Learning and Dialogue Building

Former Canadian military college, Royal Roads University, is constructing a Learning and Innovation Centre building. One floor will be a "Centre for Dialogue", intended to carry out a similar function to that of the Wosk Centre at Simon Fraser University.

However unlike the Wosk centre, which is essentially a conterence centre with very specalsied discussion rooms for face to face interaction, the LIC building will be primarily a teaching centre for traditional lectures and computer meditated communication, with dialogue as a secondary role.

The building is designed by Jensen Chernoff Thompson Architects and their early plans for the building are avialable. Interestingly, the university has used its Moodle Learning System to provide details of the project and as a forum for consultation on the project. The general public can view the documents and "RRU Campus Progress Discussion".

This model of a combined learning and dialogue centre, using online education tools which I have suggested for a Dialogue and Learning Centre in Canberra. Instead of having rooms and systems which are purpose built for public discussion and which therefore will be unused most of the time, the design of a learning centre is adapted for occasional dialogue use. This allows the unviersity to have a useful teaching facility and to have a fully staffed facility with computer systems ready for use as a dialogue centre.