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Teach in ways you've always imagined. Learn from product tips, be inspired by real classroom stories, and explore other helpful resources.

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Steps to take for schools in Maine

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10 Ten Tips to have a successful application

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The E-rate program has played, and continues to play, a major role in the development and support of telecommunications, Internet access, and other technology services for the K-12 educational community. As many technology directors and business managers know, E-rate is a valuable - and, in many cases, mission critical - source of technology funding.

However, there is a dark side to E-rate. As the program has matured, it has become increasingly complex. It is disturbingly easy to run afoul of rules and procedures, to lose a year of funding, or in some cases to be asked to return funds improperly disbursed in earlier years. Since E-rate funds are needed, not only for new projects, but for the support of ongoing programs, the importance of proper E-rate planning and execution cannot be overstated.

This article will focus on the key aspects of successfully applying for and receiving E-rate discounts for schools and libraries.

Here are ten rules for E-rate success:
Rule 1: E-rate is not, and cannot be treated as, a "file it and forget it" program. It is a full year job.
For most people, E-rate is not a full time job, but it is most certainly a full year job. In the course of any year, E-rate coordinators are typically dealing with three different funding years, each with critical deadlines. There are reimbursements to be claimed from the previous year's funding; there are review and filing requirements for the current year; there are new applications to be filed for the next year. While there is a peak of activity in January, just prior to the filing of the next year's applications, there is something to do all the rest of the year - even during the summer vacation period.

We see too many applicants go to a lot of trouble to file for and obtain E-rate commitments only to lose the actual discounts because they forget the equally critical follow up steps to make sure discounts are actually received. Attention must be paid to E-rate year round.
Rule 2: Keep up-to date. E-rate rules continue to change and must be monitored carefully.
A corollary to Rule 1 is that changes to the E-rate program - rules, procedures, forms, and systems - must be tracked continuously.

Most changes are posted as they arise on the Schools and Libraries section of USAC's website (www.universalservice.org/sl/) as Latest News or Quick Links, but others may be reflected only in new language in site's Reference Area. Here are three suggestions for keeping current:

Subscribe to USAC's weekly E-rate News Brief for (see the Schools and Libraries portion of the USAC Subscription Center ) and visit the SLD's website frequently.

If available, subscribe to your state's E-rate e-mail listserv. E-Rate Central maintains a free weekly E-rate newsletter for applicants in states that don't have their own listserv (sign up for our E-rate newsletter).

Attend the E-rate training sessions conducted regionally each fall by USAC, or conducted independently by many states, in preparation for the next application cycle.

Rule 3: Keep email addresses, PINs, and passwords up-to-date.
Almost all E-rate form submissions, correspondence, and payments are now done electronically. As of FY 2016, all users are identified in USAC's E-Rate Productivity Center ("EPC") by unique email addresses and passwords (frequently updated). Access to USAC's invoicing system requires individual Personal Identification Numbers ("PINs"). To the extent any of these email addresses, PINs, or passwords are changed (or are not updated as required), access to important USAC notifications and systems will be curtailed.
Rule 4: Pay strict attention to deadlines.
E-rate is a deadline-driven program. All four of the most common applicant forms have deadlines or timing requirements which, if missed, will result in funding denials or reductions. Appeals, SPIN changes, invoice deadline extensions, service delivery extensions, and service substitutions also have deadlines. To further compound the problem, some deadlines are fixed, some are uniquely prescribed by USAC each year, and others depend upon applicant-specific conditions.

Here are the most important deadlines:

A Form 470 must be posted at least 28 days before the selection of vendors, the signing of contracts, and the signing and filing of a Form 471.

A Form 471 must be filed within a defined application window, usually announced in October. For the last few years, the application window has run from early January to late March. Since the introduction of EPC, however, the window has run and will likely run later than in past years.

The Form 486 must be filed within 120 days of the issuance of a Funding Commitment Decision Letter or the Service Start Date, whichever is later. For many, but not all applicants, this deadline is October 29th.

Form 472 (BEAR) forms must generally be filed within 120 days of the Last Date of Service, normally October 28th for recurring services and January 28th for non-recurring services.

Appeals must be filed within 60 days of the decision being questioned.

Rule 5: Respond promptly - and carefully - to all review inquiries.
The SLD's application and invoice review processes often generate questions that must be answered by applicants. Generally, these informational requests have a fifteen-day deadline. Ignoring an inquiry is not a good strategy. It can only lead to unilateral SLD action, guaranteed not to be in an applicant's favor.

If inquiries are complicated, or will require additional time to respond to, the reviewers (or their team managers) can provide clarification (or additional time extensions). In our experience, reviewers from Program Integrity Assurance ("PIA") are working diligently to approve applications. Our advice is to work cooperatively with the reviewers.
Rule 6: Procurement practices are important.
The recurring focus by Congress, the FCC, the SLD, and the press on alleged waste, fraud, and abuse in the E-rate program has increasingly led to new rules and to more intensive reviews dealing specifically procurement practices. There are two key considerations.

Services funded by E-rate must be cost-effective and must be competitively bid in a fair and open manner.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate that price is the most important factor in their bid analysis and vendor selection procedures.

Rule 7: Carefully read all form certifications.
While it is tempting to fill out and submit E-rate forms without reading all of the certifications at the end of each, we encourage applicants to read them closely. The correct response to every Yes/No certification is not automatically "Yes."

The E-rate program's administrators place great credence in these certifications and there are civil and criminal penalties for violating them. The certifications provide an excellent summary of major program rules, particularly those dealing with issues of waste, fraud, and abuse, which are the focus of the program's compliance efforts.
Rule 8: Maintain records for at least ten years.
E-rate rules require the retention of documents for a minimum of ten years beyond the last date to receive service. Since this "last date" is well after the start of the procurement and application cycles, documents on these aspects of E-rate must actually be retained for twelve years or more. As a practical rule of thumb, don't discard any E-rate material - ever!

