CHAPTER NINE:
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT[*]

• Purpose of the Learning Environment
• Process of Developing New Designs for the Learning Environment
• Connecting the Learning Environment to Previous Elements in Design Process
• Key Concepts Regarding the Learning Environment
• Design Specifications for the Learning Environment
• New Designs for the Learning Environment
• Summary

This section focuses on the learning environment and includes attention to both the technology and facilities needed to support the design specifications recommended in previous elements of the design process. The learning environment can have a very significant effect on the kind of activities that are encouraged and those that are discouraged. Key questions addressed in this chapter concern the desired nature of the relationship between learning experiences and learning environment, design specifications for the environment, and exemplary new designs for the learning environment of TYIs.

Purpose of the Learning Environment

Buckminster Fuller was quoted as saying, "Reform the environment, stop trying to reform people. They will reform themselves if the environment is right." Because the learning environment can be so influential, it is included as a major step in the design process. Making matters more complicated than implied by Fuller, there is the admonition that one can learn in a closet, or a classroom, or a cathedral, which suggests that the relationship between learning and environment may not be as straightforward as form following function. The connection of learning experiences and learning environments may be better understood as patterns in a cultural context, rather than linear relationships of learning activities to the most appropriate learning settings. The development of design specifications for the learning environment responds to these dilemmas.

On another dimension, study and investment in the learning environment are beginning to shift from "bricks and mortar" to technology. A significant impact of information technology is increasing expectations for learning performance and for access to learning anytime, anyplace, and any content. The design specifications for learning environment speak as much to learning technology as they do to facilities.

Process of Developing New Designs for the Learning Environment

While there were no focus group interviews held to address the learning environment because it came late in the design process, the National Design Group did discuss the design specifications for the learning environment at three of its meetings. In contrast to the other elements of the design process, the efforts in developing a description of the desired features of the learning environment turned to exemplary new designs as a way to communicate what was felt to be needed. This shift in effort will be seen in this section with more of it devoted to a description of an exemplary new design for the environment of TYIs than was the case in other sections. The project staff thought that the National Design Group was able to be more specific in its critique and suggestions in relationship to actual design plans and pictures of the environment than in relationship to the narrative design specification statements. We have also found that the presentation of the learning environment is a re-telling of the whole story of NDTYI in a way that integrates and makes more concrete the meaning of the design specifications for all other elements of the design process.

National Design Group Discussions

The National Design Group had an opportunity to review and discuss the design specifications for the learning environment at several of its meetings. The key points emerging from these meetings were as follows:

• The learning environment should not be limited to consideration of school buildings. Learning occurs in many places and through a wide variety of media.
  
  
• There should be opportunities to learn through variable time, location, and independently; but for many learners, having a central place, a campus, is still important. The campus is not going to and should not disappear. Some learners need to connect to a campus and its social relationships to sustain learning. Remember in the design process that different people have different needs. The learning environment should be able to respond differently for different people.
  
  
• With dispersed learning settings, special effort should be made to develop identity with the institution that can substitute for the pride and status that often comes from a centralized learning setting.
  
  
• Care should be taken to ensure educational equity as information technology becomes central to the learning process and it is not equally accessible to all learners.
  
  
• There should be much more flexibility in the facilities (e.g., few permanent walls) to avoid major investments in remodeling in the future as needs change.
  
  
• The learning environment should be able to accommodate variable staffing (e.g., a shifting mix of part- and full-time faculty, faculty and paraprofessionals) depending on what is needed.
  
  
• The learning environment should facilitate the TYI becoming one with the community in social terms. Community should refer to something to practice and do rather than to be--as a verb rather than a noun as place or geographic region. The design specifications for learning environment should address the delicate balance of attention to the local community (located close to the TYI) and the wider community (state, national, international).
  
  
• The learning environment should provide informal meeting areas to encourage opportunities for socialization, connecting, and public forums.
  
  
• The learning environment should accommodate and encourage an expanded environment for the institution to provide greater access in relationship to time, cost, transportation, child care, and self-confidence.
  
