With the conclusion of major military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. institutions of higher learning are experiencing an inflow of student veterans on a scale not seen since the conclusion of World War II. In response, a large number of American colleges and universities quickly sought to exploit this glut of new students by arbitrarily…

Educators may start off a school year with the best of intentions for staying organized, but by about November, they quickly find their systems, energy and motivation starts to dwindle. By March, they can't even see their desk, and have hundreds of e-mails in their inboxes. Incorporating a few organizational strategies at the beginning of the…

Academic libraries by nature serve as spaces for communities of learners to gather. Careful design and marketing of spaces to meet specific needs, staffed by experts to facilitate and guide such learning, enhance the impact of "library as place." In this article, the author shares two examples of collaborations that have resulted from partnerships…

As the designer of primary and secondary educational facilities, the author has become familiar with educational thinkers such as Sir Kenneth Robinson, Peter Senge, Ewan McIntosh, Daniel Pink and Howard Gardner--each promoting an approach based on system-thinking, self-directed exploration and multidimensional, interactive learning. In 2009, he…

Research on the enabling factors of innovation has focused on either the social component of organizations or on the spatial dimensions involved in the innovation process. But no one has examined the aggregate consequences of the link from spatial layout, to social networks, to innovation. This project enriches our understanding of how innovation…

To gain a full and true understanding of the value of campus heritage requires shifting perspective. On many campuses, heritage resources are perceived to have no relevance whatsoever to the challenges of sustainability. This results largely from a profound misconception about what may constitute a sustainable future and what steps may be needed…

Des Moines is an urban community located in the heart of Iowa. Des Moines Public Schools serves 32,000 students in a system with 62 buildings, including Central Campus--a Regional Academy. Central Campus is housed in four buildings, including the main campus at 1800 Grand located on the western edge of downtown Des Moines. As a regional academy,…

As campus renovation projects go, the Ohio State University's plan to turn its main library into "a library for the 21st century" is ambitious. The author describes the decade-long, $109 million transformation of the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library. The overhaul calls for a complete replacement of all mechanical and electrical…

The virtual pedagogical space that is a home to ten thousands of English courses in the United States and abroad and is referred to the software application called Blackboard is discussed. The ways in which Blackboard as a socially produced and producing space undermined many of the currently professed goal of English studies is illustrated.

Three elementary schools relocated their libraries to multipurpose rooms and a stage to provide space for teaching "hands-on" library skills. (Author/MLF)

Along with its human resources, financial assets, and intellectual cache, space is a primary resource of an educational institution. Indeed, the dollar value (initial cost, replacement cost, or market value) of a postsecondary education institution's buildings sometimes exceeds its annual operating budget and endowment. Without information on how…

To model behavior, scientists need to know how models behave. This means learning what other behaviors a model can produce besides the one generated by participants in an experiment. This is a difficult problem because of the complexity of psychological models (e.g., their many parameters) and because the behavioral precision of models (e.g.,…

In a world increasingly characterised by change, diversity and complexity, with educational institutions, like others, aspiring to become "learning organisations" and where the "knowledge economy" is apparently crucial, schools as workplaces for learning appear to remain peculiarly static. The majority exhibit physical,…

The court decision upholding a college faculty member's eligibility for a federal income tax deduction for a home office used for research because his institution did not provide suitable space is discussed. (MSE)

Today, the amount of space devoted to research at research universities exceeds that of classrooms and class laboratories. This research space portfolio presents important policy and management challenges. As stewards of this portfolio, universities must address issues of funding the construction of research facilities, equipping and…