The retention requirements are quite detailed, going well beyond simply keeping copies of E-rate forms. Documentation is required for discount rate calculations, CIPA compliance, RFPs, all records related to winning and losing bids, inventories, etc. Failure to produce these records can lead, and already has led, to formal actions to recover E-rate funds.
Rule 9: Don't forget to invoice.
The E-rate program is like a technology-centric mail-in rebate. You must purchase qualifying services or hardware within a specific time period. Receiving your Funding Decision Commitment Letter merely reserves the money for you. You must claim your rebate directly from USAC using the Online BEAR system unless you are receiving discounted bills from your service providers.
Rule 10: Know when you need help and where to turn for it.
Many applicants are fully capable and willing to manage all aspects of their E-rate applications. However, as the program has become more complex and as more applicants have experienced funding difficulties in one year or another, more and more are using or looking for outside assistance. Here are a few tips for getting help:

For answers to specific questions, the first place to turn is to the SLD. Questions can be submitted by phone (888-203-8100), online via USAC's Submit a Question feature, or within EPC.

Most states have State E-rate Coordinators which are available to help their school and library applicants (see State Information).

Many vendors are quite knowledgeable about E-rate, but vendor assistance must be used with the utmost of care. Any vendor involvement in the E-rate process prior to the awarding of bids is highly suspect. The burden of proof is on the applicant and vendor to show how such E‑rate support did not unfairly prejudice the bidding process. Once a contract is awarded, however, vendors can be quite helpful in preparing Form 471 line item templates and in supporting subsequent invoicing activities.

We are seeing, both in our own business and more broadly, a growing trend to use independent E-rate consultants either to assist on or oversee particular aspects of the E-rate process, or to take over primary responsibility for forms processing (much like a good tax preparer works with its clients). Applicants choosing this approach should make sure that their consultants are truly independent. For E-rate purposes, a consultant with a stake in a particular vendor's business success has a potential conflict of interest which will be looked at closely by the SLD.

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The E-rate program has played, and continues to play, a major role in the development and support of telecommunications, Internet access, and other technology services for the K-12 educational community. As many technology directors and business managers know, E-rate is a valuable - and, in many cases, mission critical - source of technology funding.

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A guide to applying

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Application and Training tools

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Schools and Libraries Program - USAC.org

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This is the basic introduction page to the two audiences served by the schools and libraries program

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Who is eligible for the E-Rate program?

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federal programs; private education; federal government; private schools; private school students; private school teachers

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E-Rate Program - Discounted Telecommunications Services -- Office of Non-Public Education

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This page provides information about E-Rate Program - Discounted Telecommunications Services is part of the variety of federal agencies that affect private schools, students, and teachers.

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Holman didn't just change his grading policies. He also changed his teaching style to focus on inquiry, good questions and independent discovery. Starting off, he knew juniors and seniors weren't used to learning that way, so first he had to build trust with them so they'd understand why he was asking so much of them.

At the start of each class period Holman and his students did icebreakers and read and discussed articles about how human brains learn best. Holman knew he was asking students to be vulnerable with one another--to share their misperceptions about math and physics--and so he spent precious class time working to make sure students trusted one another and him.

The class read Timothy Slater's article, " When Is a Good Day Teaching a Bad Thing? " which discusses the unspoken contract that can exist between teachers and students by which a teacher will pass a student as long as he or she doesn't make trouble. Students recognized their own experience of education in the article. "It wasn't meant to be a bash on teachers, but just to say we are aware that teaching is really complex," Holman said. "It's really difficult and sometimes we don't know how to handle kids."

Holman also asked students to read " Sermons For Grumpy Campers," by Richard Felder, a graduate level professor who never lectured. In it, Felder describes his students grumbling that they hated group work and that it was his job to teach them, not the other way around. Holman's students said the complaints sounded like they came from kindergarteners or themselves and were amazed to find out the complainers were graduate level engineering students.

Talking about these issues openly validated the inevitable complaints of students and helped them buy into the new approach. If an article was a little harder, Holman would use it as differentiated instruction, asking his best readers to take it on and summarize it for the class.

"It wasn't perfect and it didn't turn my kids into all physics majors, but for the kids who were on the border, it made a difference," Holman said. Discussing their learning with them, switching grading policies and assigning more inquiry-based, hands on lessons all helped Holman's students feel he trusted and respected them. And they rose to the challenge. "I think the kids were just waiting to be let loose and to be treated like adults," Holman said.
STUDENT RESPONSES
Most of the students responded well to the new teaching style, Holman said, but he was most touched by his struggling math class. "I saw that my kids had been told they were stupid and failures, but I saw so much potential in them," Holman said. They've never been given the time to master a concept through multiple tries. So when Holman opened his door to help them after school and during lunch for as long as it took, many seized the opportunity.

'I think many students didn't realize that they could learn without a textbook or without step by step instruction.'

Holman remember one struggling math student, Isabel, particularly well. She was taking algebra, convinced she was terrible at math. But when the grading policy was changed and she had a little more time to work on units that were difficult for her, she became a top student in the class. "She said, 'for the first time in my life I'm trying to learn everything instead of just get a 70 [percent],'" Holman said.

"Students clearly learned in Mr. Holman's class, and he never pushed fear," wrote a former student, Kate Nunke, in an email. She described the rest of her high school experience as one long fear fest: "Fear of not getting into college, fear of not passing, fear of disappointing parents, fear of looking like a fool in front of your peers," the list goes on. But Nunke says Holman's teaching style jolted students into thinking about their learning in a new way.

"I think many students didn't realize that they could learn without a textbook or without step by step instruction," Nunke wrote. "At times I felt that Mr. Holman's physics class was the hardest class ever because I didn't get a step-by-step instruction. We are used to being handed the answer, thus not necessarily learning, just being told."