  
• The learning environment should be pedagogical--and cost-effective; breaking the student body into small clusters can become very inefficient in the context of learners who come on a wide variety of time schedules and lengths of time and with many different program specializations of interest.
  
  
• The learning environment should provide for small groups of students working together when that is feasible in view of the learning process and student attendance patterns.
  
  
• Design of the learning environment should be kept in perspective, relative to other ways in which the institution can be responsive to learner needs (e.g., changing the learning process and organization). Different learning environment design specifications may be needed for different program areas, rather than one pattern for the whole institution.
  
  
• It may not be feasible to push all of the learning off the campus and into the community; the campus and buildings do not necessarily have to be considered a barrier between the institution and the community. There is need for both the campus and learning in the community.
  
  
• The learning environment of the institution should assist in weaning learners from considering the campus as the only or best place to learn. The learning environment should ease learners out into the larger learning environment.
  
  
• The learning environment design specifications should address existing facilities as well as new facilities.
  
  
• The learning environment should began to shift attention from the environment as a sense of place to that of a sense of presence--the goal being to have learning present as opportunity at all times (and places). The building of identity with the learning institution would then shift from identity with a place (campus) to the responsiveness of learning delivery (its being present when and where needed and with just the right focus in terms of what needs to be learned).
  
  
• The learning environment should give as much attention to supporting informal learning as to formal learning. The environmental challenge is to support the convening of conversations among learners and sustaining them with care.
  
  
• The learning environment should provide opportunities to build a multicultural democracy and therefore should provide settings that promote the breakdown of intercultural barriers and, at the same time, opportunities for sharing.

Connecting the Learning Environment
to Previous Elements in Design Process

As with the discussion under this section in prior chapters, attention in developing the design specifications for the element in focus (in this case, learning environment) must be aligned with all previous elements. But for the sake of brevity, special care is taken to draw out the implications of the design specifications for only the previous design element (learning staff and staff development) for learning environment. Some of these implications, organized by the design specifications for learning staff and staff development, are as follows:

• Aligns with Design Specifications for Learning Context, Signature, Outcomes, Process, Organization, and Partnerships: The learning environment should pay close attention to the design specifications for previous design elements.
  
  
• Ensures that Each Learner Is Known and Served Well: The learning environment will need to support strong and positive identification with the institution for each learner in terms of its meeting the needs of the learner on the learner's terms. The learning environment should provide the informal opportunities and settings for the institution to get to know each student well. The environment should encourage the integration of academic and student services around the needs of students.
  
  
• Manages Constructivist Learning: The learning environment will need to gracefully extend and integrate into the wider community as a source of useful learning products and support for undertaking and successfully completing projects to produce the products. The environment will need to strongly encourage integration of subject matter areas and institution- and community-based learning resources.
  
  
• Handles Just-in-Time Learning Design: The learning environment will need to be flexible or adaptable to support the creation and direction of just-in-time learning design based on learners' needs and context for learning. The environment will need to provide just-at-hand access to the needed space configuration, technology, and learning resources to make just-in-time learning design easy and satisfying for staff and learners. Meeting the challenge of cost-effectiveness will mean that learning spaces should adapt to different needs several times each day.
  
  
• Builds Learning Communities: The learning environment will need to create a sense of smallness, support frequent interactions, and foster working together on common goals as are essential to building and sustaining a feeling of community.
  
  
• Operates as Information Navigator: The learning environment will need to provide ready access to information technology and the training to use it to support staff and learners, effectively navigating the many networks of information related to learning. Skills at learning technology involve not only the ability to use the latest technology, but, increasingly, the ability to adapt to the next generation of technology.
  
  
• Includes Competence in Research and Service Functions: The learning environment will need to support research and service by students and staff as much as the typical teaching and learning function. The environment should include places and technology to deliver services effectively and conduct research that is supportive of learning outcomes and community needs.
  
