[I’m on Design Share’s Design Awards Judging team this year. Christian asked all the panelists to answer four really provocative questions. Here are my answers.]

Why does ‘school design’ matter TO YOU in terms of its impact on learning and communities?

I think of ‘School Design’ as much more than the way we physically build our schools. I think of it in terms of pedagogy and course structure and values. And I admit, that I used to think (and still think, to some degree) that you can bring powerful educational ideas to bear on a little red school house, but it’s a whole lot easier to do it when the spaces match the philosophy. So what are the ideas I embrace when it comes to school design? Inquiry-driven, project-based education. Integrated learning that allows students to see beyond traditional courses and ask questions that are bigger than any one discipline. Educating the whole child and teaching kids that caring matters. Several of the folks on this list inspire me when I think about school design, but so do folks like Nel Noddings and bell hooks and Grant Wiggins and Thomas Sergiovanni and John Dewey. Why does it matter to me? Because schools, to me, are our secular cathedrals. They are sacred places when they work well, where students and teachers can come together and create a vision of themselves that is bigger and better than it was before.

What trend (or trends) are catching your eye today in terms of the creation of ‘learning environments’? What trend(s) do you think will matter most in the coming 5-10 years once new designs are up and running?

Transparency — We are beginning to see the notion of the 24/7 school using ICT (internet communication technologies.) We need more tools like moodle and drupal and other web-based school management / course management / content management systems so that schools can introduce the new internet tools to students. (Or we can wait for Google to design the master tool, I guess…)

Connectivism — Dewey’s constructivist dream married to the powerful tools of research, communication, collaboration and creation that we now have at our disposal.

And the trend that will matter the most is what happens with this current "accountability" phase we’re living through, and if we can get past the idea that we can know what students have learned by their answers on multiple choice tests. I think that, despite the incredible promise of reimagining our schools, we are currently in a dark place for public education in America.

What is one thing that you’d like to learn more about this summer by virtue of collaborating with this group of professional/international jurors? Why?

I’d like to be exposed to more ideas about how facilities design and school design can really come together. I want to see how other people I respect and admire think about schools and learning spaces. I want to see how the other folks on the panel imagine how our schools can help students prepare for a world we cannot hope to predict.

Share one thing about your own experience as a child/student in school spaces that made an impact on your current adult/professional life. If you’d like, you may also add a quick experience that impacted the adult lives of one of your children/siblings/friends as well.

I think, for me, it was Mr. Wilson’s office in High School. He was a Media / English teacher and he ran the TV sports and video yearbook programs. His classroom had an office off of it, and it was there that we all hung out. It was a safe space for kids to hang out with adults outside of the traditional classroom, and it was that space that made classes more real, more humane. I’ve tried my entire educational career to create spaces where students and teachers could come together as people first.