Nunke said she's been thinking a lot about Holman's approach now that she has graduated and is taking a gap year in which she spent a semester at an outdoor education school focused entirely on experiential learning. "A lot of the teaching that Mr. Holman did, now that I think back to it, was teaching his students how to ask questions and investigate by themselves," she wrote.
TEACHERS RESIST WHAT WORKS
Despite his success, Holman has had a hard time convincing other teachers to try some of his more progressive approaches. He became a vice-principal to spread and support the instructional practices he believes work, modeling lessons and pushing teachers to step out of their comfort zone.

"We know how kids learn; we know what classes should look like, and yet our classes look almost the opposite," Holman said. He says there's a particular deficit in math, where teachers and parents expect things to be taught the way they learned them. Not everyone has experienced good math instruction themselves, Holman said, so they can't even begin to conceptualize a new way of doing it. "Imagine explaining color to someone who has never seen it," Holman said. "You have to show them, you have to model it."

But all of these approaches require taking a leap of faith and many teachers don't feel they have that luxury. Teachers often complain that more progressive approaches like this suck up time and they can't cover everything in the jam-packed curriculum. These arguments are excuses, Holman said. He said he never covered every single topic in the curriculum, but he did delve deeply into the ones he saw as most important.
HOLMAN'S READING LIST
For those interested in building metacognitive moments into the day, here are the articles Holman found to be useful and more or less reading-level appropriate for his high school students.

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How 'Deprogramming' Kids From How to 'Do School' Could Improve Learning | KQED

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Holman didn't just change his grading policies. He also changed his teaching style to focus on inquiry, good questions and independent discovery. Starting off, he knew juniors and seniors weren't used to learning that way, so first he had to build trust with them so they'd understand why he was asking so much of them.

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Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone.

Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.

Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace.

Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms.

Looking to create a makerspace in your home or classroom? Here are some supplies you might need, ranging from ones you can find in your desk drawer or arts and crafts closet to ones you can buy that are specially designed for makers like you!

What supplies do you use in your makerspace? Share your suggestions in the comments section below!

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How to Build Your Makerspace - EdSurge Guides

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Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone.

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Reimagining Learning Spaces: Admin Perspectives

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This post is #1 in a series of 10 posts that serve as extensions of the 10 chapters in For all of the posts in the series, tap/click here. Hacking Project Based Learning, which I coauthored with Erin Murphy Designing Learning Spaces . This post is an extension of Chapter 1, which focuses on establishing a culture of inquiry and creativity. #HackingPBL
Before I left the classroom a few years ago, there were a few items on my bucket list I never got to accomplish (and I would have accomplished them had I taught for just one more year)...One of these missed opportunities was a complete redesign of my classroom.

You see, the final year I taught fourth grade, my students and I started our work in science by learning about the scientific method through the creation of original egg packagings with a process called design thinking. In short (ok, very short), students didn't just engineer creative products, but they did so with empathy for the consumer in mind. And, they then assessed the effectiveness of their homemade creations based on what they determined to be the indispensable features of an exemplary product (while visualizing themselves in the shoes of the consumer).

My students enjoyed our design thinking work so much, following the egg unit and throughout the year I consistently told them something to the effect of, "Once state testing is done in April, I'll give you a budget of a few hundred dollars and you can use your experiences with design thinking to revamp our classroom." Nevertheless, for one reason or another, the overhaul never happened.
The Process Phase 1: Look, Listen and Learn
As a teacher, I usually spent the first few weeks of the school year building classroom culture, promoting collaboration, and establishing routines (and, admittedly, a few corny icebreakers on occasion). Looking back, I could have easily accomplished these same goals by having students partake in a relevant, authentic task, such as putting together their classroom from the ground up.
Phase 2: Ask Lots of Questions
Yes, if I were to do it all over again, on the first day of school my students would enter into a mostly empty classroom (or one that had not been set up) and then I'd engage them in a routine in which they'd create an environment that works for them...After all, if a learning space is for students, they should be its primary designer. (You wouldn't like it if someone came into your living or bedroom and told you what to do.)
Phase 3: Understand the Process or Problem
If a learning space is for students, they should be its primary designer. Click To Tweet
Phase 4: Navigate Ideas
Here's a look at the phases my students would follow to establish their learning space, while calling upon the LAUNCH Cycle, a design thinking process created by A.J. Juliani (@ajjuliani) and John Spencer (@spencerideas). (LAUNCH is an acronym for the different phases.)
Phase 5: Create
Prior to entering into the classroom, pretty much all students would probably have been unaware that classroom design was a "thing," and that their learning space could look drastically different from what they've previously experienced. So, start by discussing the problems presented by traditional classroom setups, as well as a creative way or two in which educators and students have explored other options. Possibly work with students on establishing an essential question that will encompass the entire design process (e.g., How can a classroom work for us?).
Phase 6: Highlight and Revise
In this phase, students work in small groups to come up with guiding questions that will drive the remaining phases, and eventually/hopefully lead to answers and solutions that result in a successfully designed classroom. Students will most likely need some scaffolding to come up with questions that are not just relevant, but also actionable given their particular circumstances (amount of money available, what parts of the classroom physically can/can't be altered, possible fire safety issues, etc.). Support students by asking them to focus their questions on (1) how they will learn best given what they will be exposed to that year (which can be revealed to them through discussion), and (2) the satisfying of the five senses.
Phase 7: It's Launch Time!
Still in small groups, students research potential answers to their questions. Research can include, but is definitely not limited to: searching for photographs and articles of classrooms that have been redesigned, looking into companies that provide unique experiences for their employees, exploring what's available on Amazon and from other retailers, interviewing former students as well as current students who will be impacted by the design, and looking around at what is already available in the classroom. While it may be tempting for students to simply find "cool stuff," all research should be driven by the guiding questions (which can be revised as necessary), as the ultimate goal is to create an environment that is conducive to learning.
In the End
In what is easily the messiest phase, all groups share their research and a master plan is concocted as a class...First, groups share out what they have found through a formal process that should probably involve more than a class discussion, since the goal is for all students to truly digest each group's work. For example, groups can take the time to formally present their findings, and/or they can distribute all of their content via something like a Google doc. Once everyone is aware of all options, another formal process should be used to sift through everything to arrive at a plan. Once again, things can get messy, but one option is to deal with and decide on each classroom feature, one at a time, and then analyze the class as a whole. Some of these specific features may include: student seating, student desks, classroom windows, etc.

