Horizon Media Offices and “What’s Cool for School”

November 24st, 2013

Encourage Collaboration

Horizon Media has created open work spaces for its employees, encouraging them to host meetings, brainstorm and create think tanks in these areas. The Game Room comes complete with shuffle board, two large-scale televisions and an X-Box console. The Dunes is the largest open meeting space in any NYC office building and has hosted client events and even its own concert series with bands like Collective Soul. The Terrace is an open-air meeting space complete with a wrap-around outdoor patio, and also serves craft beer from three in-house taps for work ‘happy hours’.

The Game Room

The Dunes

The Terrace

Cool for School?

Okay, so maybe craft beer doesn’t belong in a school, but engaging and collaborative spaces certainly do! By giving students open meeting spaces BPJPII can encourage the free-flowing exchange of ideas, spark collective thinking for group assignments and class meetings, or simply give students a place to unwind. Removing the traditional rows of desks and seats allows students to feel more comfortable participating in discussions, expressing their ideas and spending time with their classmates in a constructive setting.

Socially Awkward?Horizon Media’s Trading Floor is the first of its kind: a Wall Street style set up where Horizon Media’s digital strategists trade in social currency. On this floor, all social media interactions for client campaigns are implemented, monitored and measured with the latest available technology. Those two large screens you see in the back? Those screens aggregate all Horizon Media client social engagements and calculate the value of the combined effects of Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and Pinterst campaigns.

Cool for School?

Twitter isn’t just a place to post Vine videos of students chasing each other with shaving cream in the hallway. Facebook isn’t just a place to share “selfies” and party photos. No. Social media is the wave of the present and the future, allowing students to connect with one another, mentors, leaders and many more. Social media lets students stay abreast of current events and the ever-changing social, financial, commercial and political climate of the world. It also engages them in video editing, and promotes sharing of ideas and understanding of new technology. We can encourage its use (in the right way) and students will have a leg up in future careers.

The Trading Floor

Hands-On Experiences

Horizon Media’s Voyager Lab is a state-of-the-art meeting space where digital video networks are on display. Clients and employees can view, in real time, emerging advertising networks that are usually located at airports, bars, office buildings, health clubs, malls and more. This helps the Horizon Media staff sell the value of each advertising environment to its clients, test new mobile and social features on each screen, and even upload client ad campaigns to each screen to gauge audience reaction and recall.

The Voyager Lab

The Dunes

The Terrace

Cool for School?

The Voyager lab is how Horizon Media stays ahead of advancements in technology. BPJPII can do the same, by implementing assignments and courses utilizing the latest in tablet and mobile devices. The world is becoming more and more digitally-focused every day, while the old pen-and-paper method quickly becomes extinct. By exposing students to new technologies, we will provide hands-on training for their future.

“Third Teacher” Wish List The Voyager Lab

The Dunes

The Terrace

Let’s give it to them!

Here is a list of ideas from my Grade 9 IB class. Let’s listen to the “Student Voice”: •A Genius Bar with at least three laptops in each classroom•Bar-like shelving for charging stations for laptops, iPads and other devices •A SMARTboard and projector in each classroom •Improved lighting and more windows•Whiteboards instead of blackboards •WiFi in the portables •Improved colour of paint on the walls •A ramp to move TVs and Netbooks to and from portables (when we have WiFi access) •Coloured paint on the outside of the portables with symbols of hope and community •More innovative chairs and desks (i.e. bean bag chairs, exercise balls, etc.) •Digital clocks in the portables •Dry-erase paint on the walls and desks to brainstorm ideas•”Surround sound” in each classroom that is connected to laptops and TVs•Reading station/lounge area in the classroom •Green space (plants/flowers) placed around the classroom and around the portables •Larger classrooms; remove the walls in some classrooms to create more collaborative meeting spaces •Collaborative meeting areas around the school where students can discuss class projects and charge their laptops and other devices

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