Four years ago, Chris Nagele did what many other technology executives have done before — he moved his team into an open concept office.
His staff had been exclusively working from home, but he wanted everyone to be together, to bond and collaborate more easily. It quickly became clear, though, that Nagele had made a huge mistake. Everyone was distracted, productivity suffered and the nine employees were unhappy, not to mention Nagele himself.
Classrooms are essentially open offices. Well, they’re even worse than open offices since the desks and chairs are usually not comfortable and their is no ownership of what little space the students get.
What’s more, certain open spaces can negatively impact our memory. This is especially true for hotdesking, an extreme version of open plan working where people sit wherever they want in the work place, moving their equipment around with them.
Whoa, that sounds a lot like how classrooms work now!
A FEW WEEKS AGO, CJR WROTE about a disturbance in the force caused by what was perceived as sudden and inexplicable changes in the Associated Press Stylebook’s hyphenation guidelines. Even though the guidelines were not sudden, and even though AP explained them thoroughly, people were upset. Source: AP hyphen outrage continues with guidance update –…
Successful people don’t grow by accident, they grow by design. When you schedule personal development time on purpose, you are making time to design the life you want. You are essentially who you create yourself to be. Once you embrace the “growth” habit, you will improve your way of life. Source: Scheduling Just 15 Minutes…
New York Libraries are bring public domain books to life through Instagram stories. Source: The New York Public Library is using Instagram Stories to bring classic novels to your smartphone – The Verge Sure, you can subscribe to receive classic works in your email or on your smartphone, but the New York Libraries are taking it…
With school out and summer break giving kids more time to spend on the Internet, it’s a great time to introduce Be Internet Awesome: a new way to encourage digital safety and citizenship. Developed in collaboration with online safety experts like the Family Online Safety Institute, the Internet Keep Safe Coalition and ConnectSafely, Be Internet…
A 2015 study found that 65% of student licenses for education technology products go unused, and you don’t have to look far to find examples of technology implementation disasters. EdTech purchases going to waste is often the result of multiple factors, and the consequences impact all stakeholders: school systems that waste precious budgets, EdTech companies that…
Should cursive writing still be taught in our schools? The old debate is back with a vengeance as schools shift resources from the intricate, painstakingly rendered script to keyboard skills. The Common Core State Standards, adopted by 42 states and the District of Columbia, call for handwriting instruction in kindergarten and first grade only, and…