Here the master plan is made a reality. But before any actions are taken, make sure it is clearly communicated "who is going to do what." The teacher and students - and possibly, administrators, custodians, parents, etc. - may all play a part. As the room comes together don't hesitate to revise as necessary, but all significant revisions should be decided on or rationalized as a group, as we don't want students to lose ownership of their work.
Teachers shouldn't be designing classrooms for Pinterest; students should be designing classrooms for themselves.
While revisions may take place as the room comes together, changes should also be made throughout the year based on the wants and needs of students. After all, until a classroom (or product) is actually used, there is no way its students (or consumers) can truly anticipate all of the unique situations that will arise. Small modifications, such as a student changing out her chair for a yoga ball, can be made on a daily basis, usually without teacher permission. Meanwhile, in regards to larger modifications (e.g., repainting a wall), the teacher can set aside about an hour a month to formally discuss with students what is and isn't working, and then revisions can be made as necessary.
What are your thoughts on classroom design? What experiences have you had with your students? How can you relate to the phases described in this post?
When designing a learning a space, the launch phase can be used to crowdsource ideas for the classroom by making it public through: classroom walkthroughs (by other students, teachers, administrators, etc.), social media, blog posts, conferences, and more. Although these audiences may not include those who are physically experiencing the classroom, many will have value-added due to being involved in education in one way or another. Also, while everyone "oohing and aahing" at the classroom may feel satisfying, make sure to go out of the way to ask for feedback, otherwise it may not be given. While all feedback may not be applied, all of it should be taken into consideration (as long as it comes from a good place), at the very least.

These seven phases represent a brainstorm of how my students would design my classroom if I were to return to the classroom as a teacher. At the same time, I would encourage current teachers to take what is here and make it work for their students, even if it's not the very beginning of the school year.

Regardless of the specifics, all decisions should be made with the best interests of students (not teachers) in mind...

Teachers shouldn't be designing classrooms for Pinterest; students should be designing classrooms for themselves. Click To Tweet

Connect with Ross on Twitter.

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Reimagining Learning Spaces with Design Thinking #HackingPBL - Cooper on Curriculum

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This post is #1 in a series of 10 posts that serve as extensions of the 10 chapters in Hacking Project Based Learning, which I coauthored with Erin Murphy. This post is an extension of Chapter 1, which focuses on establishing a culture of inquiry and creativity.

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Despite a surge of popularity, the verdict on standing at work is still out: The rush to adopt them has been met with plenty of people grabbing for their cushy chairs again. The benefits may be overblown, some argue. Just do a bit of weekly exercise to get the same benefits, others say.

But where does all this debate leave our children, who face record rates of obesity while sitting at their desks eight hours a day, as gym and recess programs disappear?

According to researcher University of Louisville associate professor Monica Wendel, active, standing experiences at elementary school should "be the norm." And our students should be getting standing desks to promote this.

In her most recent study, published this month in the American Journal of Public Health and highlighted by Eureka Alert, her team spent two years studying 193 students across three Texas grade schools. Some were in classes that had normal desks. Some were in classes that had what she calls standing-biased desks (or standing desks that had an optional stool). And some had a year of normal desks and a year of standing desks.

What they found is that after adjusting for grade, race/ethnicity, and gender, kids who used the standing desks had a 5.24% decrease in BMI percentile compared to the kids who sat. Furthermore, the kids who stood for only one year seemed to walk away with the same BMI-loss benefits at the end of the study as those who stood for two. And the best part? All the study had to do was swap out some desks. Nothing else about the school or curriculum had to be re-architected.

Of course, the idea of "standing desks for kids" sounds strangely dystopian, as if we're ignorantly mapping our new-wave office habits onto children. But the fact of the matter is, the design of school classrooms thwart a child's natural instincts to be active.

"Sitting down and being still all day is not natural behavior for children."

"If you observe children from a very young age, they typically are on the move. Sitting down and being still all day is not natural behavior for children. But how can a teacher manage a classroom with 25 kids moving around all the time?" Wendel wrote in an email. "We train children to sit down and be still from a young age, which often carries over into adulthood." Furthermore, it seems that kids preferred to stand-75% of students in a pilot study opted not to use the stool at all.

When I asked Wendel if there might be a sweet spot for giving students standing desks, she doubted it, pointing out that kids are increasingly encouraged to sit as their attention spans increase during development. Kindergarteners are encouraged to play, and classroom activities promote movement around the room. "As they progress into higher grades where classroom instruction is more didactic, the amount of sitting time increases," writes Wendel. "If students are always given the opportunity to stand or sit, they are not a distraction when they choose to stand, and they're not automatically conditioned to sit as they get older."

Wendel knows of a few schools outside her research that have incorporated standing desks. She's found the barriers are financial, even though the desks themselves are no more expensive than the traditional sitting desk-meaning it might make sense to grandfather the furniture in, swapping out old worn-out desks with new standing ones.

"We had a couple of parents ask about potential for injury (i.e., falling off the stools). Teachers told us that they didn't fall off the stools anymore than kids typically fall out of their chairs," writes Wendel. "And a couple of parents were worried about their already 'skinny' children who didn't need to be more active and lose weight. Interestingly, what we found is that normal weight students burn fewer calories standing than their overweight counterparts (takes more energy to hold up a larger mass), so they didn't have dramatically increased caloric expenditure."

No doubt, research will only continue to grow on the benefits and costs of standing desks for all of us. But in the immediate-for the youngest members of our society, who are facing health repercussions of our own design-it seems like giving them the option to stand a few hours of their school day could be the least we could do.

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Standing Desks For Kids? It's Not As Crazy As It Sounds

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Despite a surge of popularity, the verdict on standing at work is still out: The rush to adopt them has been met with plenty of people grabbing for their cushy chairs again. The benefits may be overblown, some argue. Just do a bit of weekly exercise to get the same benefits, others say.

