The Michel Family Teaching Resources Center's new SELF Design Studio paves the way for the next generation of educators

by Heather Hans

Students gather for a study session in the newly renovated Teaching Resources Center. 

At only three years of age, the most recent version of the Michel Family Teaching Resources Center (TRC) in the School of Education isn’t exactly old.  Since the new School of Education building was built in 2011, the new TRC space has served as a model school library media center, filled with picture books, young adult fiction and nonfiction, teacher preparation materials, audiovisual materials, instructional tools and equipment, and a small selection of fluffy stuffed animals in need of a good hug.
“I really see the role of the TRC as support,” says Director Lori Sands. “Support for the faculty, staff, and students, primarily of the School of Education, and the [UNCG] campus, and the community—anything we can do or provide that can facilitate our teacher education and all of our programs here,” she says.

In its goal of support, the TRC underwent a renovation this summer to expand its space on the third floor of the School of Education building, and to create a new Makerspace, called the SELF Design Studio, in a room adjacent to the original TRC. The SELF Design Studio (SELF stands for Student and Educator Learning Factory) is an open, creative space with flexible, rolling tables and chairs, lots of storage for tools and supplies, and new tools such as a 3D printer.

“This is really taking it to the next step,” says SOE Assistant Dean Meredith Carlone, “and it’s going to demonstrate what things could be like for the next generation of teachers.”

“The idea is to be continually growing and changing,” says Sands, “and that was why we wanted the furniture to be as flexible as possible, to have the electrical access, and then other than that, it’s wide open—we don’t want to limit ideas by the facility, we want the facility to be flexible enough that it can grow with needs.”

The SELF Design Studio is a bold step forward for the School of Education, and the first of its kind in a school of education in the state.  The idea, originally proposed by Library and Information Studies (LIS) professor Clara M. Chu, came out of the changing nature of education nationwide.

“There is a changing learning environment,” Chu says, “and that change has come about from the access to technology, enabling learning and creating anywhere, which means that people are wanting to learn in different ways.”  “They don’t want to just sit in a classroom,” she says.

“Maker” culture and “makerspaces” are part of a cultural movement of creation that is influenced by the DIY and crafting culture, as well as by technology tools and applications.  Libraries and classrooms across the country have developed makerspaces (also referred to as “fab labs” and “hackerspaces”) as well as maker events to encourage creativity, problem-solving, and tinkering. This summer, President Barack Obama hosted the first-ever White House Maker Faire and declared June 18, 2014, “National Making Day.”  Closer to home, UNCG’s Jackson Library developed a Digital Media Commons with a 3D printer to accommodate creative media projects on campus.

The materials used in makerspaces vary widely— from 3D printers, robotics, and electronics to more traditional arts and crafts.

“It doesn’t have to be expensive,” Carlone says, “and it can be things that are implemented in a school system that doesn’t have a budget as well as one that might.”

In the TRC, the School of Education hopes to provide the SELF Design Studio as a blank canvas on which faculty can bring in the supplies and tools they need through fellowship grants provided by Project ENRICH, the grant that funded the creation of the SELF Design Studio. The SELF Design Studio also was made possible through a commitment by The Sara Smith Self Foundation in honor of Sara and Luther Self's son, Smith Winborne Self and his daughter, Rebekah Medea Self (read more on their story later in this edition).

“The Makerspace actually was not in the original plan,” says Project ENRICH Director Christina O’Connor. “Project ENRICH is a Teacher Ed reform grant; the legislation is designed to encourage the reform of teacher education programs,” she explains.

“The need for it (a makerspace) came out of the data that we were collecting and the information we were getting back from the initial teacher preparation programs,” O’Connor says. “We need to do more in terms of integrating technology; we need to prepare these teachers to collaborate and work in a digital age.”

Collaboration is integral to the SELF Design Studio, and can be seen through the faculty projects funded by Project ENRICH.  Five groups of faculty members from the SOE were selected for fellowships that use the new Design Studio to further teacher education and to reach out to the community and high-needs schools.

“We funded projects that we felt would represent a cross-section of programs and that included collaboration between different departments and programs,” O’Connor says. “I’m just amazed at the creativity that the faculty displayed in coming up with these proposals and ideas, and I’m just excited to support this kind of work,” she says.

“I think it’s an exciting initiative that brings us all together here,” Chu says.  “And one of the great things about UNCG is that it is a community-engaged university,” she says. “The makerspace can be used in service learning, providing opportunities for students to address community needs while making and learning,” Chu says.

O’Connor adds that the TRC has always been a “resource for the region.” “It (the SELF Design Studio) will build on that mission and allow teachers from the partner districts in the region to have a place where they can come and try out things and have that sandbox experience.”

From a project to help middle school students build 3D prototypes of deaf-friendly homes, to a project focusing on librarian-teacher partnerships in schools and the creation of a digital repository of lesson plans for SELF Design Studio projects, the SOE faculty have come up with inspired ways to use the new space. (Read our next article to learn more about these projects and partnerships.)  Most of these projects include sessions in the SELF Design Studio as well as in the community, making the TRC a bustling space this year.

“This place needs kids!” Sands remarks, excited that more kids from local schools will be in and out of the TRC and its SELF Design Studio this year to tinker, plan, and create. “It makes me jealous, I want to be a kid again!” Sands says, referring to all the fun tools and supplies the students will get to play with.  And perhaps everyone in the School of Education will have more of a chance to play and create with this new SELF Design Studio, furthering hands-on learning and a collaborative, engaging environment.

In more good news for creators and inventors everywhere, the School of Education has been awarded a five-year, $7.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to further the integration of technology across all teaching fields and to support more Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers.  UNCG will team up with seven public schools in Guilford and Forsyth counties to install Makerspaces for hands-on learning, and it will also host a summer Maker Camp for kids in 2015.