  
• Employs Continuous Quality Improvement: The learning environment will need to be sufficiently flexible to respond to the demands of continuously working to improve the effectiveness of learning experiences. Information technology should be available to assist in making continuous updates of standards, assessing performance, and providing feedback and recognition--all as feasible and productive expectations for the staff and learners.
  
  
• Continues To Learn: The learning environment will need to provide the settings and technology to support and recognize the importance of continuous learning by all of the staff of the institution--teaching staff, student services, support staff, administrators, mentors, and other partners.

Key Concepts Regarding the Learning Environment [1]

As we begin to think about the right environments to support the learning experiences expected in NDTYI, several principles begin to surface:

1. There will be multiple settings and environments appropriate to the multiple communities and contexts that are being served. Therefore, we need to accept the idea that there is not a single, conceptual solution for all situations. The question then becomes, what design concepts can be meaningfully developed?
   
   
2. The learning settings are not limited to school buildings. Therefore, what alternatives are there to the traditional campus and when should these alternatives be implemented?
   
   
3. Learning environments are closely connected to the community's economic and social development. Therefore, lifelong learning and a community's health go together. How does this affect the design of learning environments?

A response to these principles is to plan and design learning environments by a "Settings Web" approach. That is, to identify those aspects of the learning settings that support the various learning experiences and reveal their connections. It is also necessary to acknowledge in such a design challenge the dynamics of other community and social issues.

To create learning environments solely from within the perspective of the learning institution would fall short of creating quality environments. A broader strategy is required; therefore, this study is expanded to create settings which are educationally sustainable, environmentally sustainable, and economically sustainable. What follows is a series of concepts or "code" that should be considered in designing the learning environment for the TYI.

Network of Learning

In a society that emphasizes teaching, the students (including adults) become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only experience personal growth in a society that emphasizes learning instead of teaching. Therefore, instead of the lock-step of compulsory schooling in a fixed place, the learning staff should work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the community: workshops, at home, walking through the community, professionals willing to take on the young as helpers, students teaching each other, museums, traveling, scholarly seminars, industrial workshops, and so on. We should conceive of all these situations as forming the backbone of the learning process. Survey all these situations, describe them, and publish them as the community's learning opportunities, then let students weave together for themselves the situations that comprise their "school," paying as they go. Build new educational facilities only in a way that extends and enriches this network.

Open System

When an institution is built up as a campus, separated by a hard boundary from the community, it tends to isolate its students from the people in the community and, in a subtle way, takes on the character of a glorified high school. Therefore, we should encourage the dissolution of the boundary between institution and community. Encourage parts of the community to grow up within the institution, and parts of the institution to grow up within the community.

Storefront Learning Centers--Workgroups

People develop a great need to learn by doing, to make their mark on the community outside the home. If the setting is right, these needs lead people directly to basic skills and habits of learning. Therefore, in addition to building central learning sites, we should set up tiny, independent sites, one at a time. Keep the site small and locate it in the public part of the community, with a storefront and small groups of students.

Self-Governing Clusters

No one enjoys a task if he or she is a cog in a machine. Therefore, we should encourage the formation of self-governing groups of 5 to 20 learners. Make each group autonomous with respect to organization, learning style, relation to other groups, assessment, and schedule. Where the learning task is complicated and requires larger organizations, several of these units can federate and cooperate to proceed.

Navigators and Learners

The fundamental learning situation is one in which a person learns by getting help from someone who really knows what they are doing. Therefore, arrange the events in every grouping of learners in a way that each is an opportunity for learning. To this end, organize around a model of navigators and learners and support this form of social organization with a division into workgroups--one or two navigators and several learners--where they can meet together.

Flexible Learning Space

Create a kind of space that is specifically tuned to the needs of learning, and yet capable of an infinite number of various arrangements and combinations within it. Therefore, we should lay out the space as areas of open space, with freestanding columns around its edges. The columns define half-private and common spaces opening into one another. Set down enough columns so that people can fill them in over the years, in many different ways, but always in a semi-permanent fashion. If you happen to know the learning group before you build the space, then make it more like a house, more closely tailored to the group's needs. In either case, create a variety of spaces throughout the area--comparable in variety to the different sizes and kinds of space in a large old house.