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One of the most exciting models of learning is "design thinking." It combines hands on learning (tinkering) with independent problem solving methodologies. This concept is basically the same as the problem solving-based creative process taught in many design disciplines, like architecture, engineering, and game design. The basic steps of design thinking can be characterized as follows:

1. Identify the problem and research to understand the problem better
2. Brainstorm possible strategies and identify solutions
3. Test these solutions (welcoming failure as a learning tool)
4. Apply what you learn to evolve best solutions

When students practice design-thinking projects in the classroom, they not only master the concepts within the project, they exercise their skills of collaborating with teammates, investigating their topic thoroughly, using empathy to generate ideas for solutions, prototyping, and testing. Most importantly, they learn that failure is not a setback. This activity fosters the lifelong skill and mindset that learning new things to help solve problems is part of day-to-day practice and no longer confined to the classroom. Because this quest for knowledge is self-initiated and involves the direct application of learned skills, the retention of information that kids have as a result of this process is significantly higher.

Everyone who cares deeply about education wants to find creative ways to engage the next generation of learners. The thinking about these spaces will continue to evolve and change as we try them out and learn from these experiences.

A challenge for many public and cash-strapped schools is that this hands-on, project-based learning approach needs to be directly supported by the spaces where the learning occurs. Design thinking in education requires open spaces with flexible, moveable pieces that can be used in different ways each day depending on the topic being explored. Schools like Brightworks in San Francisco and the Nueva School in Hillsborough have fashioned their learning spaces and laboratories specifically for this type of culture, but similar results can be achieved without renovating your classroom or school. Here are six ideas that any school can implement.

1. Put wheels on classroom furniture.
Spaces need to be flexible to accommodate a wide variety of student-use scenarios and project-driven set ups. Furniture that can be easily rolled out of the way can go from collaboration lounge to prototype lab with little effort. A variety of casters can be found at IKEA or your local hardware store. Use casters with stems for desks and tables. These have sleeves that can be inserted into the legs. Plate mounted casters can be screwed directly into the base of the furniture. Look for wheels that swivel in all directions so that students can move them easily. Many casters have locks which help to keep them from moving once you've got them in place.

2. Create comfortable and customizable "break-out spaces" with couches or soft chairs where students can work together.
Stanford University's "d.school" (design and engineering school), where the current design thinking trend was jump started, exemplifies the importance of comfortable collaboration spaces. d.school students draw from a mobile "kit of parts" to assemble work environments shaped to their project based activities and then put them all back afterwards. d.school has created a culture of creating the space for the environment you need. Furniture here easily rolls or stacks out of the way to leave an open room after the activity is finished. Working in this space requires presence of mind of how you will interact and how the space should be shaped to accommodate that.

3. Look for spaces on your campus that can be transformed into a student-driven collaboration classroom.
The Australian Science and Mathematics School, a public high school in Adelaide, repurposed a basement storeroom as their innovation "shed." The shed supports 17 students in self-organized learning and tinkering on Thursday mornings and was designed to be a "funky" place teenagers would be comfortable perusing what they are interested in. Sivam Krish directs programs at the shed, but does not teach in the traditional sense. He encourages peer-to-peer learning in the space. The shed is furnished with cheap garage equipment and relatively inexpensive technology. Nothing is fixed: monitors, 3-D printers, computer workstations, and other equipment are mounted on wheeled scaffolding carts so that students can frequently adjust their space to suit their projects.

4. Create a shared design-thinking space for all students to use.
By being inclusive of all students, the program can serve as a compliment to the rest of the curriculum. At Marin Primary and Middle School in Northern California, the kindergarten through 8th grade classroom curriculum links to hands-on projects that kids do in the school's "Projects Lab." The lab is a locus where all the equipment that can facilitate student tinkering and prototyping is concentrated, with some inherent flexibility in its layout to accommodate student creativity.

In San Francisco, Lick-Wilmerding High School's Design and Technology Center takes sharing a step further by bringing together many of the schools communal resources. The center houses teaching workspaces and shops for wood, metal, glass and electronics, as well as a multi-purpose room, computer lab, and two conference rooms. The central, single level, configuration of the spaces allows for a shared work area between disciplines and encourages student interaction and interdisciplinary collaboration.

5. Create a design-thinking space is a design-thinking exercise.
Assign students the task of designing the design-thinking environment. Groups of the students enrolled in the one-semester design-thinking course at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia came up with blue-sky proposals for redesigning the school library. At the end of the semester, two 11th grade participants, Jack Morrissette and Zane Homsi, used an independent study credit to further consider how design thinking could be expanded at the school. Their study culminated in a more feasible library redesign based on the collective ideas from their classmates-including a proposal to free up space for design-thinking environments by going completely digital. With no more shelves full of hard copy books, there would be room for comfy chairs and moveable white board walls for collaboration spaces, and an innovation lab with 3-D printers, visual design technology and other tools. Their proposal is currently being considered by the school board.

6. Ask for help.
Ask students' families and the community to donate gently used furniture, construction tools, sewing machines, fabric, wood remnants, and other tools and materials they no longer use. Power tools, an integral component of any decent maker-studio space, empower kids with confidence and the independence to prototype and test their ideas. Ask parent volunteers to demonstrate how to use them correctly and with the necessary safety equipment. Ask the PTA or your board to help raise the funds for your program.

You can also ask to visit design thinking programs other schools. The Willows Community School in Culver City, California visited Castilleja High School's Bourn Idea Lab in Palo Alto where parent and resident tinkerer, Diego Fonstad, showed the space and offered insights into how the school integrates the classroom learning and physical aspects of making into one project.

Rethinking learning environments will play an important role in education in the years to come. Are you rehashing old models or covering new ground? Everyone who cares deeply about education wants to find creative ways to engage the next generation of learners. The thinking about these spaces will continue to evolve and change as we try them out and learn from these experiences. This is the design-thinking process for creating the next generation of learning environments.

