The Institutional Learning Space model I describe below is currently a fiction: it does not exist - and there are many who might argue that such a vision is outlandish, depending far too much on technology.

I have been coming close to this vision, in one setting after another, as an adult literacy instructor, over the past few years. In some cases, the access to the Internet was absent, but the classroom had a few desktop PCs and a few laptops students could bring to their desks and use for assignments or run CD-ROMS and DVDs with instructional software and content. In this setting, there was an instructor PC, a projector, but no whiteboard, and no screen. The presentations were projected on to the wall as needed.

In another case, the classroom had no wireless access, but had a bank of networked PCs. Students could borrow laptops or use the desktop PCs, to prepare their English assignments and use educational software. The bank of PCs in this case were connected to the printer. There was a separate printer connected to the instructor's PC in a separate office adjoining the learning space.

In still another case, the classroom was in a computer lab full of PCs, an instructor desk and PC, a whiteboard, and a projector with a screen. Despite the presence of PCs, some students were still choosing to sit at tables and log on to the wireless internet on their own laptops and netbooks.

I would blend the requirements of the electronic classroom and the field learner workspace. I envision that the learning space is hard-wired for high-speed internet access, and set up for wireless as a hybrid, ad hoc network, making it possible to add and remove laptops and netbooks as needed. It has a set of round tables with comfy chairs, no desk for the instructor in the learning space, and no whiteboard or blackboard. There would be four sets of banks of 2 or 3 PCs off to each corner of the room.

This set up supports the possibility of team-teaching, with two or three different instructors in the same learning space at the same time working with different learners. For each instructor, t here would be a portable materials unit, containing a laptop, a network printer, a scanner and a digital projector, as well as a few headsets, a couple microphones, a digital voice recorder, a digital cameras, a few USB Flash drives, and a couple electronic pens. These units would be removed from the learning space when the instructor is not working with learners.

The setup enables learners the choice to make use of institutional resources, or bring their own laptops and netbooks, as well as peripheral devices. The learning space would also act as a field workspace for evening and part-time students who are taking blended delivery literacy courses, and provides an effective learning space for "unconferencing" sessions, in which faculty share and present their work with other faculty members as informal PD events. The idea for an unconferencing learning space was inspired by a recent CeLC2010 unconferrencing session, in which a group of participants interacted in group learning in an unplanned manner.

The learning space would be supported by the institutional LMS (Learning Management System) in which sudents use a number of tools such as the blogging tool (class blog, individual student blogs, and the instructor blogs), a portfolio development tool, email and paging, and a content management system. This provides students with the benefit of uploading their assignments and drafts to their locker, sending their completed assignments to the assignment dropbox, and keeping informed of updates and news announcements.

Such a setup is an immersive technical environment, which combines the students' needs for a flexible field learning space with the instructors' needs for accessible technologies and resources to aid learners with completing assignments. In addition, the setup makes possible the potential for ad-hoc, unplanned PD events to facilitate teamwork and exchange of best practices among faculty members.