Small Learning Groups

When more than half a dozen people learn in the same place, it is essential that they not be forced to work in one huge undifferentiated space, but that, instead, they can divide their workspace up, and so form smaller groups. Therefore, we should break institutions into small, spatially identifiable groups, with less than half a dozen people in each. Two to four small groups could be brought together into clusters. Arrange the small groups so that each person can be seen at least partially by the other members of the group; and arrange clusters so that they share a common entrance, food, office equipment, drinking fountains, and bathrooms.

Small Meeting Rooms

The larger meetings are, the less people get out of them. But institutions often put their money and attention into large meeting rooms and lecture halls. Therefore, we should make at least 70% of all meeting rooms really small--for 12 people or less. Locate them in the most public parts of the building, evenly scattered throughout the institution's learning environment.

Workspace Enclosure

People cannot study or work effectively if their workspace is too enclosed or too exposed. A good workspace strikes the balance; therefore, we should give each workspace an area of at least 60 square feet. Build walls and windows around each workspace to such an extent that its total area (counting windows at one-half) is 50% to 75% of the full enclosure that would be there if all four walls around the 60 square feet were solid. Let the front of the workspace be open for at least 8 feet in front, always opening into a larger space. Place the desk so that the person working at it has a view out, either to the front or to the side. If there are other people working nearby, arrange the enclosure so that the person has a sense of connection to two or three others; but never put more than eight workspaces within view or hearing.

Minimum Parking

When the area devoted to parking is too great, it destroys the land. Therefore, we should divide the campus-based learning environment into sectors, and keep the area of parking lots and garages in every sector to less than 9% of the land.

Looped Local Roads

Through-traffic destroys the tranquillity and the safety of pedestrian areas. This is especially true in campus districts, where the creation of quiet precincts is crucial to the work. Therefore, to bring the traffic and the pedestrian world into the right balance, we should make the local roads that serve the area form a system of loops or cul-de-sacs, so that through-traffic is impossible.

Campus Streets

Large agglomerations of students and staff and heavily centralized academic facilities kill variety, academic freedom, and student opportunities for learning. Therefore, we should concentrate the major functions of the campus area of the learning environment--the offices, labs, lecture halls, sports, and facilities--along campus streets. Streets should be public and essentially pedestrian, 20 to 30 feet wide, with all the activity of the TYI opening off them; always locate new buildings to amplify and extend the TYI streets.

Activity Nodes

When buildings are spread evenly across a campus area, they do not generate small centers of public life around them. They do nothing to help the various "neighborhoods" in the campus area to coalesce. Therefore, when locating buildings, place them in conjunction with other buildings to form small nodes of public life. Create a series of these nodes throughout the campus area in contrast to the quiet, private outdoor spaces between them, and knit these nodes together with a network of pedestrian paths.

Accessible Parks

When people work extremely close to large, open green areas, they visit them and use them often; but even a fairly short distance will discourage them. Therefore, we should provide a green outdoor park, at least 60,000 square feet in area, at least 150 feet across in the narrowest direction, within 600 feet of every building in the system.

Enterprises of 400

When a grouping of students and staff is too large, students and staff become alienated; it becomes hard to run successful programs there, and hard to maintain the proper educational milieu. Therefore, we should limit the size of student groupings (termed an enterprise). Our current best estimate for the tolerable maximum is 400 students plus staff. When enterprises grow beyond this size, they must be split to form new enterprises (even if they share the same thematic focus).

Enterprise Limits

If an institution is too small, it suffers from lack of variety; if it is too large, it no longer works as a human organization; and if it grows too fast, it breaks down because it does not have the chance to absorb or adjust to change. Therefore, we should limit the growth of any enterprise to a rate of 2% per year, and limit the absolute size of any single enterprise to 600 students.

Distribution of Learning Settings

When students work or live too far from the campus area, they cannot be part of TYI life. Therefore, we should decentralize learning settings to be near places of work and living, so that learners are integrated with work activities in residential areas, thus supporting an enterprise center.