Let's keep this conversation going. What ideas for bringing design thinking into schools have you tried?
Peter Pfau, FAIA, is the founding Principal of Pfau Long Architecture in San Francisco and a member of the AIA's National Committee on Architecture for Education. Pfau is a modernist who balances conceptual rigor with a love for building.
How a Moveable Space Can Ignite Creativity in the Classroom

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How a Moveable Space Can Ignite Creativity in the Classroom

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One of the most exciting models of learning is "design thinking." It combines hands on learning (tinkering) with independent problem solving methodologies. This concept is basically the same as the problem solving-based creative process taught in many design disciplines, like architecture, engineering, and game design.

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Allowing students to design the room.

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By embracing these business models for learning, teachers are taking on this entrepreneurial, DIY spirit and transforming the process of making meaning and searching for knowledge. Schools and educators who choose a startup culture can essentially place a renewed focus on the role of the learner by empowering students to find authentic and meaningful problems and to search for solutions through design activities and iteration. Much like engineers that optimize their designs through building, testing, and then redesigning and building again, students in classrooms that follow a startup culture can freely explore, wonder, and evaluate over multiple iterations until they have reached success or mastery.

Looking to leverage the power of the startup culture in your classroom? Check out these three distinguishing features found in the startup ecosystem, and get ready to propel ideas forward and scale learning!

Use of Space

Startup cultures in a classroom use space to tell a story. The narrative of the class is visible throughout all areas of the room, and students feel ownership and a sense of belonging. The learning environment is motivating and playful, incorporating different spaces for varying functions:

Lounge seating for reading and thinking

Active spaces to ignite ideas

Collaborative spaces for group work

As this kind of environment encourages physical movement, along with communication and "social networking" within the school, students within a startup culture move between learning environments over the course of a school day to spark discovery and new perspectives. Workplace and seating flexibility are available to all students, including furniture and items such as standing desks, clipboards, and work rugs. Prepared environments are equipped with materials that allow for transparency of thought within visible thinking routines. Students are encouraged to interact with multiple modes of communication and document ideas with items such as flip charts, post-it notes, drawings, sketches, and recordings of active and interactive dialogue. Digital tools such as Slack, Google Docs, social media platforms, and Nearpod are further used to support collaborations and partnerships both within the classroom and with global friends.

Intentional Designs

Classrooms that follow startup cultures are strategically designed to support learning and growth. Environments and curricula are intentionally structured to incorporate brain-based practices that recognize the importance of time for rest, food and drink, movement, and play. Startup-culture learning cultivates student agency through voice and choice. Purposeful pedagogical decisions aim to create paths for connection to past experience as well as address meaningful problems facing the community.

Flexible schedules within a classroom startup culture are agile, responsive, and based on immediate needs of learning activities and work types -- individual work, face-to-face group work, and virtual collaborations. With reflection viewed as an integral stage of learning and growth, built-in "white space" enables students the freedom and time for deep thought. Schedules in this environment can be adapted to learning opportunities at any given moment, which encourages co-teaching and cross-curricular work between different content areas. Divergent and convergent thinking, experimentation, and opportunity for adventurous thinking are encouraged through stimulating activities such as:

Class design challenges

Long-term focused individual projects

TED talks

Genius Hour

Real-world scenarios

Building Identity

Classrooms following the entrepreneurial mindset of a startup company exist in a constant state of beta -- always testing and retesting through the process of iteration, innovation, and improvement. Though focused on growth, the culture remains dedicated to staying mission-focused. Clearly defined goals and a synthesized message allow for a scaled impact across all areas of learning. The class mission represents every member of the classroom community, and each member is able to effectively articulate that mission.

Teachers in a startup culture can work together to build the classroom "brand" through activities such as proudly displaying the mission in the students' learning spaces, sharing messages of success on class websites and blogs, or designing a class logo and fun swag like t-shirts, water bottles, stickers, and pens. Students can also get involved by creating commercials, composing jingles made with digital programs such as Garageband or Soundtrap, or developing a class elevator speech (a concise message designed to convey a thought in the time that it typically takes to ride an elevator from the bottom to the top of a building). An ongoing goal for members of the class in a startup culture is to feel a sense of ownership and pride as they work to protect the integrity of their class identity -- because it's also their identity.

As part of a community of young creators, engineers, problem solvers, designers, collaborators, and dreamers, students can work as a classroom learning team, find inspiration in unanswered questions, and ultimately push ideas forward into a reality to make a positive impact on our world.

You may already be practicing elements of a startup culture in your classroom. Please tell us about it in the comments section of this post.

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Create a Startup Culture in Your Classroom | Edutopia

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By embracing these business models for learning, teachers are taking on this entrepreneurial, DIY spirit and transforming the process of making meaning and searching for knowledge. Schools and educators who choose a startup culture can essentially place a renewed focus on the role of the learner by empowering students to find authentic and meaningful problems and to search for solutions through design activities and iteration.

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Rethinking recent "common sense" claims about technology as distraction in the classroom.

By Michael Oman-Reagan (Note: An edited version of this essay is also published in It's become popular to claim that writing notes on paper and reading from paper books are superior ways to learn, and that laptops and other technology are a distraction for students in the classroom. But is this true? Bright.)
Everywhere I turn these days I'm being told I shouldn't use my laptop, tablet, or other technology to take notes. Apparently it's getting in the way of learning. Instead, I should be reading old-fashioned paper books and writing in a notebook with a pen. This is the classic way of learning, I'm told. This is how you are meant to learn, I hear. You will remember and retain more if you do it on paper. Studies show!

The argument against technology in the classroom has shown up recently in articles with titles like, "Why you should take notes by hand - not on a laptop" ( Vox), "To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand" ( The Atlantic), and "A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop" ( Scientific American).

These stories keep popping up, recycling the same studies and confirming someone's intuition that the good old-fashioned way is better.

But contrary to these claims, I would not have made it through my years of university courses without the technology I use every day.

