The FLS is a 300m2 facility located in the first floor of the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa, Israel. The facility has five flexible learning spaces and is customized to allow the use of various participation modes and technologies. One unique aspect of our FLS is its humanistic orientation which is literally built into the walls. By this, we mean extended efforts to get to know one another, such that group dynamics and transformative changes in identities and long-held learning practices are challenged and negotiated. To support the creation of a safe space so that students can engage in such intimate processes within a University setting, one of our main principles was to design a biophillic space that includes a kitchen and sofas, plants, rugs, a coffee bar, and warm colors.
The FLS is one of the flagship projects of the LINKS I-Core research excellence centers. LINKS, short for Learning in a NetworKed Society, is a large, multi-institutional, interdisciplinary national grant that includes 15 principal investigators and over 100 graduate students and research assistants.
The FLS design process was led by four key LINKS PI’s, namely Dr. Yotam Hod (who directed the process), Prof. Yael Kali, Prof. Dani Ben-Zvi, and Prof. Tamar Weiss. While the FLS is currently an independently functioning center, it is still carrying out the LINKS mission and vision of advancing state-of-the-art knowledge on learning in the networked society.