Percy's Blog - Developing Gateway's "Discovery Center"

With all of the activity that accompanies the end of a school year, I was not able to fully communicate with parents about the exciting programmatic changes taking place next year as we integrate technology, library, and our new Makers Space.   We have been discussing and planning what our new "Discovery Center" will look like, and this summer we will begin modifying our existing space to create a center where students can come to learn about new worlds, new technologies, and new innovations using literature, design, building and play. This is the first in a series of blogs intended to keep the Gateway community informed of our progress in developing the Discovery Center.

Library of the Future

When you return to school in the fall the second floor area that contains the current library, a small office, Life Lab rainy-day space, and the technology lab will look different than it did last year, and we anticipate that the new space will be a vibrant and engaging place for students to continue to learn. In earlier times this area of our school was referred to as "Social Street" and I actually like the reference even for our new Discovery Center activities, as it will be a place not strictly for socializing, but as a gathering place to explore and research ideas and develop exciting new projects!

As Elisabeth Abarbanel writes in her article "The New School Library"[1] "The forward-looking library may seem different from the hushed center of scholarship we remember, but it remains a library in all the traditional definitions: a collection of resources organized for easy access by interested researchers."

I think some have wondered without a staff Librarian, will we have a "Library" and books? And, yes, we will still have many valuable aspects of a library program, including books - some in the classrooms and some in a collection within the Discovery Center. We will also use the Center as a way to improve upon how a library space can support learning by integrating and embracing the technological innovations that are very much a part of our society, while remaining a place of curiosity, exploration and discovery.

Derek Attig, a 2012 Google Policy Fellow and Research Associate at the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy sees the merger of a traditional library space with a Makers Space as a natural one. He argues that "reading and making actually have a great deal in common. They are both opportunities for creative, productive engagement with a wider world. The future (and the absolute necessity!) of libraries is in facilitating that engagement - whether it's with a MakerBot or with Moby Dick or with something we haven't yet even imagined."

As part of the development of the Discovery Center, our new Technology Integration Specialist (TIS), John Gaston, will help us to imagine and craft how we can best support learning in four critical areas - Literature, Makers Space, Research, and Technology.

Literature - Gateway School continues to believe in the importance of literature to spark a child's natural curiosity. The new space will continue to house volumes for students to browse and search for new and old titles. We anticipate that our new collection will include digital volumes to engage students who prefer using e-Readers and to support emerging readers as well. E-readers provide struggling and new readers an avenue to explore stories through pictures and sound. These devices often include exercises and activities to support students with identified language-based learning differences.

Makers - This year, the community came together to raise money for a Makers Space on campus. The concept behind the makers movement is to provide a space for students, teachers, hackers, tinkerers, and DIYers to build, dream, draw, plan and create. This type of work can incorporate technological devices like 3-D printers and laser cutters, but may also use found and recycled supplies and materials. The only limit to what can be created in a Makers Space is ones imagination. For some more information on local and regional groups that are part of the makers movement, I encourage you to visit makerfaire.com or makersfactory.com.

Research - We know that the way that students access information now is vastly different than when we were children. Encyclopedias and the Dewey Decimal System have been replaced by Google, Wikipedia, and the Find and Copy and Paste keys. While our students may be experts in expediency and speed they are often lacking in discernment and reasoning. Today, developing good research skills extends beyond knowing where to find something to include how to judge the veracity of the information and the reliability of a source.   Our new TIS will work with our faculty to help teach students how to "evaluate the quality of information, how to recognize what information is and is not relevant to the question at hand, and how to synthesize information from multiple sources into a coherent piece of work."

Technology - Our understanding of and comfort with technology changes over time. The printing press, which allowed for the mass consumption of texts and literature and led to the rise in literacy, was feared as a new technology (one argument against the printing press was that it would make monks lazy[2]).   While we may not be comfortable with all forms of digital technology, our children are and must be to be successful in the future. They also need to be taught how to use the Internet, smart phones, and tablets sensibly, responsibly and ethically. Digital literacy and ethics will be a new part of our technology and information sciences program.

I invite you to follow my blog throughout the summer as we share how the space is evolving and how the new program will positively impact your child's experience next year and in the future. If you have questions, would like to share any ideas, or consider supporting the Discovery Center in some way, please feel free to contact me this summer.

Percy