Guest post by Fiona Young, Studio Director at Hayball Architects Studies have shown that elevated sound levels can impact on learning ability. and stress levels. of students and their teachers. A recent study. on educators’ and architects’ perceptions of the affordances of learning environments for deep learning indicated that both professions recognise overly noisy spaces […]
Is it really possible to predict the room acoustic values in a non-diffuse room?
We made acoustic measurements as part of a remodelling of our training area at our head offices during the different phases of the acoustic treatment in the refurbishment. This is outlined in a previous Acoustic Bulletin post which highlighted the need for wall absorbers to remove the flutter echos, thus reducing the reverberation time and […]
Designing out “Chinook” flutter echoes in speech communication rooms
In September, it was a pleasure to present a work in progress “Optimising the acoustic design for a multi-purpose room used for speech communication activities” at ICA 2019 in Aachen. One of our inhouse head office rooms recently remodelled to accommodate a mixture of training functions. The sound environment for a room designed for speech […]
Soundproofist – a practical approach to raising awareness about sound around us.
It was great to meet up with Cary Norsworthy at Internoise2019 in Madrid a few weeks ago. Her passion about the sound environment is driven from her own experiences and her curiosity to learn more about noise, acoustics and soundproofing – and share this with others. She not only is doing a great job raising […]
Report looking at the implications of open learning spaces, acoustics and teacher personality
Background to the report Despite resistance to open plan classrooms in many countries, the movement towards innovative learning environments continues in parts of Europe, especially Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. Their definition (ILEs), is an ongoing discussion in itself and their success is dependent on many aspects. However, understanding the changes in pedagogic approaches, including […]
How about raising awareness about the need to check our hearing!
The theme for the upcoming World Hearing Day 2019 is “Check Your Hearing”. On the 3rd March the WHO (World Health Organisation) will draw attention to the importance of early identification and intervention for hearing loss. Many people live with unidentified hearing loss, often failing to realise that they are missing out on certain sounds […]
Global School User Survey has acoustics questions!
Title image credit: Cover from the OECD School User Survey. The newly launched OECD School User Survey is designed to support the improvement of learning spaces by empowering school users. Significantly for us as acoustic enthusiasts, among the broad range of holistic topics and important aspects that it covers, the survey also includes 5 acoustic […]
Better speech communication and learning in the classroom
At this years Transitions18 Education research seminar in Copenhagen, Viveka Årlander Lyberg Associate Professor at Lund University, presented the latest developments around Suvi Karjulainen’s PhD “Better communication and learning in the classroom”. This unique and applied study around the quality of speech communication for teachers and students also links to the investigation of the classroom […]
School acoustic research overview says minimise sound levels whilst maximising speech intelligibility
Professor Emeritus Bridget Shield recently presented a comprehensive school acoustic research overview at the Transitions18 education research symposium in Copenhagen. Bridget’s overview highlighted that the importance of acoustics in schools has been know about for a long time although the research has only really accelerated over the last 50+ years. BS looked at the typical […]
Acoustics is part of the conversation – when transitioning to innovative learning environments
For the second year running the University of Melbourne and the ILETC project organised a series of three Transitions18 research symposia around learning spaces in Melbourne, Phoenix co hosted by Steelcase and Copenhagen co hosted by Ecophon. Attending the Copenhagen event, there was a wealth of groundbreaking research studies and discussions about the transition of […]
