Education 3.0: Life After Tech

The Dwight-Englewood School. Image © Gensler

The educational technology arms race is on. It all started in 1991 when a certain company invented an interactive whiteboard that would allow a teacher to interface with a computer and the class at the same time. Fast forward to 2014 and the discussion of “EdTech” is now dominant, overtaking the discussion of pedagogy and causing schools and school districts to allocate significant financial resources just to keep pace. Yet while these new technologies have the power to enhance learning, a small but vocal segment of the education community is beginning to wonder if the proliferation of tech has gone too far.

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Campus Design and the Urban Interface

Photo courtesy of Gensler

Last December, as part of Gensler’s firmwide Education Practice Area Next Gen Initiative, the London office, where I work, considered all the ways that education campuses interact with their immediate surroundings. We call this the Urban Interface.

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Librii: Five Points Toward an Evolving Library

Image courtesy of Gensler

One billion people live in Africa, but less than three percent of the population has access to broadband Internet.

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Learning is Virtual, but Students Aren't

We talk a lot about the changes that technology is bringing to college campuses. New students are increasingly comfortable with mobile and collaborative technologies. Online research and resource databases, video lectures, and distance-learning models are challenging traditional mainstays of education from the large-lecture format to the university library.

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Contemporary Architecture at the University of Chicago

Steve Wiesenthal has overseen a slew of new building projects since taking over as the University of Chicago's associate vice president for facilities services and university architect.

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