Technology doesn’t just enhance the learning environment; it defines the learning environment and maximizes learning by:
- Providing opportunities for students to grapple with content
- Providing differentiated learning activities
- Enabling students to collaborate with others outside the classroom
- Providing students with a wealth of information from which to draw
- Allowing students to create
Therefore, technology is not something you purchase if you have additional funds; it’s a critical component to any classroom today.
While the technology needs are different for every school, and we typically offer recommendations after conducting a study of the school, we can offer some broadly generalized recommendations.
The Influence of Furniture on Classroom Experience
The LATI Classroom should be a place where furniture is used functionally and that functionality is about the student, not the teacher.
- In a classroom in which students take charge of their own learning, students are not typically all doing the same thing at the same time.
- In a classroom in which whole-class teacher-directed lessons are kept to a minimum, the need for everyone to have a seat to sit and listen and take notes diminishes.
- Consider a classroom in which students choose to sit in a particular place because of the work in which they are about to engage.
We recommend providing a teacher with a sum of money (e.g. $4,000) to redesign their classroom and allowing them to present a case as to how each of their intended purchases is consistent with the philosophy and principles of the LATI Classroom.
