HIT: Computer Lab in LMC - With or Without Walls? PART II

[Cheryl Townsley <townsley@tenet.edu>]

Dear LM-NET,
     Thank all of you who sent messages so much!  I have received
several replies and am working on the rest of the hit.

We are about to remodel our high school library.  We are scheduled to
get a computer research lab with about 30 computers.

What is the groups opinion on:
     a) Libraries with labs and no walls (30 computers)
     b) Libraries with labs and walls to separate the lab from the
        rest of the library.

We have a lab with walls (windows are the top half).  I like this
arrangement because it helps to cut down on noise and classes can be
conducted in there or in the library without disturbing the students in
the other section.  We do have a separate person who supervises the lab,
except for during the lunch periods and the last hour of school.  The
lunch periods aren't that busy anyway and I have gotten to know the kids
in the last period classes very well.
I am in a high school and the arrangement of the lab does encourage a
few students to goof around, but because of the windows I can usually
tell by their heads who is not being productive.  If I send them back to
class once then they are usually working hard the next few times they
come in.  I think I would have that problem even if the walls weren't
there.

I would definitely go with walls.  We have a small (15 computers lab)
adjacent to our library with a glass wall between the lab and my
circulation/work area.  Students are very often in the lab with no
teacher and the glass wall provides visual supervision while the noise
factor is reduced.  Noise is a definite consideration.  We also have a
hexagonal computer work station for research and word processing
centrally located IN the library and the noise and distraction factor
from this is objectionable.
(The original decision to place it where it is was based on
line-of-sight from the circulation area and lack of alternatives.)  I
would not repeat this decision, but would break up the six computers
into six separate spaces scattered through the library.  Just my  .02
worth.  (Our library serves 260 students in grades 6-12).

Every set-up is different, but I think the main consideration is
supervision, supervision, supervision.  Any configuration that will make
it easy to see what kids have on the screens, and any configuration that
will make them THINK you can easily see what they have on the screens..
that's what I'd go for.

WALLS WALLS WALLS!!!  I'm sharing a floor - with vaulted ceiling - with
a computer lab.  The printer sounds, etc. bounce off ceiling and it is
dreadful.   Both the computer teacher and I teach lessons, so I'm
rolling a cart around from classroom to classroom.  Hate it.... but the
noise is too much to teach next to.

   I work in a small (450 students) high school.  We have a lab with 15
Internet computers and 7 just word processors.  The library itself has 2
Internet computers and 3 word processors.  The lab is set off from the
library with a partial wall (5 ft. tall)  This is not enough to muffle
the noise, but just enough to keep me from standing in the library and
see what is going on in the lab. (or vice versa)   I argued and argued,
but the wall went up, with the promise that in a couple of years it
"could" come down -- ha ha ha.
   It is sometimes difficult to keep the library quiet when the lab is
so noisy.  Also, teachers do not always monitor the lab -- they sit and
do their e-mail, surf the net, or "play cards".  So it is up to me to
monitor both rooms.

I would strongly suggest that labs have walls.  Students make noise,
mainly because they get excited about what they are doing.  But also, I
do a lot of instructing on how to use the computers, the web, research
tools, and I don't want to create any more noise that is necessary.
Good luck.  High School.

I will send more in Part III. Thank you again.

Cheryl Townsley
Librarian
L. D. Bell High School
Hurst, TX

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