Enterprise Shape and Diameter

When an enterprise is too spread out, people cannot make use of all it offers. Therefore, we should plan to distribute all classes evenly within a circular zone that is not more than 2,000 feet in diameter.

Local Transport Area

The impact of the car on social life is devastating: it keeps us off the streets and far away from each other. The first step in bringing the car under control is to stop using it for local trips. Therefore, we should embed the enterprise in a local transport area, one to two miles in diameter. Except for very special cases, encourage local trips within this area to be made on foot, bikes, scooters, carts, perhaps even on horseback. Adapt paths and roads to these modes of travel, and slow down cars with circuitous streets. At the edge of the local transport area, build high-speed ring roads.

Living Learning Circle

Students who want to live close to the campus area also want their housing integrated; yet most housing provided today is zoned separately. Therefore, we should provide sites that integrate housing of the student population within the smaller clusters of student workgroups and enterprises. Do not zone off the enterprises.

Fabric of Enterprises

Overemphasis on the individuality of enterprises helps to fragment knowledge by keeping it in watertight compartments. Yet each enterprise does require its own identity. Therefore, we should give each enterprise a clearly identified home base, but spread the parts of the enterprise within a radius of 500 feet, so that they interlock with the parts of other enterprises. No one of these parts should contain less than five workgroups.

Enterprise Space

Spaces do not work properly if they are overcrowded, or if they are under-used. Empty, desolate spaces are as bad to work in as overcrowded ones. Therefore, we should give each enterprise a balance of area of net usable space, appropriate to the number of faculty, staff, and students. Laboratories and special areas must be figured separately.

Local Administration

System administrative services are often overcentralized: all the branches are located together in one imposing complex, when, in fact, various parts of administration could operate more effectively if they were located according to the connections each requires in the community. Therefore, we should locate different administrative services independently, each one as near as possible to the center of gravity of its particular community. Never create one vast administrative territory for all the services.

Student Community

If dormitories are too small and too communal, they become constraining. If they are too big or too private, then the idea of group living is lost. Therefore, we should encourage the formation of autonomously managed cooperative housing integrated into the clusters of base units and the community.

Small Student Unions

When a single building on the campus area is designated as student territory, it raises the feeling that the rest of campus is not student territory. Therefore, we should create many small social places across the enterprise, so that there are no classrooms or offices farther than two minutes from the nearest one within the enterprise. Give each small center at least a coffee bar and lounge/reading room.

Building Complex

When human organizations are housed in enormous buildings, the human scale vanishes, and people stop identifying with the staff who work there as personalities and think only of the entire institution as an impersonal monolith, staffed with "personnel." Therefore, to maintain human scale in public buildings, we should make them small, not more than three to five stories high; not more than 20,000 square feet in total indoor area and the total floor area. If more than one small building is being constructed to house related functions, the buildings should be conceived as a collection, connected by arcades, paths, or bridges.

Circulation Realms

In many modern public buildings, and in many parts of cities, the problem of disorientation is acute. People have no idea where they are, and they experience considerable mental stress as a result. Therefore, we should arrange buildings so that it is possible to identify a nested system of realms in every building complex, so clearly marked that every realm has an identity that can be named. Give each realm at every level a clearly marked entrance to one another so that it is possible to see and walk from one to the next in more than one way.

Natural Light

The excessive use of artificial light in modern buildings is inhuman; buildings that displace natural light as the major source of illumination are not fit places to spend the day. Therefore, no occupied space should be without natural light. It can be provided through the use of windows, clear stories, skylights, and courts.

Physical Development

You cannot get a good education in a place which runs like a factory, with a hectic work pace and never the chance for a relaxing physical diversion. Therefore, arrange wellness facilities in the enterprise, so that every point is within 400 to 500 feet of a place which is designed for wellness and leisure--a swimming pool, fitness center, sauna, or tennis courts.

