Hybrid or blended learning?
The difference between hybrid and blended learning was a hot topic at #LTSMG22 - but it has critical application to all Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTRs) and ‘hybrid’ meeting, teaching and workspaces.
One discussion, including Matt North and Ian Woolner showed how much slippage there is - not only between these terms, but in the way they are defined, to the extent that Ian wondered whether ‘hybrid’ hadn’t become toxic by association to the extent a new term needs finding.
For my own part, I think it more realistic to look to the day when the use of ‘hybrid’ becomes inevitably redundant, as the option to include remote/virtual participation from any location and in any mode of work or home life becomes the norm.
A later presentation by Piet van der Zanden on the TUDesc teaching space planning and management application he’s designed at Delft’s Technical University highlighted two fundamental points that apply across the board.
Firstly, it’s vital to nail down the terms of reference and have absolute clarity about what any teaching or work space needs to deliver. This may sound trite, but the pandemic-driven rush to install/convert hybrid rooms - ‘install first, design later’ - has left a tranche of spaces that now seem more like the room that the parents see when they get home and discover their kids had a party in their absence.
Secondly, the basic room design and configuration is the fundamental foundation stone to a workspace’s success. This can be tough, when often the room is something the architect has sicked onto us, with more thought to aesthetic than acoustics, sightlines etc. How much AV budget is wasted making pretty rooms into great workspaces?
Ian was right to have audio and acoustics as a major concern here. But in my world, room design 101 means getting the display size right. That 98” large format display might serve the front half of the room, but your other tech spend is wasted if the second class citizens in the back half can’t engage with the content or the remote participants.
The Visual Displays team works with end users, consultants and integrators to design and install the perfect display for every space. We communicate with and support all parts of the AV ecosystem, but supply goes through through recognised integrators and resellers globally.
Posted: 5th May 2022