Educational

Educating in Safer Spaces

The only certainty in education during the pandemic has been uncertainty. Some schools remain closed, others are educating in person and still others have embraced a hybrid model to accommodate students both onsite and at home.

For those with students on site, educators and administrators know that the same old ways of doing things won’t work in a pandemic environment. Changes in both procedures and the physical environment, including administrative offices, have been necessary.

For teachers, principals and other administrators readying for a return to the classroom, here’s a look at some components of a safer educational space.

Flexibility: We’ve written many times here about the various benefits of flexible education spaces during normal times, and the ability to adapt has become even more important during COVID-19. Not only does it make sense to have different configurations to support different types of learning, having flexibility makes it easier to accommodate physical distancing.

Sanitizer stations: Clean, sanitized hands are the goal under any circumstances, and never more than now. Touchless sanitizer stations located prominently throughout a school will help achieve that goal.

Desk partitions: We’re seeing a lot of demand now for divider partitions for desks and tables. These are typically transparent to allow eye contact and communication when collaborating on projects, but provide a physical barrier against sneezes and other droplet transmission.

Cubicle walls: For settings that already have cubicles, wall heights are increasing for those same reasons. Many cubicle systems can be retrofitted with higher walls for greater safety in multi-person spaces.

Countertop sneeze guards: From reception to teachers’ desks to cafeteria settings, sneeze guards are also in high demand. Like desk partitions, they’re transparent and offer a physical barrier to reduce the risk of transmission.

With proper planning and design modifications, classrooms can be a safer space for students and educators alike.

Questions about furniture or design for education? Contact Douron.

The Flexible Classroom

If you have school-aged children, chances are that you’ve suddenly found yourself in the home-schooling business … in addition to trying to get your own work done at home. We’ve written quite a bit in this space about successful classroom environments. Does any of that translate to the home, and how can it help?

Probably the most important thing to know about trends in learning environments is the move away from the traditional teacher-up-front, everyone-facing-forward classroom and towards flexible spaces to support different types of activities and different types of learning.

This definitely applies at home. If your child or children need to participate in online classes, a quiet, private area as free from distractions as possible is best. The fewer things going on around them to take their eyes and ears off the screen, the better. They’ll be more engaged in what’s being presented and better prepared to participate. Consider having them use earbuds, which will help block outside noises and also keep the session from distracting others.

For these sessions, you don’t want them flopped on the couch somewhere. Sitting up straight at a desk or table will be more conducive to maintaining the focus they need.

Group activities with siblings, on the other hand, will want larger, flexible spaces to the greatest degree possible. A large table suitable for educational games or jigsaw puzzles is great if one is available, and if it’s in a room that can be closed off so the inevitable noise doesn’t disturb your home-working, so much the better. And there are plenty of educational shows and activities that can be served up via your smart TV while the kids are comfy on the couch.

(As noted in this post, the colors used in a learning environment can make a big difference too, but we’re going to guess that you’re not up for redecorating right at this moment.)

No one knows your child and the way he or she learns better than you do, but if you have the ability to provide multiple spaces for different types of learning, you’ll find that it breaks up the day into manageable chunks and helps with attention spans.

Maybe you can even get some of your own work done.

Question about learning environments? Contact us at Douron.

COVID-19 UPDATE 3/30/19

Douron is operational to provide service to our employees, clients, partners and community. We have received required status for distribution to essential companies per state and federal guidelines.

We are continually monitoring the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) for daily updates to provide our employees a safe and healthy working environment.

We have established a continuity plan that relies on email, virtual meetings and remote connectivity as our primary contact and response method. With our soft phone application, our employees can be reached at their normal extensions. Messages left on team members’ work phones are monitored and answered as quickly as possible.

Our showrooms in Baltimore, Rockville and Delaware are closed until further notice. We’re actively using remote strategies along with virtual client meetings to keep daily operations running as usual. All of our facilities are being cleaned and disinfected regularly to ensure a safe work environment.

MANUFACTURING PARTNERS

Douron is monitoring the operational status of our manufacturing partners and we will provide updates, as we receive them, via email.

SALES

Account Executives will continue to be available by their standard email addresses, phone extensions and mobile phone numbers. All responses to projects from ourAccount Executives will be via email or phone.

CUSTOMER SERVICE SUPPORT

Douron has temporarily transitioned headquartered team members to work remotely. Our continuity plan has been tested to make an easy transition as not to delay our ability to serve you.

WAREHOUSE, DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION (WD&I)

Currently, Douron is accepting all shipments and making deliveries, while safely completing projects. There is restricted entry for delivery drivers to our warehouse and paperwork is being delivered to the door. Our warehouse team has been provided rubber gloves, masks and disinfecting spray to utilize upon receipt of product and to use as necessary. All WD&I employees have proper documentation of the nature of their delivery being essential to the operations of our clients.