Small Group Room Distribution

Have you ever tried to hold an intimate seminar for 10 students in a huge classroom that has 70 or 80 seats? Then you will agree that we should construct ample small group rooms in the enterprise. And, encourage privately owned and managed shops, restaurants, cafes, and theaters to locate in the community, on busy corners, so that they are accessible to both the learners and the general public.

Arcades

Arcades--covered walkways at the edge of buildings, which are partly inside the building, partly outside--play a vital role in the way that group territory and the society at large interact. Therefore, whenever paths pass beside buildings, we should create deep arcades over the paths, and open the group territory inside the building to these arcades. Gradually knit these arcades together until they form a covered system of paths throughout the community.

Design Specifications for the Learning Environment

Based on the National Design Group discussions and the principles and concepts noted above, the design specifications recommended for the NDTYI learning environment are as shown in Exhibit 11.

New Designs for the Learning Environment

Using the design specifications for learning environment as a backdrop, along with the principles and concepts from an earlier part of this section, an example of the learning environment for NDTYI is presented from an organizational perspective. This is one way that the learning environment might be constructed to reflect the design specifications for NDTYI. Other learning environments could also be constructed to reflect the design specifications.

Note in the example presented here the focus of the environment is the enterprise. This is a grouping of learners and staff around a central theme. Examples would be "Human Resources," "Life Services," "The Environment," "Engineering," and "Technology." An enterprise is a community of learners engaging an integrated curriculum in its thematic area. Learning time, staff, partnerships, technology, and governance would reflect this grouping.

The optimum size would be 400 learners plus appropriate staff. An enterprise could grow to a maximum of 600 students at which time it would divide, cell like, into two 300-student groups. More than one enterprise could focus on the same thematic area.

The enterprise is like a solar system. On the one hand it is made up of a center (the sun) and other bodies (the planets, moons), which would be unique to its inherent nature. On the other hand, it is part of a larger structure called the collaborative (the galaxy). Several collaboratives, along with other learning phenomena, networked together would compose the network, the largest learning entity (the universe).

The components of the enterprise would vary depending upon the requirements and nature of its theme. Typically it would be composed of several (5-10) domains of 50 to 100 students. Domains, in turn, would be composed of several (5-10) workgroups of 5 to 20 students.

This organization of individual, workgroup, domain, enterprise, collaborative, and network is designed in response to the goal of providing a sense of identity, meaningfulness, a feeling of belonging, and an understanding of relational place for both the people and the multiple communities of which they are members.

Enterprise

The enterprise is made up of several domains. The center or heart of the enterprise would be a social hearth. Within the hearth would be a lounge, enterprise mail, refreshments, supplies, small library, student information, and so forth. The other elements (moons) of the enterprise would be those places necessary to support the varied learning experiences, including laboratories and studios. These places would be a combination of spaces owned by the enterprise and spaces used for learning experiences through partnerships.

Although enterprises could form in a variety of contexts, four prototypes are proposed:

1. City Neighborhood: This is quite likely the most common type of enterprise (see Figure 19). Most of the infrastructure is existing. Development of a learning enterprise could be the focus of a redevelopment effort. This would most likely involve converting existing residential buildings and spaces into a learning enterprise. Some new buildings may also be constructed to complement the remodeled buildings within the neighborhood.
   Figure 19
   Enterprise in City Neighborhood Context

2. Suburban Edge: An alternative to suburban sprawl is the concept of new urbanism . There have been many proposals for developing these new communities; however, they have all treated the facilitation of education in very traditional formats. The learning enterprise is best woven into the community fabric using the same principles that inform the other elements of these new "towns." The learning enterprise should not be a separate entity, but should be an integral part of the community.
   
   
3. Rural Village: Similar to the city neighborhood, this setting has an extensive (but dated) existing infrastructure. By bringing learning into focus, revitalization of these rural towns and villages becomes feasible. As in the prototype for the city neighborhood, existing buildings are remodeled or new ones constructed to become part of the learning enterprise.
   
