Room layout
We get to see quite a few computer labs during our travels and they usually look the same as any other classroom (apart from the computers!) with the teacher sitting behind their desk at the front and students sitting in rows facing the board. Frankly, we can't see anything good about this arrangement other than it doesn't require any brain power to lay it out. But there are some pretty major drawbacks:
- You can't see what your students are doing on their computers
- It's difficult to walk around the classroom to help individual students
- Students can't work together easily
- Cabling is very messy and wires often trail dangerously across the floor
It's much better to arrange the room with rows running from the back wall towards the front, as shown in the diagram below:
With this layout, there are no desks to act as a barrier between teacher and students; the teacher at the front has only to take a step to the left or right to be able to glance down either aisle and see what every student is doing; and students can still see the board easily, as well as having space to group around any computer to work together or for small-group instruction.
A further benefit is that wiring the room is simplified because cables can be run along the back and side walls, and between the two centre rows - there is absolutely no need to trail cables across the floor.
On a practical note, we prefer to use long benches rather than individual desks as they tend to shake less and give more space for students to work. Unless the lab is for practice only, allow plenty of room to the sides of each work station for students to rest their books and write - at least 1.0m, preferably 1.2m if space allows.
Benches need to be around 0.8m deep to allow for cabling behind the PC and keyboard in front. You also need to allow plenty of space between the rows so that the teacher can walk up and down easily without asking anyone to move. A room about 8m long and 7m wide is ideal for twenty computers.
We may as well touch on class size here. Most schools try to cram too many students and computers into a room. Resist the temptation. We usually install between fifteen and twenty, depending on the students and staff who will be using them. One computer is a "master" for storing teaching materials etc. and one is a spare so that lessons are not interrupted if a machine breaks down. So our maximum class size is eighteen, and believe me, it takes two of us to teach such a large class if they are all beginners!