Over the past decades much has shifted across the landscape of higher education. In the library, print resources are transitioning transitioned to electronic formats and availability, leaving classroom instructors questioning the ongoing relevance of the physical library to the academic mission. This paper explores new and emerging roles of the library in support of the next generation classroom, tracing the evolution of one academic science and engineering library, and sharing lessons learned while transforming an underutilized branch library into a vibrant hub of collaborative and problem-based learning. Within the physical commons of the library, equipped with non-traditional technology such as 3D printers and laser cutters, and staffed with personnel skilled at leveraging that technology in support of active learning and engagement, a depth of learning can occur in parallel with classroom instruction. The adjunct spaces and resources of the library become intertwined with the classroom, augmenting and amplifying the efforts of both. Emergent best practices are identified, along with promising results of early collaborations between the library and the classroom.
UGC NET Paper 1 Mathematical Reasoning & Aptitude.pdf
ICERI2016, Seville, Spain - The Library in Support of the Next Generation Classroom: Considerations and Lessons Learned
1. The Library in Support of the Next
Generation Classroom
Patrick “Tod” Colegrove, Ph.D., MSLIS
International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Seville, Spain – 21 November, 2016
2. • scientist - astrophysics
• turned entrepreneur/businessman - 15y as
senior management, high-tech private
industry
• tenured professor and Head of DeLaMare,
University of Nevada, Reno
Catalyst. Change Agent. Librarian.
Patrick “Tod” Colegrove, Ph.D., MSLIS
45. The Library in Support of the Next
Generation Classroom
Patrick “Tod” Colegrove, Ph.D., MSLIS
International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Seville, Spain – 21 November, 2016
Editor's Notes
Thank you – it
I’m honored to be with you today – special thanks to the organizers of this event for convening this important conversation.
By way of introduction, I am a:
scientist – experimental astrophysics
turned entrepreneur/businessman - 15y as senior management, high-tech private industry
tenured professor and Head of DeLaMare, University of Nevada, Reno
that is, a _librarian_.
The University of Nevada, Reno, is located on the border of the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada mountains on the western edge of the state, and is ranked in the top tier of best colleges in the United States – that means, it’s one of the top 200 universities.
From 2009 to 2015 enrollments have grown by 24%, with the number of students currently standing at over 21,000. ; You’re looking at a view of the campus that highlights several of the new buildings built to accommodate that growth. The building in the center of the photograph: the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, opened in 2008 – a building of over 27,400 square meters built to house the library.
Note the name “knowledge center” – knowledge is something we create within ourselves, and is not contained between the pages of a book. It is something that is created when we engage: with one another, with technology, and with traditional learning materials.
It is a place where the integration of formal and informal learning can happen naturally.
You see, the practice of education is evolving: away from the “transmission-style of teaching and learning, which were teacher focused, to a variety of constructivist perspectives which focus on how the learner constructs meaning through active and social learning and personal context [emphasis added].” -- Ellis, J., Phillips, A.: Re-defining the service experience: forging collaboration between librarians and students. In: Library Management, Volume 34, 603 – 618, (2013)
How can we support this changing paradigm? Think of this infographic as a framework. In order for the practice of education to be effective, we need to consider the full range of learning activity.
If all we’re relying on is classroom lecture, assigned readings, and homework, the best we can hope for is 50% of what we teach.
Effective library support of learning, discovery, and outreach, requires more. How can we go beyond enabling and supporting talks & group discussions to enabling our supported communities to practice and do?
Reflected in learning theory from the Constructivism of Dewey and Piaget through Papert’s Constructionism, it’s not rocket science:
To better support deeper levels of learning, we need to enable opportunities for the active doing of the subject being taught.
If you’re teaching physics, that support might range from simply providing whiteboards and hands-on demos to support for prototyping of experimental apparatus. If a language, opportunities for the active use and practice of the language – including study abroad in a foreign country.
Enter makerspace.
In 2010 I was named the Head of the DeLaMare Library – a library that can trace its roots to the very first graduating class of the University. Located in the Mackay Mines building, literally one of the first campus buildings, the primary campus library for the physical sciences & engineering on campus.
Apart from books, it was also largely empty. Beautiful, but quiet – too quiet. Located centrally to the departments served, the library should’ve been alive, serving an overall community of students and faculty in the physical sciences and engineering numbering between 5,000 and 10,000.
I was tasked with the job of transforming the library from a book repository into a ”vibrant knowledge center.”
Study carrels, seemingly pushed up against the walls by book stacks, saw relatively infrequent use.
Where was everybody? Given the ideal location and size of the potential community, the library should have been a hotbed of learning and research activity.
Maximum number of people we saw in the library was on the order of 24.
Today the library is a hotbed of learning and discovery, brimming with activity and an ever-changing flow of technology. Consider this [Google] Liquid Galaxy out in the open of the library atrium – encouraging the full range of HOMAGO activity
Whiteboard walls enable the formation of ad-hoc collaboration croups throughout the spaces of the library formerly filled with with stacks holing primarily archived print journals. Alive with learning and discovery!
It bears mention that the pretty building and its furnishings are not critical details. The conversation IS.
