Implementing these new experiences will require the invention of new kinds of spaces that integrate virtual and on-site experiences seamlessly, and that facilitate participation by many people concurrently. These new physical and technical formats will have profound implications for the way educational and cultural institutions manage space, link to the outside world, and provide services. The Stanford Learning Lab believes that learning is an outcome of communication and social interaction. The ways in which we learn are being transformed by advances in technology that alter communication and interaction. For example, facilitated by fast, reliable, high bandwidth networks a research team can be created from among experts who are physically located across the globe, and assembled only virtually.
Information is instantaneously accessible, and distributed.
The world of access and knowledge implied in the global collaboration suggested above is indicative of a hybrid virtual and physical environment in which most of us will learn in the next decade. The physical space will be an extension of a web of interconnected virtual environments and an extrapolation of other remote physical environments. The possibilities for learning, for collaborative making, and for intimate connections globally in such an environment are enormous. Our goal is to design spaces for distributed activity that will support complex, socially rich, learning and will promote a sense of community amongst participants.