THE MOST DIFFICULT BEAST

Computing Commons Room 107

Row Arrangement

Strengths

• aesthetically beautiful room, glitzy
• high tech, up-to-date computers and demonstration capabilities (screen), proxima, VCR
• white boards, well lit
• pleasing temperature usually well kept
• rolling, plush chairs
• great location in ASUâs Computing Commons--technical support

Weaknesses

• rows separate students and teacher; create walls
• high podium at front creates "sage on the stage" effect
• turn off the lights for demonstrating and teacher is left in the dark
• tall computer screens hide students or block their view
• poor acoustics discourages some oral communication but this does encourage electronic writing communication

Solutions

Create pseudo "pods" of students with tags on computers. Don't have writing group members be spread down a row. Ask students to physically move. Assign people writing partners rather than writing groups. At ASU West the rows separated people, but the acoustics were excellent and the screens recessed. This solved many of the problems for a teacher. I still advocate perimeter or pods for collaborative thinking and writing. Not every teacher despises this room as much as I do, but then, not every teacher probably cares as much as I do about feeling connected to their community. I dislike distance between me and my students or between students themselves.

The projection capabilities are good in this room.	Notice how deep the rows go. This makes it difficult to talk with students and for them to talk with each other.

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