Presented at Librarians' Knowledge Sharing Workshop, Bangkok, February, 2015

1. Transforming a media
suite into a
Technology Lab
Siobhan Roulston
Primary Teacher Librarian
Garden International School
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
roulston.s@gardenschool.edu.my

2. Rationale
● We felt that there was a need for a space that
encouraged self-organised learning and where
students could be creative and comfortable with
technology.
● We decided to redesign and repurpose the current
media suite to enable better flexibility and collaboration
for our Primary students.
● Whole class teaching doesn’t fit our model of learning.
● Media suite was only used 22% of the time from Sept.
to Nov.

3. Our 2½ year old library

16. media suite

17. Current media suite

18. Current media suite

19. Current media suite

20. Continuing to meet our students’
ICT needs
● Students in Years 5 and 6 have their own iPads.
● Year 4 will come online in September.
● Each classroom has 6 MacBooks.
● We have 4 mobile computer trolleys (13 MacBooks)
for classroom use and 2 sets of 12 iPads which can
be booked out.

21. What kind of space do we want?

22. Flexible
Collaborative
Creative
Progressive

23. Inviting
Bright Engaging
Social

25. What steps have we taken so far?
● Formed a working group
● Requested budget allocation
● Discussed new room design
● Decided on devices for 26 users: 8 iMacs, 8 iPads, 10
MacBooks
● Considered other equipment: green/blue wall, camera,
microscopes, interactive tabletop?

26. Our design

27. To do list:
● order ICT equipment
● choose a name for new space
● soundproof discussion rooms
● rewire as necessary
● paint green wall
● create wall art
● order furniture (soft mobile seating;
low tables for Beebots and
claymation; tables for 8 iMacs; low
bench