As part of their School Property Strategy, New Zealand’s Ministry of Education (MoE) has recently revamped their acoustic standard for education, Designing Quality Learning Spaces (DQLS), and aims to implement it across 3,000 learning spaces in over 600 schools. The initiatives were recently presented at the Internoise 2022 conference by James Whitlock from Marshall Day […]
Education
Lily Wang and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Wonderful key-note at Internoise in Glasgow.
If Michael Jackson was King of Pop – Lily Wang is Queen of acoustics! We feel so lucky to have been part of a legendary keynote presentation that made us laugh, wonder, reflect, and a bit star-struck! Lily has skills that go beyond her impressive professional merits: This lady excels on stage! Add to that […]
New Ph.D: Acoustic Design with Regard to Human Perception
Friday the 13th of May Emma Arvidsson (EA) did her Ph.D. dissertation at Lund’s University (Sweden) under the title ‘Acoustic Design with Regard to Human Perception’. Acoustic design of Ordinary Public Rooms From many years of research, we know that ordinary public rooms (classrooms and offices) where complex tasks such as learning or following long […]
New research shows that a lower reverberation time helps children cope with multi-talker listening situations
How children make sense of the complex signals they hear in the classroom depends partly on their hearing and cognitive abilities. But newly published research shows more about the important part played by the acoustic environment in this process; specifically, the role of reverberation time. The ability to make sense of what you are hearing […]
Diffusion or absorption?
The Subjective Experience Depending on Type of Acoustic Treatment Recently, PHD student Emma Arvidsson, published an article regarding different acoustic treatments in ordinary rooms and how they are perceived. The article concerns how people subjectively experience different acoustic environments and furthermore, if the experience was different depending on where in the room they were sitting. […]
Baltic-Nordic Acoustics Meeting 2021
The Nordic Acoustic Association and the Norwegian Acoustical Society invited scientists and engineers to attend the Baltic-Nordic Acoustic Meeting for 2021 this week and despite an online set-up the program consisted of keynote lectures, invited and contributed papers in structured parallel sessions. Some of the really interesting presentations are described here but you can find […]
Noisier teaching methods pose serious challenges for classroom design
Teaching methods shape the classroom sound environment Teachers of today have the shared goal of maximizing student engagement whilst maintaining a controlled sound environment. This has resulted in decades of innovation in educational approaches, classroom design and acoustic standardization. When additionally considering the influence of advancements in technological tools which have further augmented the field […]
New podcast series in Swedish
Three of our editors have kicked off a new podcast in their local language – Swedish! Maria Quinn, Ida Cederlund and Johan Gross discuss the nature of sound and why we are affected by it in so many ways in healthcare, education and offices. The first two episodes are available and more will come in […]
Multipurpose spaces function much better for their activities after acoustic improvements
The Municipal Music School of Pinto, in Madrid was in need of improving the acoustics of its facilities in order to further motivate its students and offer teachers a healthier work environment. More specifically, a multipurpose room as well as the entrance hall were treated with “Class A” absorbing acoustic solutions acoustic solutions. The latter […]
The impact of noise in education – a research summary
This new research summary is now available and lifts out evidence from a variety of research studies around the world. These studies address a broad range of important aspects which need to be considered in learning environments. It is based on a recent extensive literature review by Professor Emerita Bridget Shield made for Ecophon. We […]