How to Setup Your Computer Lab

In this episode I provide some suggestions for setting up your computer lab and talk about their impacts on teaching and learning computer science.

  • How you set up your computer lab can

    have a profound impact not only on

    teaching but on learning most computer

    labs that I've seen are a series of rows

    that are all facing One Direction which

    is usually facing towards the screen

    this type of setup is ideal if you want

    to have everybody move at the same rate

    on the exact same project or activity or

    whatever for example if you're going to

    demonstrate something on the screen or

    play a video or whatever and students

    are supposed to follow along this makes

    it very easy for everybody to be looking

    the same direction and silently working

    on a project from a teaching standpoint

    it makes it very easy for you to stand

    at the back of the room to monitor every

    single one of the screens and to be able

    to walk students through step by step

    whatever it is that they are working on

    however this setup is not ideal for

    peer-to-peer collaboration especially

    when you've got a bunch of chairs and

    whatnot that could block students from

    being able to easily get up and

    collaborate with their peers on the

    other side of the room you might be able

    to work with the person who is sitting

    right next to them however depending on

    the size of the room and the spaces

    between each one of these rows there

    might not be enough room for students to

    actually even back up without having to

    ask their neighbors to like scoot in so

    that way they can move around them to

    get to the center of the classroom so

    this is not very good for peer learning

    or collaboration because students can

    basically only ask the person who's on

    either side of them or maybe in front of

    behind them for some assistance so for

    individualized activities or a single

    project where they are not collaborating

    with somebody other than maybe somebody

    who is sitting right next to them this

    might be able to work but if you're

    trying to have like some kind of a group

    project or encourage peer-to-peer

    assistance Etc there are other solutions

    that might work better from a teaching

    standpoint this can be very difficult to

    actually facilitate one-on-one if it's

    difficult for students to be able to

    walk around in a space like this it's

    going to be even more difficult for a

    grown adult to get to like the far end

    of each one of the rows and as soon as

    you go to the front of the room you

    can't see like 90 to 95 percent of the

    computers that are behind you because

    you will see the back of them so from a

    monitoring standpoint you're not going

    to be able to tell whether or not

    students are on task or if instead

    they're just searching for their

    favorite meme another approach that I've

    seen that I would argue is slightly

    better than that is more of like a

    stations or pods approach you could have

    tables that are facing inward making it

    so that students can face each other in

    kind of like small circles around their

    devices this approach works really well

    for for group learning as students are

    able to collaborate are able to kind of

    share screens and it's usually a lot

    easier to walk around the room like this

    so students can go in circles around

    they can go up and down the different

    rows and aisles Etc and if you have two

    screens like one on opposite ends of the

    walls then it's easy for students to be

    able to follow along if you happen to be

    using any kind of like step-by-step

    guides or videos or direct instruction

    etc for a full group setting from a

    teaching standpoint you can assign each

    one of these pods or clusters to its own

    unique things for example in the K-8

    school that I was previously working in

    students had a few different options for

    programming languages that they could

    choose from so if this was the case with

    the different pods or clusters we could

    have like one Potter cluster that's like

    doing JavaScript another one that might

    be doing like Ruby another one that

    might be you doing Swift and then maybe

    another one that will be working on

    scratch this makes it very easy for

    students who are working on similar

    projects or languages in the same shared

    space to be able to kind of collaborate

    and communicate with each other to kind

    of like get some assistance like if

    you're helping out somebody else in the

    room from a learning standpoint this can

    be a little bit difficult if you only

    have one screen in the room and you are

    relying on Direct construction to full

    groups because at least a quarter of the

    room or so is likely going to have to

    turn around completely 180 degrees in

    order to see what you're talking about

    and then turn all the way back around to

    try and Implement whatever it is that

    you're demonstrating if you're doing

    project-based learning that is involving

    peer collaboration Etc then this isn't

    really going to be much of an issue

    because you're likely not going to be

    doing a ton of full group instruction

    but instead facilitating small groups in

    this kind of a setup depending on how

    things are set up you could see anywhere

    from a quarter to a third of all the

    screens at any given moment in any

    location in the room so this makes it a

    little bit easier to monitor than the

    previous one where everything was all in

    rows where you basically had to be at

    the back of the room in order to see all

    the screens at once because if you're at

    the front of the room you would not see

    any of the screens now my classroom was

    actually set up like a race track so we

    had two rows of tables with computers on

    them that were facing the outside walls

    and then two rows that were pushed up

    against each other in the center of the

    room facing the center of the room so

    this made it so that on the sides you

    could walk around the room and in the

    middle as well so there's plenty of

    space for students to be able to

    collaborate and walk around the room and

    kind of see what peers we're working on

    Etc the way that this was also set up

    and made it very easy for students to

    kind of share so that one half the room

    would go to the other half of the room

    at the end of a class kind of share what

    they worked on and then the next day it

    would kind of flip so that it was the

    other direction from a teaching

    standpoint I had a single screen that

    was on one side of the room and it made

    it so that students could just like turn

    their head to the left or to the right

