Design Studio Model

The Design Studio Workshop model introduces faculty from partner schools to documents, scholars, technologies and technologists. Small groups of teachers from each school meet at worktables equipped with fully-networked computers configured with the software needed for work during the coming year, machines which in most cases they will take back to their schools at the end of the two weeks.

Design Studio activities include:

1. Presentations by content experts (university historians and those affiliated with the digital archive which serves as the project focus);
2. Demonstrations by instructional technologists (staff who collaborate with teachers on a wide array of projects across disciplines);
3. Roundtable discussions (of issues inspired by presentations and demonstrations, or arising from the work at hand);
4. Work periods (where faculty explore communication and presentation tools, finding resources on the Internet and incorporating these into the first drafts of their curriculum additions and project activity plans for the upcoming year); and
5. Group Presentations (where work groups share their discoveries and evolving plans, developing the collegial relationships that will be sustained during the upcoming year).

The capacity of the Design Studio to inspire exploration and experimentation is due to its intense concentration of resources, both human and electronic, and the ease and informality of the work space for getting work done. Similar to other experiences, the activity and energy of the work groups engendered in Design Studio sessions can be sustained through email, bulletin board services and web pages comprising an online project development intranet.