Rather than build a college around geeky science laboratories and uber-smart classrooms, I think schools ought to be built around coffee shops. That inspiration came to mind as I sipped my Campfire Mocha Friday in the newly remodeled Campus Buzz coffee shop on the Green Bay campus.
Wouldn't you rather sip a medium brew in a coffee shop than sit in a sterile study space, computer lab, or industrial commons? So, rather than have one solitary coffee shop, wouldn't it be better to have them scattered about the campus and in regional learning centers, like choice parking spots? The coffee shop is the natural center for a free exchange of ideas among close friends and between departmental colleagues. I can't think of a place I'd rather be in a school, and I kind of like the classroom.
The idea of a social center in our lives is nothing new. That's why town squares were platted in the first place. Atriums and open areas in corporate buildings are designed to give the mechanistic soul a respite from the 9-5. The Apple genius, Steve Jobs, circled his huge Cupertino headquarters around socializing choke points he called "serendipitous and fluid meeting spaces," according to his biographer Walter Isaacson. Jobs knew breaking down departmental barriers, or silos, allows even unlikely colleagues to come together to exchange work projects and ideas. Great ideas come from that serendipitous exchange.
What works for communities and for business, also works in education. Instructors long suspected that groups of students generate as much learning together as do lectures, worksheets, and textbooks separately. Give me an Americano menu on a chalkboard in a multi-use, art-filled space equipped with comfy chairs, a reliable WI-FI signal, and light jazz, and the world will pivot in my favor as if balanced on a caffeinated lever. Sprinkle generously with scones, muffins, and Death by Chocolate brownies and, Houston, we have landed in Nirvana. Sit down and let's go over the assignment for today.
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