and patterns.

The Interactive version adds an LCD monitor screen with an existing ultrasonic marker system to provide a digital interactive tool akin to a Smartboard®, but in a portable mode not tied to projector. It’s also easy to see how the new Microsoft Surface System could replace existing technology for expanded interactive capability.

Flexboards can be introduced seamlessly into a classroom. If a teacher is resistant to the changes a Flexboard can offer, the product can act as a traditional “blackboard” while the teacher develops new lesson plans.

Nair and Fieldings’ experience led them to state:

...social discourse and collaborative learning are critical to the development of well-rounded citizens…these skills are actually at the top of the list of qualifications for success in almost any profession.

Missing from the traditional classroom is collaborative work. By getting out of their seats and working in groups, students experience a visual way of learning that teaches them the creative problem solving techniques they need as professionals. Flexboard features a call light, so that students can get the attention of their instructor even in this new layout.

We learned that the biggest challenge for special needs students and teachers is having to leave the classroom. Specialists such as Speech pathologists want to multiply their effectiveness by working with students during their regular classroom lessons. Teachers can use Flexboards to create a small space within their classroom for one-on-one instruction, or a small breakout space with additional media such as special audio-visual aids.

Flexboards help educators by giving them a flexible, affordable, and useful furniture system that fits within their current classrooms and budgets. They add a higher level of involvement for students and teachers in configuring their space, creating ownership and enjoyment through personalization.