Space, computers and learning

This paper aims to provoke thinking about the way people can use computers to learn, the way tutors or instructors can integrate them into their curriculum, and the consequences for the way that the computers themselves are laid out and timetabled. Our experience (Ryan, M., Wells, J., Freeman, A. and Hallam, G. 1996) led us to conclude that though computers radically modify the learning process, they do not replace the tutor. Instead, they change the way that tutor and student interact. By reflecting on the three-way interaction between students, tutors and computers we suggest a theory of the physical space that these occupy, and its consequences for classroom design.