   
4. Urban Core: This setting represents the highest density of population, as well as the most developed facilities. Nearly all places for learning would occur in existing structures, and the challenge becomes one of organization and technology. This is also the best opportunity for enterprises to form collaboratives. This prototype also involves converting existing buildings into a learning enterprise, but here, commercial buildings, office buildings, and apartment buildings are used. Collaborations with existing entities in the community are envisioned where the learning enterprise would co-exist and interact with government entities, businesses, and other community organizations.

Domain

The domains that make up the enterprises are a combination of several workgroups and flexible, yet technologically advanced, production/resource facilities to support the learning process, especially those learning experiences related to projects and products. In addition to the space of the domain, it is anticipated that roughly 50% of the learning experiences organized at the domain level would take place in their real-world settings through partnerships. This is the interface between the general skills and the specialized skills that make up the designed learning experience.

To facilitate this interface, the domain is physically woven into the community fabric. The setting is multiple use and needs to accommodate a variety of changing activities. Therefore, an infrastructure that is designed for flexibility is necessary. This "armature" of space and utilities (e.g., water, sewer, power, telecommunications, HVAC) needs to be categorized into levels of intensity in order to balance cost with need and circumstance. Four levels of domains are proposed to this end. These levels are on a continuum in the intensity of use for educational purposes. Starting with the most intense use, the first modular domain would serve the greatest variety of uses. The second and third levels represent medium intensities and the fourth is primarily residential. Any enterprise would draw on domains at each level. The primary exception would be the urban core enterprise where domains would mostly occur in the existing multistory buildings. The domains described below would be new facilities at either the suburban edge or as in-fill for city neighborhoods or towns. An option would be to use or renovate existing buildings (particularly in city neighborhoods or rural towns) along the concepts of the domains as described below:

• First Modular Domain: The most intense level of use and flexibility, this domain would serve a broad range of activities including (somewhat in order of priority) institutional, business, retail, governance, and residential (see Figures 20 and 21). These domains are located at the center of the learning communities where the greatest variety of activities take place. This offers the richest range of complementary and shared use of resources. Examples include the local cinema being used as a lecture space, the library becoming an access center, and the various work sites serving as places for practical learning experiences. In this modular domain, educational use is high and takes place in a variety of contexts.

Figure 20
First Modular Domain: High Educational Intensity, Attached

Figure 21
First Modular Domain: Cross-Section

• Second Modular Domain and the Third Modular Domain: These can be discussed together. The distinction between them is that the second modular domain (like the first modular domain) is a part of a continuous building fabric (see Figures 22 and 23). The third modular domain shares the same intensity of use as the second but differs in that it is a detached, stand-alone building. The reason for the distinction is to accommodate different cultural expectations. For example, builders in the Netherlands would find it difficult to justify freestanding buildings in a village center, whereas those in Australia look for strategies to allow buildings to be open on all sides even in high densities. Another example is New York City versus Phoenix. Being of medium intensity, the range of uses and its priority changes. Included are business, residential, institutional, and small retail. This domain is similar to the common building type of the European village or new world town, with the commercial or business activity on the ground floor and residential facilities above. The second and third modular domains have moderate levels of educational use. The educational enterprise co-exists in the same building with other organizations.

Figure 22
Second Modular Domain: Medium Educational Intensity, Attached

Figure 23
Second Modular Domain: Cross-Section

• Fourth Modular Domain: This, the least intense domain, is dominated by its residential use. Being freestanding (or courtyard), these domains would also accommodate small business and adjunct uses (home office, tutor). However, the objective is to include these areas in a high density pattern by establishing standards requiring multistories and small sites. Educational use is low in the fourth modular domain. Although some education is conducted in these domains, it is not the main activity.

Workgroup

The workgroup is the home base for the learning process (see Figure 24). This is the classroom of the future. The zones within this space include a place for research, assistance, production, and formal and informal meetings. It is the basic building block for the postsecondary learning experience. Workgroups can be located in settings such as residential environments, in office buildings, and in shopping centers. Workgroups are located in these settings when the thematic nature of the enterprise requires learning experiences that benefit from proximity to these resources.

