The perfect classroom

THE rAVe Agency founder Gary Kayye has been teaching new media technologies, branding and advertising at the University of North Carolina’s School of Media and Journalism for 10 years. The building he teaches in, UNC’s Carroll Hall, is an historic 66+ year-old building and when he first started teaching, most of the classrooms didn’t encourage a truly collaborative experience for teaching or learning. But all the school’s students are Millennials and Generation Zers – two generations that learn through collaboration and not necessarily by sitting behind a desk. They don’t just use technology; they live technology. So Gary set off on a mission, with the approval of the Reese News Labs’ Director Ryan Thornburg and the help of the UNC AV team, to build the ultimate classroom.

He wanted a classroom that was affordable, collaborative, sharable and scalable. One primary goal was that anyone be able to join and participate from anywhere in the world and get the same experience as being in the classroom, including the students (who may be out sick) and the professors (who may be traveling or lecturing elsewhere). UNC’s all-new Reese News Lab is the ultimate classroom. Below you will find not only all the details on how it works, a video of the space in use, a plethora of photos and a 360-degree VR tour, but also the AsBuilt drawings so you can copy it. There’s also a video of Gary’s keynote address from the 2018 UBTech Show you can watch (registration required), where he explains the concept of the class and why it was designed the way it was.