Multimedia Classroom Design
One of my favorite projects that we did for this course was the design for a multimedia classroom. We were supposed to design a classroom with technology, incorporating designs for individual, small, and large group work, incorporating designs for people with varying needs, and without budget or spacial considerations in mind.
As an elementary music teacher, my classroom setup would inevitably look different from the classroom design of a regular classroom teacher. For my setup, I decided to design a music lab that would separate from the rest of my music room. Most general music classrooms are mostly empty with physical non-technological items in storage, so it’d be a lot more exciting to design a music lab!
In my design, down below, you’ll see a variety of different symbols to represent the different pieces of technology within the lab. The different colors and shapes of blocks represent different pieces of furniture, such as desks, tables, and storage closets. In the actual designing process of this music lab, I used Keynote, and all the shapes and symbols built into the application. I had been learning a lot about Keynote while my Apple store was shut down, so it was really awesome to use some of the different skills I had learned!
You will see blue rectangles, which represent computer tables. Each table has 2 iMacs on it, with composition softwares built in. The black circles represent moveable stools. Students can use these in the group area around the pink rug, or move them to the blue tables to work in groups around the iMacs.
In the storage cabinets, you can see a handicap symbol which represents storage of accessible technology. This includes different tools that help technology be more accessible, as well as storage for furniture adaptations that make using the technological tools easier. You can also see a cylinder symbol in the cabinet, which represents storage of different external storage solutions like hard drives or thumb drives, as well as where the router is kept. In the cabinet towards the back of the classroom, you can see storage of different adapters and other general tools, laptops and iPads, and headsets for use with the different computers in the room. Finally, the last cabinet in the back of the room holds clipboards. Each clipboard is for students to keep track of the different tasks they need to complete for their project, as well as providing a hard surface for note taking throughout the classroom.
The eye and ear symbol represent zones within the classroom that are easily accessible for students with hearing or visual impairments. All furniture in the classroom is spaced out for easily accessibility for students with physical disabilities or for students who need a wheelchair.
This project was really fun to complete. I really liked the idea of being able to dream it up without a budget constriction. I know for my current teaching situation that this kind of setup would be impossible, but it’s really awesome to be able to imagine it. I also really enjoyed being able to come up with possibilities and problem solving things such as accessibility, network access, and access to power for charging and for the iMacs. It helped me to think out of the box to come up with possibilities!
