‘Where is my Googleplex?’ Rethinking vocational learning and teaching spaces for Digital Media curriculums

This paper argues that academic institutions need to consider how the learning spaces shape the behaviours of students and the pedagogies of academic staff in the delivery of Digital Media curricula. It looks at the existing provision of space in the form of computer labs and identifies how media departments could learn from the media industry, as they have in more traditional broadcast settings, to develop spaces to simulate industry practice. We argue that Lab spaces create teacher-dependant learning environments, and influence and restrain the learning experience in negative ways which promote approaches to teaching and learning which do not help graduates develop the skills and attributes they will need to work in the sector.