Giving Compass' Take:

• Education Dive reports on how colleges are breaking ground on high- and low-tech spaces that give students and faculty new ways to engage.

• These spaces are focused less on traditional campus infrastructures (like lecture halls) and more on online learning and collaboration. In what ways can nonprofits support the push to this vision of higher education?

• Another eye to the future on campuses? Colleges are starting to teach blockchain.

From soaring, high-tech innovation labs that attract new students, to small-scale huddle spaces and digital campsites that foster the soft skills bosses increasingly want, colleges are building anew or repurposing existing infrastructure to meet the learning needs of today's college students. And flexibility is key.

"More education is happening out in the field through immersive experiences and technology. This will cause campuses to fundamentally rethink their physical assets," says Traci Engel Lesneski, who led the team at Minneapolis architectural firm MSR, which designed the award-winningVisual Culture, Arts and Media (VCAM) building at Haverford College, in Pennsylvania. The college promotes the repurposed gymnasium as a "24/7 creative hub" that bridges previously siloed departments, packing in flexible work and collaboration spaces, offices, a high-tech presentation lounge and a communal kitchen.

These spaces and others like them accommodate learning in two new ways.

First, they are less focused on traditional lectures and isolated study and more on blended and online learning and collaboration. Professors may develop more sophisticated and interactive lessons, for example, especially considering that more students are likely to have one or more mobile devices in tow.

Second, the campus IT infrastructure will get more sophisticated in response, such as through more charging stations, stronger WiFi or Internet service, and the use of augmented and virtual reality to expand education experiences.

Read the full article about the blueprint for a 21st century college campus by James Paterson at Education Dive.