And I don't mean so-called assistive technology designed with "disabilities" in mind. I'm talking about the notes I take on my phone when I'm chatting with someone, which serve as an extension of my brain. I'm talking about the course project documents, folders of articles, collected syllabi, images, screenshots, and more that are always available on my laptop or anywhere through my synchronized folders.

I rely on the 170+ notebooks in Evernote where I practically wrote my entire MA thesis and where I track all current projects, personal and academic. I worked a full-time job for much of my undergraduate education and part of my MA - and was only able to do this because of the ability to search through 70,000+ email messages from the last 15 years, search inside a journal article, search a PDF of a book and copy/paste the text.

This technology is assistive for me as a student very simply because all technology is assistive technology. As Sara Hendren points out:

"Well - it's worth saying again: All technology is assistive technology. Honestly - what technology are you using that's not assistive? Your smartphone? Your eyeglasses? Headphones? And those three examples alone are assisting you in multiple registers: They're enabling or augmenting a sensory experience, say, or providing navigational information. But they're also allowing you to decide whether to be available for approach in public, or not; to check out or in on a conversation or meeting in a bunch of subtle ways; to identify, by your choice of brand or look, with one culture group and not another.

Making a persistent, overt distinction about "assistive tech" embodies the second-tier do-gooderism and banality that still dominate design work targeted toward "special needs." "Assistive technology" implies a separate species of tools designed exclusively for those people with a rather narrow set of diagnostic "impairments" - impairments, in other words, that have been culturally designated as needing special attention, as being particularly, grossly abnormal. But are you sure your phone isn't a crutch, as it were, for a whole lot of unexamined needs?"

Surely we can agree then that all technology is assistive. But what about in the classroom? What's missing from these popular articles when they claim technology is a distraction in the classroom? How do they conclude assistive technology is getting in the way of learning, when so many students like myself rely on it? And what are the consequences of banning technology in the classroom?

"Research Shows"

I'll start by taking that article from Vox and looking at some of the claims. After that, I'll look at what's happening in classrooms where technology is banned.

The Vox article defines learning as remembering information. That's funny, because learning is not memorizing, and I think all educators would agree on that.

While educators tell us that testing misses the mark in evaluating students and that learning isn't about facts and figures but about critical thinking skills, articles like this contain the opposite message: learning is your ability to remember information. But it isn't. Learning is your ability to synthesize information, think critically, and evaluate claims.

The article claims the problem with taking notes on laptops is that students "usually just mindlessly type everything a professor says." But this isn't actually a claim about taking notes on laptops vs. paper notebooks; this is an issue of note-taking skills more generally.

I'd suggest that if you have good note taking skills, you can take good notes in any format. If you are taught to discern what matters in a lecture or article, you can learn to take useful notes about anything in any format. This problem the article mentions - i.e., students acting as stenographers - is an issue of learning to learn and think critically. Yes, these are skills that students need. That they don't have them certainly isn't the fault of laptops. In fact, we should be grateful that we can see they don't have these skills by seeing how they are (mis)using the laptops.

In any case: do educators really like the idea that students can only decide what matters because "they can't write fast enough to get everything down?"

The article says students who use laptops "have something unrelated to class" on the screen about 40% of the time. I have trouble with this. They're actually talking about a failure to "learn" among students who aren't using the technology to engage in the class at all? These students are chatting with friends, shopping, doing whatever. What does this have to do with taking notes on a laptop? What does this have to do with using a laptop to learn? Nothing. But still, we get this summary: "Research shows students who use laptops perform more poorly in classes."

Of course, the whole argument is all summed up as common sense, validated by science! What could go wrong with that and with popular reporting about it? If science AND common sense are clear on this - well, it must be true for all students, or maybe not? It certainly isn't true for me or for other students I've seen and spoken with.

I'm picking on this Vox article because it is precisely this kind of article that is shared on Facebook and Twitter, without being carefully read or critically analyzed. And it winds up standing in for thoughtful technology policy and pedagogy in classrooms. I think it's pretty ironic that the same people who get so excited about the article's title ("Why you should take notes by hand - not on a laptop") because it validates their pre-existing distrust of "technology" (i.e. everything invented after they were born), fail to think critically about the argument in the article.

Hmm. Maybe they're actually the ones who have trouble thinking critically when using a laptop?

Classrooms on the Anti-Tech Bandwagon

I'm now seeing professors proudly banning technology in the classroom. And even those who don't are giving students lectures in class about how we should ban e-books at the university library. They're telling students who use laptops in class they should really be writing in a notebook, that is, if they really want to learn. Some even go so far as to add notes to their syllabi, such as this recent example:

Policy on Electronic Devices:
In order to ensure attentive participation in lecture, use of electronic devices, laptops, and e- readers is not allowed during course time.

Why would a professor treat tech-savvy students like deviants rejecting an established practice? Do these professors really believe that learning styles are one-size-fits-all or that how they learned is the only way to learn? Or are they, perhaps, simply annoyed that students are more interested in what's going on online than in the classroom? But instead of leveraging that student interest and passion for an engaging online social space and for using technology, they ban it. The result? I've watched students leave the classroom to check their phone. Not the outcome the professor was hoping for, I suspect.

Of all people, I would hope academics would be wise enough to see the echoes of history here, when teachers would tie the hands of left-handed students behind their backs to force them to use their right one. Banning technology in the classroom says to students who use technology to learn, who need technology to learn, "I don't care how you learn, you will work my way using only the approved tools - or you will struggle and fail."

Would these same faculty ban students from wearing glasses? Of course not, because glasses are accepted as pervasive, standard, assistive technology.

Banning other technology in classrooms is just as wrong as banning glasses would be. It only ends up hurting the best students - and it certainly doesn't help those with the biggest difficulties. Everyone loses. Here's why:

Most young people today grow up learning to write on a computer (or tablet, or phone). Taking away the tools they use in all other contexts in life doesn't help them in the classroom. Students who have grown up typing now think and compose in terms of copying and pasting. They move text around in ways that you cannot on paper.

