I keep mentioning Game Pods as a feature of my Schools of Tomorrow, in ways I'm sure other teachers find too cavalier. What evidence based research drives my eagerness to experiment with this technology? Aren't computer games the ultimate distraction and therefore the antithesis of what we'd call a "school supply"?
The game pod comes in many shapes and sizes, but is primarily designed to be immersive. Immersive needn't mean "isolated" though. A learning program might include one-on-one and group calls. One is often immersed with peers, many of whom are geographically distant. These pods were designed with computers in mind. There's no reason a cubicle worker might not find a pod a big step up, remembering it's not an either / or proposition.
Sometimes I'm in a "booth" (i.e. pod), scanning documents, or mastering specific games designed to teach chemistry. Other times I'm at a desk, or in a meeting room. I visit the gym. I shop. All these activities may occur in one building. That doesn't mean I'm stuck here. I cycle through a long list of such buildings, in the course of designing these schools in the Global U context.
You'll remember from Math Forum my emphasis on simulations. We make models to help us conceptualize the many inter-gearing workflows, in an airport, in a shopping center, in a hospital, in a mine. A dollhouse is a simulation. Childhood features simulations. I'm not breaking engrained patterns so much as reinforcing them.
