To extend avenues for learning and collaboration, the studio features such innovative technology as a 20-foot high-resolution video wall, which allows integral use of live media-rich learning materials and fosters interactive involvement between students and teachers. The studio provides opportunities for students learn to teach in a new way, and students can also use equipment such as laptops, video cameras, smart phones, iPads, and more to study how new technologies impact learning.
Peterson and Northwestern provost Daniel Linzer kicked off the dedication event with comments about the potential for new forms of learning and thanks to Eleanor R. Baldwin (MS66). Baldwin’s gift allowed the School to revamp the learning studio with leading-edge technology.
SESP learning sciences professor Reed Stevens, along with alumni Kyle Petty and Jennifer Khan (both BS10), senior Meixi Ng and SESP information technology director Mike Hannen demonstrated new features of the learning studio.
Using the video wall and an annotating tool, Petty and Khan projected a double-screen presentation they developed for Stevens’s Cognition in Context class demonstrating a solution to the problem of crossing Sheridan Road. Meixi Ng used the same tools to show and annotate her travels to schools in marginalized communities on six continents. Finally, Hannen demonstrated other capabilities of the video wall, as well as web cameras and whiteboards equipped with cameras to save and send notes.
In his comments, Stevens emphasized the studio’s potential for collaborative learning. “This room allows collaboration we couldn’t do before,” he said. "We’re able to move back and forth between parallel, independent and collaborative work.” Discussing the importance of the studio’s learning potential, Stevens emphasized that who you learn with matters, where you learn matters and how you participate matters.
Stevens also noted the importance of the studio as a center for learning activities that involve “making ideas in different forms” and refining “ideas among others.” The field of learning sciences seeks to bring the outside world in, work on it together and teach in the context of real work, according to Stevens, whose research focuses on learning in informal and formal settings.
Eleanor Baldwin had been impressed when she visited campus and observed professor Stevens’s Cognition in Context class, where students were studying new approaches to learning — especially the impact of digital media. Her interest led to plans for the technology-rich learning space that is now the Eleanor R. Baldwin Learning Studio, in 303 Annenberg Hall.
Baldwin taught history and social science for 34 years before her retirement, and has continued to serve as a mentor and supervisor for many young teachers. Baldwin, who lives in Florida, had intended to participate in the dedication but was unable to attend because of illness.