By Cassandra Hendry
Libraries are fast becoming places of innovative learning, and 杏吧原创鈥檚 is no exception.
The Discovery Centre, a multimedia learning space on the fourth floor of MacOdrum Library, is home to media labs, presentation spaces, 3D printers and other technological tools for students and professors alike to use.
History professors Dominique Marshall and David Dean are two of a growing number of faculty looking to take learning beyond the walls of a stereotypical classroom, and finding the Discovery Centre to be the perfect place to do that.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something about having a beautiful space where the technology鈥檚 integrated into the space. You can achieve your pedagogical goals without it being too complicated,鈥� says Dean.
In Dean鈥檚 class, students Skyped with a British professor who recently wrote a book about people who performed cabarets in concentration camps. To illustrate the point, Dean wanted to show a video re-creation of some of these plays being performed.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 have really done it that easily anywhere else on campus. I needed to switch seamlessly between the performance on DVD, a discussion, to the Skyping in the same room,鈥� he says. 鈥淏eing able to do that in one space was terrific.鈥�
Marshall got her whole class involved in using the Discover Centre as well, hosting an event where students could on the history of humanitarian aid. Students could move from one poster to the next and ask questions about each, finally culminating in a class discussion on the topics chosen.
鈥淚 was nervous it was going to be too noisy, but it worked. We could do our own thing and other people could do their own thing,鈥� says Marshall, who also held office hours in the Discover Centre. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something about the sound which is not like a classroom. There鈥檚 something personal about it.鈥�
One of her favourite parts was the feedback she received from her students, which was overwhelmingly positive, as they were able to showcase their posters in the library for a week for all to see.
鈥淭hey could see the impact of what they had done,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey said it was really nice to see peoples鈥� reactions to their work.鈥�
Both Dean and Marshall agree that the seamless technology and moveable classroom鈥時ather than bolted chairs and desks鈥昳s the way of the future for universities.
鈥淚t enhances [students鈥橾 learning enormously,鈥� Dean says. 鈥淎s more examples of what you can do in there get out to the community, more and more faculty will use it.鈥