After installation, all furniture surfaces and cabinet are sprayed and disinfected. We want to ensure a safe installation process. Our employees are aware and following (CDC) guidelines of daily cleaning of tools and
building materials; washing hands as often as possible; covering coughs and sneezes with tissues and avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

WARRANTY AND CLAIMS

Our Corrective Actions Department is reviewing all claims made by clients and reporting information to the appropriate manufacturer.

If you are experiencing any warranty or service related issues, please fill out a warranty request form at https://douron.com/warranty-request/or email correctiveactions@douron.com.

Thank you for your support and patience during this challenging time. We are working together with you to provide safe and healthy environments.

A Space for Every Child

We spend a lot of time learning about learning environments. After all, it’s part of our mission to team with educators and administrators alike to create spaces that are most conducive to learning. If you scan through our previous posts here, you’ll find quite a few dedicated to educational spaces and the designs, technology and even colors that best promote learning.

Different types of spaces promote different types of learning, from the traditional teacher-in-front classroom setting to smaller, more interactive arrangements, which is why we’re big fans of the agile classroom approach.

But we need to remember not only that different types of learning take place, but that every student is different as well. There is no one-size-fits all solution in educational spaces, simply because some students will thrive in a quiet setting that promotes concentration, while others will really blossom in more hands-on, interactive settings. Those fidgety kids who disrupt the traditional classroom setting might well turn out to be real leaders in a small group session.

The ideal environment supports not only different types of learning, but different types of learners, and the classroom that’s stuck in the traditional lecture-hall setting may prevent some students from reaching their full potential.

Questions about design for educational spaces? Contact a design expert at Douron.

The Colors of Learning

There’s little question that the colors used in a learning environment can have a significant impact on the students … many studies over the years have confirmed the important role colors can play in learning.

The question, though, is which colors are most appropriate for a classroom and most conducive to learning? And how should those colors be used: in furniture, wall colors or other accents?

The answers vary depending upon both the students and the goals, and sometimes practical considerations as well (for example, lighter colors may be more calming, but any parent can tell you that lighter-colored furniture might not be the best choice in a room full of children).

The broad-brush consensus is that large amounts of bright colors, especially reds and oranges, are best avoided, as they can lead to overstimulation and anxiousness. The calmness and comfort engendered by cooler colors like greens and blue will offer better results in most cases, as will neutral off-whites.

Most rules have exceptions, though, and there’s a big one here: younger children tend to thrive in brightly-colored environments. Babies are born without the ability to see color, and seeing bright hues helps them learn to distinguish one color from another. Brighter colors also help to hold their attention as they age through the preschool years.

And of course the answer for your given situation depends on the physical space. A traditional main classroom area might feature neutral and calming colors, while areas designated for free play or other hands-on activities will benefit from more dramatic choices. And in a more modern setting like an agile classroom (see a previous post about agile classrooms here), fixtures and furniture can be swapped in and out with color schemes to support any given activity.

If you’re considering a redesign of an educational space, contact Douron today to schedule a tour of our showroom for ideas!

Moving Target: Technology in the Classroom

One of the great challenges in modern learning space design is accommodating the shifts in technology that have come to the classroom. The pace of change is so rapid that we really have to plan for the unknown.

Perhaps the biggest question in deploying technology in the classroom is not the “what” but the “how.” Often, new devices are employed to support the same teaching methods from decades past. In a book we’ve referenced in previous posts, From the Campfire to the Holodeck: Creating Engaging and Powerful 21^st Century Learning Environments, author David Thornburg notes that interactive whiteboards have become all the rage of late. These are wonderful and versatile tools, but when they’re used just as blackboards were – to support a teacher standing in front of a class and lecturing (the ‘campfire’) – the potential of all that new technology is diluted at best.

Thornburg also notes that many schools continue to ban classroom smartphone use by students for fear that the devices will be used to Google test answers or otherwise take shortcuts. The solution is to craft tests with answers that require independent thought and can’t be answered by an internet search, but in fairness that approach creates a much bigger demand on an educator’s already limited time, both in the creation and the grading of open-ended challenges. It’s much quicker to review multiple-choice answers than to assess the effort in independent research.

So when we don’t know what new technology the coming years will bring, and when different schools use the same technology in very different ways, where does that leave classroom design? What are the design elements that allow us to plan for the unknown?

In a word, flexibility. The same approach that allows a classroom to support different models of learning – and to quickly adapt from one to another – also supports ever-changing technology. The ideal modern learning space is a design chameleon, changing quickly to accommodate the teacher at the whiteboard, the students circled up with their smartphones to research a new assignment as a group … and whatever comes next year, and the year after that.