Image from www.vitra.se
I just found out about an amazing school that opened last year in Sweden, called Vittra Telefonplan, that has eliminated the classroom. Instead there is a lot of open space and furniture that encourages discussion and collaboration as well as individual learning. For more photos, see the slides on Business Insider.
As someone says in the following video about the school: "learning how to learn is actually the biggest and most important ability". This is a space designed to encourage that ability, through flexible play, and freedom.
I have always believed that the kind of space that is available in a learning environment makes a big difference in what the people there do. Do we dare hope that universities will see similar changes in how educational spaces are structured, especially as the rise of MOOC's (Massive open online courses) changes what can / should be done in a traditional lecture format?
