Thematic Working Group 7 - Future Learning Environment: Integrating Digital and Physical Learning Spaces

Abstract

In Thematic Working Group 7 (TWG7), we explored the future of learning environments through theories, empirical evidence, good practices, and experiences during the great online transition (GOT) (Howard et al., 2022), to inform this evolving space. From this exploration, the aim of the group was to generate design principles for the field and implementation of integrated digital and physical spaces. This was a new thematic working group added to EDUsummIT in 2022 proposed by the group leaders, Jo Tondeur and Sarah Howard. The first step of this TWG was to gain some understanding of how we think about learning spaces. To capture our collective thinking, each of the group members completed a short questionnaire, including four open questions: 1) What do you consider a learning space?, 2) What's in the learning space?, 3) What are we doing in the learning space?, 4) How does space matter? These questions helped us to start thinking about learning spaces: what they are, what they do and why they are important. This was an important step in finding out what we thought as a group. Moreover, this guided us toward a stronger focus of our TWG. More specifically, in TWG7, we focused on the integration of the digital and physical learning environment in schools.