In order to support the creation of knowledge, the conversation is critical path. After all…
In 2014 the DeLaMare Library was named to Make magazine’s list of “Most Interesting Makerspaces in America.”
Image credit: http://makezine.com/2014/07/29/most-interesting-makerspaces-in-america/
And that was certainly the result of more that just whiteboards…
in a library of over 2,000 square meters floorspace, thenearly 1,900 square meters of whiteboard space...
Enable the raw creation of knowledge on a far deeper level than the library had seen previously.
Direct – and highly visible – support of the learning mission.
The library started offering novel services; approached by students and faculty early on as to whether the library would consider supporting a 3D printing and scanning service, we re-engaged the design process
Image credit: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/08/academic-libraries/u-nevada-library-offers-3d-printing-across-the-board/#_
Example usage includes 3D printing the protein snippet responsible for making jellyfish glow – something that labs around the world have grafted into life forms ranging from plants to earthworms and rabbits.
Self-directed learning at its finest, the Master’s student pictured in the center was so curious that he taught himself – using library resources – how to create a 3D printable model from the protein database file of the protein.
Similarly, robot parts – note the exoskeleton of the android arm
Since 2012, the printing service has been operating essentially non-stop, printing an average of 5,000-7,000 pieces a year. Informed by the ongoing iteration of design, the service has expanded to include five different printers/types; note the cross-disciplinary use of the service.
In tandem with the development of 3D printing services, the library also began developing support in terms of 3D scanning and modelling services. Pictured here, Engineering Librarian Tara Radniecki is demonstrating the use of 3D scanners that can be checked out of the library in support of field work.
Once captured digitally, real-world objects can be modified and remixed in software to produce entirely new creations. Pictured is a partial capture from the demo in the previous screen.
An example use, working in conjunction with researchers from the Smithsonian Museum, Paige DePolo checked the 3D scanners – and backup batteries – out of the library to 3D scan dinosaur fossils in-place
Indeed, one of the first used of the 3D scanning service was to scan this nearly two meter long iguana, brought into the library
So how do we enable members of the library to fully leverage these resources? Making 101: create baby steps that enable end-users to acquire new digital literacies – such as 3D modeling. We implemented adjunct services that simultaneously met prototyping needs of the supported communities while building bridges to skills acquisition and application.
Consider the simple vinyl cutter: if a student wants to personalize something badly enough that they’re willing top learn and apply 2-D digital literacies (photo editing), they’re on their way…
2D literacies acquired with the vinyl cutter apply directly to working with the laser cutter – going from 2D to 2-1/2D. Note that laser cutters are just another type of printer in the library. Seen here cutting pieces from a sheet of plywood.
The 2-1/2D nature of the output of the laser cutter leads directly to 3D literacies… just as this 3D model of a T-Rex head is composed of individual 2D slices, 3D models are similarly granular.
Similarly, first year engineering students are required to build autonomous robotic hovercraft driven by LEGO Mindstorms; pictured here is a student team working on their design with parts recently laser cut from a sheet of Styrofoam using the laser cutter.
A common use of the laser cutter is in support of student coursework: consider the depth of learning encouraged in a Statics course when the instructor incorporates a challenge for students to build a physical model of a truss bridge out of balsa wood – that needs to hold at least 100 kg. Students often leverage the ability to precision cut their designs using the laser cutter.
Pictured here are students collaboratively working on exactly such a project – and I’ve seen designs that have held as much as 900 kg; the kind of depth of learning we want to see.
This type of deep learning is on top of – not in place of – traditional methods: note the associated theoretical calculations for the truss bridge being done with paper and pencil.
Phew!
In support, the library has steadily grown its collection of lendable technology. Items recently available as lendable technology collection have ranged from Google Glass…
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive development kits…
Essentially, the same stuff that’s inside your smartphone/favorite gadget – only here, you can access and play with the pieces.
Even “traditional” ICT are critical-path when it comes to encouraging/engaging members of the supported communities to engage and “do” – over the past few years, the library has hosted on the order of a dozen hackathons.
For example a few weeks ago we hosted three hackathons at once in the library – something on the order of 150 individuals from disciplines that ranged from Computer Sciences to Journalism engaged with members from the public to create real-world applications over the compressed timeframe of 24-36 hours.
Think they learned anything that they wouldn’t have learned in a classroom?
A hybrid of support: electronics coupled with 3D printing, a computer sciences student who 3D printed the structure of an android arm, with servos operated by the robot through the circuit prototype on the breadboard held in his right hand. Story about Will and library tech as gateway into his career.
Bringing us to the need for a printed circuit board printer: a CNC mill that “prints” up to a 6-layer circuit board by removing the copper and layers from a blank board. Consider the depth of learning that access to such technology enables, particularly in disciplines such as engineering and the sciences!
We provide 3D printing and scanning services in the library for the same reasons we provide traditional ICT: it is critical-path for knowledge creation.
It’s as common for students to engage around a computer workstation as it is a whiteboard in the library.
Following a similar model, we expanded the availability of technology throughout the library
Thank you – it has been my honor to share these ideas with you.