So-called “maker spaces” are proliferating in campus libraries, but truly effective ones require much more than a 3D printer and some shiny new toys.  This week, Ken Steele chats with Kerry Harmer, the Maker Studio Specialist at Mount Royal University, about the potential connections between academic makerspaces and undergraduate curriculum and pedagogy. Makerspaces are creative spaces for thinking differently, Kerry explains, “a place for students to make a mess, to be creative, and a safe environment to get things wrong.”

MRU’s Maker Studio is a bright, glass-walled space on the main floor of the Riddell Library & Learning Centre. (If you missed our episode on MRU’s new $110 million library, check it out: https://youtu.be/eSM-wyyxXVs ). The Maker Studio has 3D printers and scanners, laser cutters, 7 kinds of sewing machines, and a full suite of electronics and robotics from Little Bits to ADA Fruit, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and more. (For an inventory of equipment and software see https://library.mtroyal.ca/teaching/makerstudio/resources ).

Mount Royal’s Maker Studio is “completely barrier-free,” open to students, faculty, staff and the external community in Calgary, free of charge. Because material costs can cause users to second-guess themselves, all materials for 3D printing are offered completely free as part of the pilot year, to help build digital literacies and see how the technology gets used.

So why do Makerspaces so often wind up in campus libraries? Meagan Bowler, Dean of Libraries at MRU, explains that “a library collection is not just a collection of books.  It can be a collection of software, of tools. It aligns with our mission to collect the things our users need to create new knowledge and get it out there into the world.” Moreover, Kerry Harmer emphasizes that locating new technologies centrally on a campus removes barriers, inspires interdisciplinary collaboration, and democratizes the technology. “There’s a real kind of magic and synergy, peer learning and self-directed learning” when students from across the university work beside each other in the space.

A big part of Kerry’s job is working with faculty across many disciplines to develop unexpected curriculum connections for their students and class projects. Science and technology faculty and students actually seem to be using the Maker Studio less than students in the Arts and elsewhere. So far, more than 24 courses from all faculties have done coursework in the Maker Studio, from Math, Child Studies, and Interior Design, to Social Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship classes. Makerspaces are increasingly part of the learning commons in primary and secondary schools, so it’s really important that MRU’s pre-service elementary school teachers get familiar with the technologies that will be in the K-12 curriculum they will teach. In addition to working one-on-one with faculty across the university, Kerry is developing a full-day faculty workshop to expose them to the design thinking process, and the resources of the Maker Studio. Then faculty can better consider how to incorporate making experiences into their curricula, and how to assess the learning that lies behind student creations.

Maker spaces are about much more than 3D printers, which “can only output as good as you put in.” The key, Kerry explains, is to understand that the learning in a makerspace “is not necessarily about the making; sometimes it’s about the thinking,” from problem definition and human-centred design to design thinking. The ideation process is similar, for a 3D print or a traditional essay: “The tools are just the output for the thinking that happens in the Maker Studio, which is creative, which is innovative… it’s about making change.”

Special thanks to Mount Royal University for hosting our visit and providing the videographers for this episode.

Next time, we’ll return to MRU to explore the 360° VR Immersion Studio in more depth. To be sure you don’t miss it, take a moment to subscribe at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/ 

And if you would like to host 10K at your campus, more information is available at http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/

For decades, college and university libraries have been continuously renovating their space and replacing technology.  But what would a 21st-century library look like if you could build it from scratch, with a $100 million budget?  Two years ago, Calgary’s Mount Royal University got the chance to do just that!  This week, Ken Steele talks with MRU Provost Lesley Brown and Dean of Libraries Meagan Bowler about the Riddell Library & Learning Centre.

When it was announced that Mount Royal College would gain university status, the existing library was “woefully inadequate.” “We knew that we would have to build our collections, expand our services, and the information environment was changing in a rapid way,” Meagan explains.

The new $110 million facility opened in 2017 as the new centerpiece of the campus, and also houses MRU’s Department of Education, Student Learning Services, the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the Academic Development Centre for faculty. The furnishings, architecture and zoning are designed to be progressively quieter from floor 1 through 4, and student spaces range from purely introverted study carrels and cozy benches for two, through lounge spaces and walking desks. But the 34 collaboration rooms have been the biggest hit, constantly booked up by students.

The MRU Library is a testament to active learning and emerging technologies. “We knew that students weren’t just consuming information,” Meagan explains. “They needed space and technology to engage with it, to mobilize it, to create it, to hack it up, to change it and to share it with other people.” The main floor “Ideas Lounge,” and a similar classroom, feature massive 6x3 screen touch-enabled visualization walls that allow groups to engage with multiple inputs simultaneously.  The building also includes a VR Experience Lab, audio recording suites, and media production studios. In particular, we’ll focus on the 360-degree “Immersion Studio” and the “Maker Studio” in upcoming episodes.

The campus library is the “heart” of the university, explains Lesley, but also an “interstitial space” for exploring teaching practices, accessing and engaging with new information and technologies. MRU centralized these facilities to make them available across faculties and departments, and for interdisciplinary work. But an effective library needs more than space and resources, emphasizes Meagan: it also needs the expertise of talented librarians. “It’s a jungle out there in information-land,” she jests.

Special thanks to Mount Royal University for hosting our visit and providing the videographers for this episode.

In upcoming episodes, we’ll return to MRU to explore the Maker Studio and Immersion Studio in more depth. To be sure you don’t miss them, take a moment to subscribe at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/ 

And if you would like to host 10K at your campus, more information is available at http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/