Flexible Learning

Learning trends where educators and researchers focus more on understanding students needs and meeting them wherever they are, have been accelerated by COVID challenges. Flexible Learning or customizing the pace, place, and mode of learning to meet the needs of students through different ways of learning is being experimented with across K12 environments. E-learning, mobile-learning and online learning can provide students with choices about where, when, and how personal learning occurs. This movement supports learning across multiple contexts, through varied social and content interactions, and has proven to be helpful for increased student success.

Flexible learning means more than an open space with movable furniture. It addresses both the learning process and the environment. It means supporting the student at home, supporting students with or without Wi-Fi, supporting a group at the library and understanding how technology and environment interplay to support all learners. Flexible learning supports all forms of collaboration.

Berliner Architects’ winning submission for the 2021 AIASF Future of the Classroom design competition provided a school bus outfitted to address multiple learning needs of K12 students. It could pick kids up from neighborhood locations and transport them to learning areas (museums, nature areas, and cultural sites) around the city of Los Angeles. The bus was designed with appropriate materials and furniture to maximize the space, provide zones for collaboration and focus, supply Wi-Fi to children without access and support tailored learning programs to meet student needs. Richard Berliner shares the concept in the Transforming the Landscape of Education podcast.

Meeting children in their own neighborhood is one way to deliver resources. Another is to show up at their schools with solutions to support learning-centered classrooms. Healthy outside learning spaces can be used to stimulate learning and mental health by access to nature and the use of color and durable outdoor installations. With technology tools like campus wide Wi-Fi, kids can access learning anywhere to find a quiet space to focus or a small room to work together on a team project. And easily configurable mobile furniture can convert spaces to use for a lecture, group activity or quiet time. Flexible learning spaces support diverse learning styles and opportunities for students to choose what works best for them.