After learning to write with the assistive technology of a computer, professors give them exams without those tools. Really? Is this a test of their ability to write, synthesize information, and think critically - or a test of their ability to survive without the tools they normally use? If professors require students to hand in papers typed on a computer, double spaced, why do punish them by making them write in exam books?

Would you force the class to use quill and parchment to write the exam? Then don't make them use pen and paper.

The skills students need are not about retaining information, but organizing it. The study noted in the Vox article shows that students who take notes on paper about a lecture do better when tested on material in that lecture. Is this really what we aim to do in the classroom? How many students remember just enough to take a mid-term and forget it all after?

The study cited in the Vox article said that laptop use "results in shallower processing." This might be true for some students in the short term, but what about those students who use the technology as part of a deeper process of learning over the course of a class, or a college career, or a lifetime? What about students who refer back to these notes again and again - who draw from them years later because it only takes a few clicks or keystrokes or a keyword search to pull them up? To me, deep learning is integrating the record of your thinking and education into your life for the long term.

The skills we should be prioritizing in the classroom are not retaining facts for an exam - but rather synthesizing information and organizing thoughts. Whether students end up working in a corporate office or going on to graduate school, they need to know how to record, archive, organize, and search through information, not just memorize a name or date for an exam.

Does it really prevent learning if students are engaged with social media in class? Graduate students and faculty go to conferences and engage with social media, participating in multiple levels of interaction while listening to papers and debates. Live tweeting discussions has become a vital part of the academic conversation. Students can do the same - and classrooms can engage academically and socially as communities, both online and off.

The key to making this work is to understand how students use the technology, and then use your role to shape it, encourage it to be productive use during class time. Don't ban Twitter in the classroom; set a hashtag for the class! ( More resources on Twitter in the classroom.) Draw your students into the academic conversation through social media. Let them teach you the interesting ways they use technology and then let them help you integrate it into the classroom.

University professors everywhere are about to encounter a generation of students who have not only grown up using laptops, tablets, and smartphones, but have gone through primary and secondary school using them in the classroom. How will they react to a learning environment where those tools are suddenly prohibited and stigmatized? Just as workplaces have recognized this fact about the next generation of workers, university classrooms can do the same while simultaneously including critical analysis of issues around privacy, securitization, and data mining.

Students who have adapted to and now rely on using technology shouldn't be cut off from this resource in the classroom. Many students use technological tools to overcome learning differences, to organize information, to engage in discussions that help them think through material. And they are more successful because of it. Some students with learning challenges have adapted to using technology without having to report a disability and announce that disability to their classmates or professors. Professors might not know that students in their classrooms are dealing with learning disabilities and are succeeding because of assistive technology. These students may not be registered with the "Office of Disability Services," they might not be "diagnosed," and have their learning differences medicalized - but then again, why should they have to in order to use the tools that help them?

When professors who ban technology allow its use for students who register as having a disability, we need to ask what kind of learning environment that creates. Isn't this a form of ableism? By banning technology for so-called "normal" students, doesn't this mark students who learn differently or need particular kinds of assistive technology as abnormal? If everyone knows the only students in the room allowed to use it are those whose differences have been medicalized, how do students using technology experience the classroom?

Yes, this is personal for me. I use a combination of software to take all of my notes - on readings, in class, at home. Everything is on my laptop. I can search these notes, copy and paste as needed, aggregate information. I am no longer lost flipping through pages of a notebook searching for the place I wrote down an author's name. This system works perfectly for me. It might not be great for other students, but they aren't forced to use any technology beyond pen and paper if they don't want to. But for those who do use it, for those like myself who have only been able to get through university courses because of it - why would a professor want to take that tool away?

I've completed a triple undergraduate major, an MA program, and am now in a PhD program. All of my note-taking has been digital. I do this because of the way that I learn and think, because of the way I compose, draft, revise, and finish writing projects. I also do it because it means I always have access to the sum total of my entire education wherever I am. I can pull up notes from a lecture I attended five years ago in the middle of a PhD seminar today.

And let's be honest about this idea that we retain better if we hand-write our notes. How many of us hand wrote our notes all through high school? What do you remember from those notes? And how do most of us correspond these days? Email, Facebook, SMS messages - all typed on our devices. Are we failing to learn and remember in those formats? Do we forget our intimate conversations through email or social media?

The pressure to use "real books" and write in a notebook (preferably a moleskine, right?) has emerged as part of a growing anti-technology fetish among academics, and popular culture broadly. I get the appeal and I love books! I would love to sit in a room full of paper books, with ferns and armchairs and whisky - but it just isn't how I learn. And it's expensive, and books are heavy. And you can't search them in the same way.

For students like me, technology use in the classroom comes down to a question of how we learn.

I need to be able to search a book, copy and paste passages. I'm a scholar because I have technology that allows me to organize, sort, and synthesize information that would otherwise be unwieldy. I didn't learn to be a scholar with paper and pen, or with a typewriter. And I wouldn't have been able to make it through my degree programs, and excel at my studies, write a thesis, or publish papers without being able to use this technology.

I, and many students out there like me, rely on laptops, tablets, phones, and online software in the classroom because it is all assistive technology.
Thanks to Amy Dentata, Robin Nagle, and Gary Catano for helping me think through some of these issues.

Please Cite as: Oman-Reagan, Michael P. 2015. "Your Nostalgia Isn't Helping Me Learn." Bright: Innovation in Education. September 21.

Michael Oman-Reagan is an anthropologist and PhD candidate. His doctoral research looks at exploration beyond our solar system, science, interstellar space, SETI, imagination, futures, and science fiction.

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Your Nostalgia Isn't Helping Me Learn - Michael Oman-Reagan - Medium

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Rethinking recent "common sense" claims about technology as distraction in the classroom. By Michael Oman-Reagan (Note: An edited version of this essay is also published in It's become popular to claim that writing notes on paper and reading from paper books are superior ways to learn, and that laptops and other technology are a distraction for students in the classroom.

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Inspiring moonshot thinkers