Here are the characteristics of a bar-restaurant that we feel offers a powerful model for learning: these spaces are Flexible, Partially Mediated Multi-format Environments focused on a Menu. Imagine a learning space that allows students to work singly or in groups. The students chose what works best for them. The curriculum (or menu) is defined at the beginning of the semester, but the pace at which students work is not and for some subjects broken down into units, even the order of the units studied may be up to the student. Thus the student can browse and select what he wants to work on, within a range taking some control of his own learning. We admit the idea is not completely new: in the late 1970s, in a tiered classroom space at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton, Massachusetts, one of us learned chemistry in exactly this fashion from a curriculum written by, among others, a very charismatic teacher named Catherine Capone. The experience has not faded from memory in 40 years. The teacher plays a vital role in this paradigm: inspiring, commenting, supporting, challenging and giving examples to both individuals and groups of students that make the material come alive. The bar component is commonplace at the Apple store, which by the way also offers tables where groups can learn about there products: it is a bar-restaurant learning space disguised as a store.
