Overview
In May, we will gather in Edinburgh Futures Institute to explore how futures thinking can help us to conceive positive future learning spaces. We will explore and enact approaches that reimagine contemporary spaces across and beyond campus, and will speculate around the qualities that should characterise learning spaces going forward. Knowledge will be exchanged and constructed through workshops, quick-fire presentations and conversations. The ideas we generate will be collected within co-authored research outputs, with the aim of shaping thinking around the conceptualisation and creation of desirable learning spaces of the near future.
Format
Monday 4 May (draft)
09.00 Arrival, introductions, scene-setting
09.30 Futures Thinking (presentation, crowdsourcing and discussion)
10.30 Touring EFI building, ending in Canopy cafe
11.00 Critical practical and operational issues in learning space design, Helen Wood, Head of Space and Property Management
11.30 Conceptualising 'space' (presentation on spatial theories by Isabella Sinn, followed by crowdsourcing and discussion)
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Future spaces storytelling workshop led by Jen Ross
14.30 Quick-fire presentations and practice sharing
15.00 Break
15.30 Visual approaches to future spaces workshop led by James Lamb, Emanuele Bardone and Ingrid Forsler
16.30 Recap of Day 1 and discussion of plans for Day 2
17:00 (onwards) Dinner, pub, music, networking...
Tuesday 5 May (draft)
09.00 (or later) Brainstorming how we might turn ideas from Day 1 into research outputs
11.00 Break
11.30 Demonstration of hybrid teaching studio in EFI followed by visit to other innovative campus spaces (maker space? remote science labs?)
15.00 Meeting of Emanuele, Ingrid, James to discuss how we might write-up Day 1 visual workshop
09.00 Arrival, introductions, scene-setting
09.30 Futures Thinking (presentation, crowdsourcing and discussion)
10.30 Touring EFI building, ending in Canopy cafe
11.00 Critical practical and operational issues in learning space design, Helen Wood, Head of Space and Property Management
11.30 Conceptualising 'space' (presentation on spatial theories by Isabella Sinn, followed by crowdsourcing and discussion)
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Future spaces storytelling workshop led by Jen Ross
14.30 Quick-fire presentations and practice sharing
15.00 Break
15.30 Visual approaches to future spaces workshop led by James Lamb, Emanuele Bardone and Ingrid Forsler
16.30 Recap of Day 1 and discussion of plans for Day 2
17:00 (onwards) Dinner, pub, music, networking...
Tuesday 5 May (draft)
09.00 (or later) Brainstorming how we might turn ideas from Day 1 into research outputs
11.00 Break
11.30 Demonstration of hybrid teaching studio in EFI followed by visit to other innovative campus spaces (maker space? remote science labs?)
15.00 Meeting of Emanuele, Ingrid, James to discuss how we might write-up Day 1 visual workshop
Location
Collaboration Room (Room 4.30), Edinburgh Futures Institute, 1 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9EF.
Participants
We will assemble as a group of researchers with an interest and background in education futures and higher education learning spaces. Confirmed so far:
Emanuele Bardone, Professor of Educational Technology, University of Tartu
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Siân Bayne, Professor of Digital Education, University of Edinburgh
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Ingrid Forsler, Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University
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James Lamb, Lecturer in Digital Education and Education Futures, University of Edinburgh.
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Jen Ross, Professor of Digital Culture and Education Futures, University of Edinburgh
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Isabella Sinn, PhD student, Centre for Research in Digital Education, University of Edinburgh
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Tim Drysdale, Professor of Technology Enhanced Science Education, University of Edinburgh
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Henrietta Carbonel, Scientific Collaborator, UniDistance Suisse
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Luke McCrone, Research Associate, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship, Imperial College London
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Some of our relevant work
Some examples of our work that, time allowing, we might choose to look at before the event in order to potentially shape our thinking. More to follow.
Forsler, I., Bardone, E. & Forsman, M. (2025). Walls Come Tumbling Down: Imaginaries and Materialities of Future Postdigital Classrooms. Postdigital Science and Education 7, 669–681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00582-9
For instance, What new and alternative configurations of classrooms are possible?
Forsler, I. (2026). Postdigital Future Classrooms. In: Jandrić, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Postdigital Science and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35469-4_110-1
For instance, How might we theorise the idea of a 'learning space'?
Lamb, J. (2025). Conceiving the Future Classroom Through Learning Futures, Postdigital and Learning Spaces Research.
For instance, What can futures thinking bring to the idea of a 'future classroom'?
Lamb, J., & Carvalho, C. (2024). Towards Harmonious, Positive, Postdigital Spaces for Learning.
For instance, What counts as a 'positive' learning space?
Bayne, S., Gallagher, M. and Lamb, J. (2014) Being ‘at’ University: the social topologies of distance students.
For instance, What does 'campus' and 'space' mean within increasingly digitally mediated environments?
Forsler, I., Bardone, E. & Forsman, M. (2025). Walls Come Tumbling Down: Imaginaries and Materialities of Future Postdigital Classrooms. Postdigital Science and Education 7, 669–681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00582-9
For instance, What new and alternative configurations of classrooms are possible?
Forsler, I. (2026). Postdigital Future Classrooms. In: Jandrić, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Postdigital Science and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35469-4_110-1
For instance, How might we theorise the idea of a 'learning space'?
Lamb, J. (2025). Conceiving the Future Classroom Through Learning Futures, Postdigital and Learning Spaces Research.
For instance, What can futures thinking bring to the idea of a 'future classroom'?
Lamb, J., & Carvalho, C. (2024). Towards Harmonious, Positive, Postdigital Spaces for Learning.
For instance, What counts as a 'positive' learning space?
Bayne, S., Gallagher, M. and Lamb, J. (2014) Being ‘at’ University: the social topologies of distance students.
For instance, What does 'campus' and 'space' mean within increasingly digitally mediated environments?