Have you all noticed the existence of kiosks on campus with tons of random flyers posted on them? Perhaps you noticed it, but have any of you ever stopped to look at the flyers on that space? Did you know that one of these kiosks is placed at a major "crossroad" on campus where in one day hundreds of students, tourists and visitors pass by it without ever giving it a second glance?
Well, one day I was sitting on a bench enjoying the sunshine when I noticed this lonely, decrepit kiosk and began to think of learning spaces. This kiosk if used to its maximum potential could very well be an amazing learning space...it just needs a bit of TLC.
First of all, there's a row of light fixtures around the top rim of the kiosk, but if you take a closer look, many of the fixtures do not have light bulbs in them and appears to be broken. (I'll need to do some investigation into this further to see if they actually light up at night).
Second, there is no order to the flyers which prevents people from accessing the information on them. For instance, I noticed one flyer for some guitar event that sounded really neat but it was stapled under some other flyer so I couldn't see the rest of the flyer without tearing the other one on top. Also, I wonder if anyone ever removes old flyers from the kiosks because many of the flyers looked old, worn, and outdated.
Third, I noticed that there's a concrete slab that goes around the kiosk, as if it were for sitting. But if anyone were to use that space for sitting, they would be looking away from the information on the kiosk. In that case, if the kiosk were designed for people to sit on, it doesn't look like it'd be a very comfortable seat for if you were to lean back, you'd end up with staples, tape, and krinkled papers as a back rest.
Well, I could go into more details, but I'm planning on documenting this space as a missed learning opportunity for our poster project. I have a lot more thoughts on how to transform this space into an effective learning space, but will save for the poster.
Until then, next time you walk past one of these kiosks, I encourage you to take a moment and look through the information on them. There's a lot of interesting events going on that might even turn out to be great "learning" experiences for you, should you choose to go to one of those events.
Dan Gilbert: Interesting example of a space that we see everyday but (I at least) pay little attention. I'm also interested in your thoughts about how the information on those kiosks is intended for retention (i.e. there's a french club meeting next week), not immediate information processing (i.e. you are here). I'm curious to hear about your in-depth observation of those spaces. I always see flyers on there, but I can't remember a time that I've actually seen someone put something up on one of the kiosks.
Lauren Holthaus: Nice choice for a missed opportunity. They're so "missed" that I have seen bikers almost steer directly into them! I myself have never really looked closely at these guys, but that's mostly because I think they are messy and visually unappealing. I think your observation that with a little TLC these could be spaces for displaying information is accurate, but that the real learning experiences would occur once the person selected an event to take part in. Nice learning space observation, Peggy! You've motivated me to look closely at these kiosks next time I pass them!
Deb Kim: You choice of a learning space is very intriguing and has many opportunities to explore the kinds of considerations one will engage in as a learning space designer. I look forward to hearing about the tensions you encounter, the kinds of stakeholders you'll have to engage in figuring out the space and ways to improve it and how those considerations can add to our development of a learning space design rubric. As one thought on desing, think you'll have to consider the interactivity potential, the preparation for future learning and that there are already ways that people can take things away from their experience with the space (e.g., little sheets for guitar lessons, rental apartments, etc.) but always ways to redesign the space to scaffold people's use of the space (e.g., how to post something and take things down, sit, stand, stay, etc.) Thanks for sharing.
Ping: Kiosk is an excellent resource for information. Actually I never thought about it as a place to learn since it is usually a place to share information, from my point of view. However, after your hard work, it now is a space not only for sharing information, but also for transferring knowledge. Thanks for your good work.