Birmingham City Council, which has the UK's largest Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme is working with technology company MOOFU, the Institute of Education, University of London, and leading schools designer Dr Kenn Fisher on a new 3D software tool to transform the planning and use of education buildings and learning spaces.
Birmingham will use the tool, LEVROS – Learning Environments Virtual Reality Online Simulator – to help its Local Education Partnership (LEP) with plans to rebuild or refurbish 82 secondary schools. It's an interactive 3D environment that can be explored by the kinds of online characters becoming familiar in virtual worlds - avatars - and sample downloads are now available (below). Students can use LEVROS too.
Sylvia McNamara, director of education with Birmingham City Council said: “Through the Building Schools for the Future programme, which is more than just buildings, we are committed to transforming learning and curriculum delivery in schools across Birmingham.
“LEVROS is an innovative change management tool that gives our key stakeholders – students, school leaders, governing bodies and the local community – the opportunity to creatively engage with design concepts throughout the transformation process and explore the full potential of their schools.”
Teachers and students anywhere in the world can work together to experiment with learning settings – layouts, furniture and resources – moving and manipulating them to modify the environments. It's an effective way of testing the usefulness of learning environments – for students with disabilities too – before trying out the real thing.
One of LEVROS's advantages is its ability to allow for the insertion of any architectural design 3D model being developed by architects in association with teachers. This means that users can test specific design concepts and provide feedback for the designers to make improvements (view a preview on the YouTube video below).
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“With this tool, the people who use these environments can experience the benefits and resolve any problems before construction starts," says MOOFU managing director Nick Palfrey, who considers this the next stage in the evolution of learning spaces for schools, colleges and universities. "Equally important, LEVROS will develop into a model for learning that brings real and virtual worlds together.”
According to learning spaces design expert Kenn Fisher, an associate professor of Melbourne University and director of Learning Futures Rubida.net, LEVROS taps into the way the ‘net generation’ is learning through gaming. To have a true concept of the ‘social construction of knowledge’ in the 21st Century Creative age, he says, we have “to map the pedagogical, curriculum, virtual and physical experiences over each other”. A combination of face-to-face and online learning experiences for teachers and all students should be on offer.
“Simulation’” adds Kenn Fisher, “is increasingly being used in many educational and training sectors to minimise laboratory and practical costs, to allow students to gain skills and experience in a virtual environment before they move to a more hands-on environment where supervision and duty of care become more critical.”
Nick Peacey, coordinator of the Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training (SENJIT) at the Institute of Education is clear about LEVROS' role in the building of future learning spaces, particularly in the development of student partnerships. “Playing with ways of using and adapting space is engaging for all young people and an excellent way of getting their ideas,” he says.
More information
www.archi-me.com/downloads/Levros-Beta-Mac.zip
www.archi-me.com/downloads/Levros-Beta-Windows.zip
www.moofu.co.uk/
