Forrer Business Interiors, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

active
learning spaces
Forrer Business Interiors, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
what is an active learning space?
If you plan, manage or design learning environments, you know that space
influences behavior. So, what kind of behavior comes from the typical,
rectangular classroom (traditional row-by-column fixed seats, a podium,
a board bolted to the wall) found at practically every college, high school
and elementary school in North America?
Passive learning. Students find a seat, the teacher presents, everyone
listens (more or less). Raise your hand if you have a question but don’t
move around. And don’t expect any kind of active engagement in the
process.
We’ve all suffered in this kind of classroom – even slept in them, right?
They’re the vestiges of a production-line approach adopted from the
manufacturing floor and first put in classrooms 200 years ago!
Meanwhile, the world has moved on. Rote memorization doesn’t cut it
anymore. Businesses need people who can solve tough problems, collaborate with others, and generate the new ideas and ways of thinking
that drive innovation.
Education itself needs innovation, and there’s never been a better time
to reinvent learning and teaching than right now. Students are ready for
change and their parents are demanding it.
Fortunately, some educators are getting the message, rethinking pedagogies, introducing new concepts in instruction and student involvement in
the learning process. But they need help. They’re entering uncharted territory that’s formed by three factors – pedagogy, technology and space.
This territory is called active learning, and it’s the future of education.
Active learning means real engagement between students and instructors, students and peers. Collaboration in pairs and small groups. Team
projects. Students presenting to other students. Content creation and
evaluation through a problem-based curriculum.
And active learning requires an active learning environment.
classroom
No learning space is more in need of fresh design thinking than the classroom. Given its pivotal role, architects, designers and educators are
considering a new classroom paradigm where technology and the physical space are integrated to support pedagogy and create a more active
and engaging experience for instructors and students.
The problem has been that pedagogy, technology and space have not been considered equally in classroom planning; intentional planning is
necessary. These three aspects, when carefully considered and integrated, define the new classroom ecosystem.
Gateway Technical College
PC Pro Schools
library
The library is the academic heart of a campus, yet its role is changing dramatically. Students can put their hands on information
from virtually anywhere, so housing books is no longer a library’s main purpose. However, the library remains the one place on
campus where traditional and new knowledge resources, the latest information technology, and skilled instructors and students
converge in an ongoing process of learning, teaching and research.
Cardinal Stritch University
Cardinal Stritch University
learning lab
College computers have program-specific software that’s often too expensive for students to buy for their own computers.
Steelcase research indicates that two types of computer spaces remain popular: 1. media labs for individual work by students,
faculty and staff, and 2. computer pods dispersed in different buildings and used for planned group work and impromptu meetings.
Carroll University
MSOE
Cardinal Stritch University
common area
Every space is a learning space.
Learning can and should happen everywhere on campus - from the classroom to the library to faculty offices. In between
these destination sites are lounges, hallways and other informal areas that can be so much more than transition spaces. They
can be flexible, friendly learning spaces for individuals and groups - all smart ways to better leverage valuable campus real
estate.
Students need tools that support collaborative learning both before and after class: methods for sharing digital and analog
content; tools for informal brainstorming such and whiteboards and tackable surfaces; worksurfaces that accommodate
computers, books and other materials.
Carroll University
Gateway Technical College
cafe
Dining, relaxing, socializing, studying
Cafe spaces are sales tools for colleges in the race to keep up with peers in recruiting and retaining students. The design
of the space and food services are geared for the Gen Y audience, which values premium brands for everything from
clothing to colleges. This generation selects a college in part for the prestige of the institution, and they associate prestige
with nice facilities.
Tables aren’t just for lunch trays anymore; they’re worksurfaces for laptops, tablets, smartphones, books and everything
else a student can load into a backpack.
Steelcase Education Solutions
Cardinal Stritch University
faculty office
The typical professor’s office was designed in a bygone era as a private inner sanctum and repository for printed material.
Amid bookshelves and papers stacked high, instructors hunched over student assignments and research papers. When
computers arrived, professors merely stacked stuff higher to make a little room on an already overcrowded desk.
Institutions can create more versatile, effective and comfortable faculty offices in a smaller footprint by planning spaces
with these three essential zones in mind: concentration, contemplation and collaboration.
UW-Milwaukee
UW-Milwaukee
product solution
verb
Verb is an integrated collection of classroom furniture designed to support a full
range of teaching and learning styles on demand.
Verb tables are specifically designed to support different learning modes and
encourage easy shifts between lecture, discussion, and project work. Unique
shapes promote interaction, while a variety of sizes allow Verb to work in any
classroom.
Steelcase Education Solutions
Steelcase Education Solutions
product solution
node
Node: seating for the active learning classroom.
The Node chair is mobile and flexible. It’s designed for quick, easy transitions
from one teaching mode to the next. With Node, a classroom can transition from
lecture mode to team mode and back again, without interruption.
Steelcase Education Solutions
Steelcase Education Solutions
product solution
media:scape family
Through the integration of furniture and technology, media:scape is reshaping the
way people collaborate in a connected world.
Most collaborative work spaces today support leader-led presentations where
information is controlled and shared by one person at a time. media:scape removes these barriers and democratizes how people access and share information by allowing all participants to contribute their ideas – equally, quickly and
seamlessly.
media:scape mini and media:scape mobile allow you to extend collaboration into
smaller and existing spaces.
Steelcase Education Solutions
Steelcase Education Solutions
Steelcase Education Solutions
product solution
ēno interactive whiteboard
ēno combines an interactive board, a high-performance dry erase board, and a
magnetic surface into a single solution.
PolyVision’s ēno classic is the first and only environmentally certified interactive
whiteboard to combine the simplicity and ease of a traditional markerboard with
high-performance interactivity—without cords, cables or costly installation.
PolyVision’s ēno one combines an eno whiteboard, ultra-short throw projector,
and stand or mount in a single solution from one provider.
With magnetic mounting hardware and no cords or cables to manage, ēno click
by PolyVision mounts instantly over an existing ceramicsteel chalkboard, whiteboard, or any other steel surface.
Steelcase Education Solutions
Steelcase Education Solutions
about forrer
Forrer Facts
64
years we’ve been in business
90,000
square feet in our warehouse
25 million
dollars in annual sales revenue
2012
year phase one of our interconnected
workplace showroom was completed
200+
number of product lines we carry
no. 1
contract furniture and services
dealership in Southeastern WI
65
total employees
26
percent of employees who have
worked at Forrer > 20 years
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