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Approach

Faculty in my Communication Studies department approach communications through the study of digital media and through a commitment to digital innovation and collaboration (with our colleagues, our students, and our community). Our curriculum emphasizes hands-on, experiential learning. All students in our department “learn by doing,” as they produce digital artifacts that combine multiple modalities through sound, image, and user interaction. When I was asked by my university to design a classroom for the new Communication Studies program in Spring 2009 (before I officially arrived), I knew I wanted to design an environment that would facilitate the teaching and learning of multimedia composing. I borrowed from the designs of my dissertation director, Dànielle DeVoss, as she was (and still is) researching university infrastructure and class design (which led to the inital floorplan shown in figure 2.1).

figure 2.1 is a floorplan of the original proposed classroom floorplan. There are 5 quadrants of moveable tables and chairs, three shared displays on adjacent walls, a projection screen, and an instructor station with a smartboard behind the station
Figure 2.1. Original Proposed Classroom Floorplan

After dozens of meetings with IT, facilities, and outside architects over an eighteen-month period, the classroom came online in January 2011. This initial classroom, Merion 150, is a flexible space, designed so that pedagogy—not architecture—drives student participation and interaction. The room features eight wall-mounted HDTVs with notebook VGA connections, breakaway tables and chairs, and notebook and tablet computers for student use. In March 2013 we added Xbox video game consoles to each HDTV.

This flexible and easily modified space supports:

  1. Individual student work,
  2. Collaborative group work,
  3. Small-group discussion, and
  4. Large-group seminars and presentations (see figures 2.2 and 2.3).

From Spring 2011 to Spring 2013, Merion 150 supported all of the Communication Studies course offerings. In addition, the space was regularly used for meetings and workshops. By Fall 2012, my fast-growing department needed a second classroom. Our objective was to obtain another physical classroom space that would help us best teach digital media studies in theory and practice. As we (the teaching faculty) entered into daily conversations concerning the new space, we found our understanding of the teaching and learning of digital composition deepened. In advocating for a space that aligned with what we valued pedagogically, we came to develop a design philosophy—that is, our ideas about the purpose of a built environment and what it should accomplish.

students working with laptops
Figure 2. Students with laptops
students looking at shared display
Figure 3. Students with shared displays

Yet the particular classroom we designed in academic year 2012–2013 and the design philosophy we crafted are not the main focus here. While the story involves specifics from our unique case, including schematics and a cast of characters, I do not wish to necessarily advocate for a specific kind of classroom or philosophy. Classroom designs and philosophies are situational and best crafted with care on a case-by-case basis. The ultimate purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the rhetorical agency of a design philosophy. Developing a philosophy was essential for my department to:

  1. Build the most effective teaching and learning space possible,
  2. Communicate our ideas to a variety of stakeholders,
  3. Negotiate our classroom vision from a strong bargaining position, and
  4. Effectively solve problems and work within constraints in the process of completing the project.