An example would be the following image. Seven elements of a settings web of learning are intermixed into one environment:

1. Collaboration at the unassigned, work/conference area
2. Concentration at the technologically rich private space
3. Mobility with portable, personal computers/files
4. Relaxation/focus at the lounge area
5. Production support in the production area
6. Guidance from the "navigators"
7. Informal communication display at a refreshment center and elsewhere

Figure 24
Workshop: "Classroom of the Future"

These learning events and settings are brought together, not just because they complement each other but because they also address the need for flexibility/adaptability by allowing change in use from hour to hour, day to day, and week to week.

Individual Workstation

A basic building block is the individual workstation (see Figure 25). Each learner has a place to study and do small projects, keep books and papers, put personal belongings, and connect into the technology network. Each learner has a notebook computer. This is certainly learner focused; however, it is weak in addressing the educational concept of teaming. Combining the individual workstation with the desire for teaming leads to the idea of a small, flexible group space that would accommodate several personal workstations. This building block needs the support of spaces for instruction, production, resources, and demonstration. This arrangement is referred to as the workgroup and is similar to many real-world work settings.

Figure 25
Individual Workstation

Collaborative

Up to this point the focus has been on the more intimate, closely-knit enterprise and the components of its structure. The collaborative is a collection of enterprises (see Figure 26). The objectives of making connections between enterprises are obvious: the sharing and mutual support, the economics of scale, and the opportunities for institutional learning. The pattern of this relationship has been around for a long time and is exemplified by Oxford University, a collaborative of 30+ colleges of several hundred students each. The implications for environment are approached from two perspectives. The first is the environment of the real world. Here there should be little or no impact. Unlike Oxford, there is no structured hierarchy and therefore no need for a headquarters, either functionally or symbolically. This leads to the second environment, that of the computer network. Here there are some implications. The objective would be to serve a nested hierarchy, or one of relationships. From a facility perspective, this type of reality is dependent upon communications technology and the collaborative therefore comes into being through computer linkages.

Figure 26
Collaborative: Connection of Enterprises

Network

The environment of the network is similar to that of the collaborative (see Figure 27). However, whereas the collaborative has some degree of a local dimension, the network is global in nature and the focus is on information through the technologies of computers. Extensive material has been produced on this subject and will not be repeated here other than to make note of this dimension to the learning environment.

Figure 27
Network: Global Connection to All

The "Settings Web" presented earlier in terms of individual workstation, workgroup, domain, enterprise, collaborative, and network could be assembled in many different ways. One example would be to think of a TYI as a medical clinic. Students come with their individual needs and go through the following process:

• Phase A: A diagnostic is done to determine what steps must be taken to serve their learning needs.
• Phase B: The staff, resources, and schedules are organized and students proceed on individualized plans.
• Phase C: Additional investigations are made during the above process so adjustments to the plan can occur.
• Phase D: Follow-up activities also occur, which reflect both changes in the individual and in the context in which that individual wishes to operate.

The place at which this example occurs could, in fact, be many places including at the "clinic," at places with state-of-the-art equipment, at work sites, at home, at virtual settings, and at places for collaboration. Ultimately, the learning experience is not fixed in time or space, but, rather, it becomes a web of learning events and settings. This is what the NDTYI's learning environment should reflect.

Summary

The design specifications for the learning environment in NDTYI were developed on the bases of the design specifications for previous design elements, discussions by the National Design Group, and a series of environmental principles and concepts that were thought to merit special consideration. Based on the design specifications for learning environment, special efforts were made in this section to develop a prototype for the NDTYI learning environment as a way to communicate in more concrete ways what was expected.

[*] The sections of this chapter focusing on "Key Concepts Regarding the Learning Environment," "New Designs for the Learning Environment," and "Related References" were written by Bruce Jilk. The other sections and overall editing were done by George Copa.

[1] The items listed later in this section as concepts underlying the central idea of a "Settings Web" are based, in part, on the writings of Christopher Alexander and his colleagues.