{"id":99,"date":"2014-09-24T18:14:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T22:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openstudio.pub\/teachinginadigitalagev3m\/chapter\/6-3-the-classroom-design-model\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T07:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T11:00:40","slug":"6-3-the-classroom-design-model","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/openstudio.pub\/teachinginadigitalagev3m\/chapter\/6-3-the-classroom-design-model\/","title":{"raw":"3.2 The origins of the classroom design model","rendered":"3.2 The origins of the classroom design model"},"content":{"raw":" \n\n[caption id=\"attachment_28\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"738\"]\"Figure<\/a> Figure 3.2.1 Miss Bowls's class in an unidentified girls' school, England Date: circa 1905
Image: Southall Board, Flickr[\/caption]\n

Our institutions are a reflection of the times in which they were created. Francis Fukuyama, in his monumental writing\u00a0on political development and political decay (2011<\/a>, 2014<\/a>), points out that institutions that provide essential functions within a state often become so fixed over time in\u00a0their original structures that they fail to adapt and adjust to changes in the external environment. We need therefore to examine in particular the roots of our modern educational systems, because teaching and learning in the present day is still strongly influenced by institutional structures developed many years ago. Thus, we need to examine the extent to which our traditional campus-based models of teaching remain fit for a digital age.<\/p>\nThe large urban school, college or university, organized by age stratification, learners meeting in groups, and regulated units of time, was an excellent fit for an industrial\u00a0society. In many ways it matched the way work was organised in factories.<\/span> In effect, we still have a predominantly industrial <\/span>model of educational design, which in large part remains our default design model even today.\n\nSome design models are so embedded in tradition and convention that we are often like fish in water - we just accept that this is the environment in which we have to live and breath. The classroom model is a very good example of this. In a\u00a0classroom based model, learners are organised in classes that meet on a regular basis at the same place at certain times of the day for a given length of time over a given period (a term or semester).\n\nThis is a design decision that was\u00a0taken more than 150 years ago. It was embedded in the social, economic and political context of the 19th century. This context included:\n