Valiant, Etc.

Rural school administrators and School Boards face a daunting task when they take on the challenge of planning for facility improvements or replacement. Few, if any, will have done this type of work before, especially on such a large scale. Since this kind of planning is very specialized, the Superintendent and the Board often find themselves at the mercy of the professional planners they hire. It is the intention of the author to provide some help to small-school administrators in educating the district�s planning team and in setting the stage before the architect is hired. It is hoped that the reader will find the checklist provided below to be a useful tool in this process.

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Paul writes “Today I listened to a conversation between a computer “expert” and an architect concerning the future of computer use in the classroom. Both were agreed that within five years all students would be using hand held computers in the classroom, not laptops and certainly not desk models.

They may be right about the technology, but I am concerned about children. Has anybody done any research about the effect on young children’s eyes of using smaller and smaller computer screens? Has anybody done any research on the question of dexterity and the ability of six and seven year olds to use computers that are very small. Has anybody done any thinking or research about how hand-held computers might be used by a distraught child?

All of this started when I told them about an exercise some 60 of us had been involved in. We were in teams (teachers, architects and planners) and were to design an elementary classroom to certain specifications. I pointed out that nine separate teams designed rooms and none of us included any desktop computers. We all assumed that students would use laptops and most of us provided a means for charging their batteries. Their response was what I reported above — that in five years there would be no laptops, just hand-helds. Hence my question.

Can anyone respond? I can be reached at Intelled@AOL.com

Introduction

In this era of top-down reform and rapid change in many aspects of education, facility planning might be likened to completing a jigsaw puzzle of a motion picture while the film is still running. Before the pieces for one image can be put in place the projector has moved to the next frame. So it is with school planning. Technology, curriculum, instruction and school organization are in a state of flux and planners are compelled to deal with each of these factors while developing a long-range plan or the design of a particular school.

One strategy for dealing with confused circumstances is to seek high ground to get a view of the entire picture and perhaps to see what is ahead. This article seeks to provide the reader with a path to the high ground. From this vantage point participants can develop a collaborative conception of what future schools could be like. We will begin by examining current social trends and the conditions they create. This will be followed by a description of a process for developing a future vision shared by the various stakeholders. The final section is a nuts-and-bolts discussion of the activities required to successfully complete the process.
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