What’s important isn’t what they do with the device. It’s what interactions they have on the other side it. ~Rushton Hurley, VSTE 2013

What are the expectations of this room? Are the students allowed to talk once the assignment has been explained? Are they allowed to share their thoughts with a neighbor? When the struggling student sees their neighbor do something “really cool” on their computer is it OK to ask “How”? At one time the computer lab looked like this. There were dividers up in between each student station and it was strictly forbidden to go into another’s work space. People love to talk and learn from one another yet we hampering their success with a wall.

One day the walls came down. The great wall of silence was tore down and something amazing happened. Conversations started. Some did trail off the main topic but every inquiry began with “How did you…” or “Where did you find that?”. Collaboration of material, even if the final assignment was to be submitted independently, took on a life of it’s own. The lab is never quiet. Never. When another educator walks in and listens for two minutes they hear the sounds of learning. Children are discussing technology with their neighbors. Students are standing behind another one because the quiet, creative child has created a snail out of a swirl and line and everyone wants to know how it was created. Taking down the walls and allowing for conversation has empowered students in a wonderfully unexpected way.