Learning Centers
Classroom Management

Designing Learning Center Activities
One of the most significant changes in instruction that learning centers bring to the classroom is the need for multiple lessons that will be implemented simultaneously at each station.  The added challenge here is that students will not work on the lessons in the same order since they will all start at different stations and rotate around.  This means that one lesson cannot depend on another since you cannot be sure that a given group has already gone through a prerequisite lesson at a different learning station.  When developing learning centers it is always important to keep this issue in mind and to come up with lessons that are not dependent on one another.  For example, if you were developing a set of learning centers for use with the Stowaway Adventure you would not want to make one of the stations collecting ship data and another station the analysis of that data.  If you did try this you would run into trouble when one of the groups who had yet to collect ship data got to the station at which they needed to do the analysis since they would have no data to analyze.

Another important aspect of designing your learning centers concerns the length of time students spend at each station.  Some approaches have students rotating through all of the stations within one class period of approximately 50 minutes.  From a technology perspective this is nice because it allows all of the students time on the computers (provided they are one of the stations) within the same class period.  Especially for younger grades this can be important since often students all want their turn on the computers.  The downside to this is that the time spent at each station is very small.  With five stations you would have only ten minutes per station.  This is hardly enough time to accomplish even a small task.  In addition, if a problem is encountered, such as a computer crashing, the time it takes to get back up and running can really throw off your schedule.  A better approach is to give each group a full class period at each station.  Although this means you will need to develop more extensive lessons for each station it will greatly enhance the impact the technique has on the students.

Keeping Things Organized
By nature, using learning centers requires a more open classroom in which many different activities can be taking place at the same time.  If you have not prepared properly this can easily lead to chaos in the classroom which can interfere with the learning process.  Here are a few things you can do to keep things organized while utilizing learning center:

• Activity Charts - These are wall charts that display the days of the week and the assignments for each group on any given day.  Setting up a chart like this allows the students to quickly determine what they should be doing and which station they should be at when they first come into the classroom.  This may seem like a minor point but it can avoid wasting valuable time when students first arrive and need to begin their work.  It also conditions students to start their tasks as soon as they arrive.  Here is an example Activity Chart:

• Student Instructions - Last week we discussed the need to develop student instructions as part of your role as instructional manager since they are often not included with Internet-based projects.  When working with Learning Centers the need for student instructions becomes even more important.  As we have mentioned, you will not be able to be a each station all of the time so you will need to provide students with detailed instructions on what they need to be doing at each station.  If you do not include these instructions or if they are not detailed enough students will reach a point where they do not know what to do next.  They will then have to pause and wait for you to assist them.  If you are working with another group at the time the students will simply have to waste time just waiting for your assistance.  This can easily lead to a lot of chaos as you will loose the students attention and they may begin to do other things.

• Prerequisite Skills - This was also discussed last week as one of the Instructional Management issues you may have to deal with when using Internet-based projects.  It is also critical when using learning centers.  Each group must be fairly equal in their ability at each learning center.  If not, one group might complete their lesson well ahead of the others and thus have to sit and wait for the others to finish.  In addition, you do not want a group to get stuck on something basic and then have to wait for you to come around before they can move on.  A good example is with computer skills.  If one group is not familiar with how to use a web browser then it might take them twice as long as an experienced group to complete the computer/Internet task.  By providing basic Internet training prior going into the learning centers you could avoid this problem.

• Selecting Group Members - This is mostly common sense but should definitely not be overlooked as it is very important.  Simply allowing students to self-select their own groups never works well.  Try to select students who will work well with each other and who are at about the same academic ability. Once you select groups do not feel that you have to keep them, if problem arise switch groups members around to eliminate problems.

• Student Behavior Problems - No matter what type of classroom structure you have you will always have to deal with student behavior problems.  When using Learning Centers, student behavior problems and more severely interfere with the instructional process then when you are working with the whole class at once.  Because of this it is very important that you set up a specific rules and policies for the students that clearly spell about what is allowed and what is not allowed.  It will then be very important for you to enforce these policies.  One useful technique is to not allow students who have violated the policy to work with their groups.

When To Use Learning Centers
Learning Centers are often best used in mid-size to large classrooms with between 4-6 computers.  The size of the classroom is a factor because of the need to reorganize the classroom configuration of desks and chairs.  You will want to separate the learning stations enough so that the students can work at them without disturbing others.  Often a good configuration is to have centers in each corner of the room and then one or two in the middle.  The numbers of computers is important because you need to utilized them as part of one of the stations.  If you have groups of 5 students each and want them each to be able to use a computer then you would need at least 5 computers for your station.  Thus, the number of computers usually needs to be the same as the number students per group if you want to utilize learning centers.  You can double students up on computers but this can diminish the impact of using the technology.  Finally, Learning Centers can be especially effective if you need to cover a number of prerequisite skills prior to starting work on a project.  Prerequisite skills lend themselves to this classroom management model because each skills does not dependent on the others and thus they make ideal activities for learning stations.

What to Expect the First Time
I wanted to just end by emphasizing that using Learning Centers is often not easy when you first attempt it.  You have to keep in the back of your mind the idea that it is not just a new approach to instruction for you but also, in most cases, for the students.  You should expect that it will take time for them to get used to it and develop an understanding of what is expected of them.  The first time around should be viewed as an experiment during which you expect things to not go as smoothly as you would like.  This is just part of the learning process and should be seen that way.  Remember, a mistake is only a failure if you don't learn from it.  You may also wish to start small and expand your use of Learning Centers over time.  This will allow your students to adjust to the new instructional process.

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