    and they will be able to follow along if

    they needed to however the way that I

    was teaching was more of one-on-one

    instruction or working with smaller

    groups so I very rarely use the screen

    that was at the front of the room except

    for like a basic here's what I recommend

    if you get stuck the first one is to

    check the built-in resources and help

    second one is to ask up here the third

    one is to ask appear and then the fourth

    one is that you can ask me but if I'm

    helping somebody else then repeat steps

    one two and three this setup made it

    very easy for students to be able to

    work together because they could get up

    around and move they could set up in

    different like clusters and like work on

    different things it was very easy for

    them to see the screens to the left and

    the right as well as behind them and

    from a facilitation standpoint it made

    it very easy for myself to be able to

    walk around the room and kind of

    facilitate one-on-one and basically

    anywhere I was standing in the room I

    could see three quarters of the screens

    at any given moment which made it very

    easy for me to quickly monitor what

    students were working on so if I'm

    sitting there like working with a

    student helping them with some guiding

    questions and whatnot maybe I'm spending

    like 10 or 15 minutes with just one

    student who's on a very difficult bug

    that they're trying to solve in their

    language I could just kind of quickly

    look up and just like look around and

    see okay nothing else is on fire we're

    good at least for three quarters of the

    computers that I can see so this setup

    was great not only from a learning

    standpoint but from also from a teaching

    or facilitation standpoint now my

    favorite setup actually is what I would

    call a donut setup so picture all of the

    tables with computers are pressed up

    against the outside walls of the room

    and facing the walls and then in the

    center of the room there's a couple of

    tables that are pressed together this

    table may or may not have some computers

    or devices on it and instead it could be

    used for like some unplugged activities

    or like as a like a storyboarding and

    kind of planning area for different

    groups to collab to kind of discuss and

    work through some things from a learning

    standpoint this made it very easy for

    students to be able to walk around the

    room and kind of see what other peers

    were working on and be able to learn

    from them ask some questions Etc from a

    teaching standpoint it was super easy to

    stand anywhere in the room and you could

    see every single one of the screens

    because they were all facing the outside

    wall so regardless of where you were

    standing in the room you could monitor

    every single one of the screens to make

    sure the students were actually doing

    what they were supposed to be doing

    order even just like quickly looking

    across the room and go okay it looks

    like Johnny is still at the same spot

    that they were five minutes ago when I

    checked in on them let me go back over

    and see if they need some more

    assistance it just makes it super easy

    to very quickly just visually assess how

    everyone is doing around the room from a

    learning standpoint this setup can be a

    little bit harder if you're trying to do

    like full group instruction like let's

    say you only have one screen on like one

    side of the room or something like this

    then at least a quarter of the room is

    going to have to kind of turn all the

    way around in order to see it but if you

    have two screens on opposite side of the

    room then at the very least the students

    might just have to turn their head one

    direction to be able to look and see

    what it is that you are demonstrating

    but ideally you're going to be working

    with students one-on-one or encouraging

    them to work in groups and whatnot

    rather than doing full group instruction

    which I do talk about much more on other

    podcast episodes so from a teaching

    standpoint this can be difficult if

    you're trying to do full group

    instruction but again if you are

    creating resources and like sharing them

    online or you are working with students

    individually then it makes it so that

    all they need is a device and they don't

    have to like turn and look in any

    particular direction when doing this so

    if you're trying to use like a

    rhizomatic approach that I discussed on

    many of the other podcast episodes this

    donut shape or even like the race track

    shape are really good for being able to

    work with rhizomatic learning whereas

    the rose version that like you may have

    grown up with at least I certainly did

    when I was in a computer lab as a

    student that might not be great for

    razzmatic learning peer instruction

    collaboration Etc so whenever you're

    coming up with some kind of a setup for

    your room don't think about what is best

    for it or easiest for it to be able to

    set up instead think about what kind of

    learning and teaching does this setup

    afford and what kind of learning and

    teaching does this kind of setup

    constrain and what kind of projects

    could you easily Implement in this kind

    of setup if any now today's podcast is a

    little professional development session

    on room setup that was just like short

    little discussion that I mentioned in

    one of the presentations that I gave at

    csta's conference last week if you want

    to see any of the prior presentation

    that I've done over the years I think

    there's a well over 100 at this point if

    you go to Jared o'leary.com present you

    can find the slide deck for nearly every

    single one of the presentations that

    I've ever done and if you instead go to

    slash cskh you'll find almost 200 more

    podcast episodes from the csk8 podcast

    currently there are a couple more that

    are a little professional development

    sessions like this particular episode

    but there are many more unpacking

    scholarship episodes and interviews with

    some awesome guests that you can check

    out stay tuned for an episode next week

    that might get a little spicy as we're

    going to discuss some of the problems

    with political influence on education

    but with that little teaser I'm going to

    say thank you so much for listening if

    you learned something from this episode

    please just consider sharing this or one

    of the hundreds of resources on my

    website with somebody else stay tuned

    next week for another episode until then

    I hope you're all staying safe and are

    having a wonderful week

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