The AV-1.insider

An Open Proposal for Innovation, Part Three: The No-Go Podium

The Summary

Let's get right to it: most designs for classroom technology are based on a 20-year old paradigm of furniture, cables and pipes (and lots of equipment). While continuing to replicate these dinosaurs may serve to ensure job security (for now), this model requires heavy infrastructure that adds cost and locks the room into a rigid floor plan that does not support progressive teaching and learning practice.

A Brief History Lecture

Years ago, when the UNC faculty became interested in achieving greater flexibility (oh, how I despise that word) in the classroom, we came to understand that furniture should not be bolted down. It should be easy (or at least possible) to reconfigure the classroom floor plan to meet evolving requirements of teaching and learning.

We worked with our interior designer in Facilities and our KI furniture representative to identify modular student furniture that could be rearranged with greater ease. After deploying various configurations of lightweight chair-desks and modular tables and chairs, we felt we had met the challenge. We gave ourselves a good pat on the back and took a coffee break.

Then came the phone call. It went something like this:

Professor: "I cannot move the podium."

Schuch: "Of course not! Our quality control measures include a thorough check of the anchor bolts during final inspection. No need to thank us!"

Professor: "Perhaps you missed my point."

Schuch: "No need to apologize. If I were in your position, I would want to make sure that everything was perfect in my new classroom, as well!"

Professor: "Of course I do expect everything to be perfect, and that is why I am calling. You see, I would like to be able to move the podium. So, could you un-bolt it from the floor, perhaps?"

Schuch: (After a long pause.) "...Am I being punked?"

Good Enough Pt. 2: A Brief History

Foreword

It is my wish to challenge you to consider new learning space. Although I am not privy to inside information that maps out exactly what the future look like, I am quite certain that future learning environments will be the product of this new economy and not the one before it. None of us should be inclined to sit on our hands and let the cards fall where they may.

It is my wish to help you recognize that such change is possible for you. You are the stewards, the planners, the trainers, builders and fixers. More so than your boss or your reports, you have a clearer understanding of your customer as well as the prevailing constraints that thwart your ability to do right by your customer. Given the circumstances, who could blame anyone who decided to wait for someone else to figure it out?

Throughout history, ordinary people with an idea, tenacity and some luck carved out some thing (often some quite modest thing) that proved to be extraordinary over time.

Something disruptive.

Disruptive things are rarely perfect. Often, they appear to be quite flawed in comparison to the other bits and bobs for sale on the shelf. In the final analysis, however, disruptive things proved to be good enough in critical ways that may not have appeared obvious (or of any value) at the time of their introduction.

Good enough is within our grasp. So let's get going...

What's So Great About 'Good Enough' Tech?

In September's Wired magazine, senior editor Robert Capps (rcapps [at] wired [dot] com) observes that the MP3 audio format prevails despite the advent of digital audio algorithms that offer greater sonic resolution with comparably small file sizes. Capps speculates that the incremental gain in fidelity, as delivered by newer digital formats, offers insufficient advantage to prize the lossy, old format from the clutches of mobile audio listeners. In short, MP3 may be mediocre (Bob used a harsher word that, coincidentally rhymes with his last name) but for the majority of listeners-to-go, it is mighty good enough.

In MP3s, Capps finds the perfect metaphor to shed light on an often-overlooked phenomenon at the intersection of Good-Better-Best Street and Better-Faster-Cheaper Boulevard. There is mounting evidence to predict that, when presented with an array of sparkly tech-choices, portable music listeners tend to favor, as Bob puts it, "flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished." In short, "having it here and now is more important than having it perfect."

A note to our Type-A readers: In future articles, AV-1 explores how this phenomenon relates to classrooms, but for now, feel free to share your comments and observations (below or on the AV-1 List).

Among the numerous examples offered, these three stand out as most relevant for our purposes: Flip Ultra, Skype, and Netbooks.