Campus Development >>
Expand Your School, Expand Your Mind: GIFS’ New Library and Work Studio
By Claire Anderson
The Partnership for 21st Century Learners offers the following description of today’s students: “Twenty-first century learners are always on, always connected. They are comfortable multitasking. They are multimedia oriented. Their world is Web-based. They want instant gratification. They are impatient, creative, expressive and social. They are risk-takers who thrive in less structured environments.” At Gyeongnam International Foreign School (GIFS), while we know that all of the above is true, we also know that some things stay the same and some things change with each generation of learners and we have to adapt or run the risk of losing important ground in our goal of providing the best for our students. We didn’t want to lose what was working well but we wanted to create a new space that satisfied a broader vision. This summer, in order to address the needs of today’s learners, GIFS took on a project of building a new multimedia library, as well as a work studio and four new classrooms. Information literacy, reading engagement, and technology integration are important cornerstones to the .com generation. 21st Century Learners need an environment where they can formulate ideas and process information in ways that speak to them. As our students change, the learning models are also changing, and GIFS believes that the school library, as the heart of the school, should take the lead in reflecting those changes.Teachers are also using library space differently than they did in the past: collaborative and project-based learning are popular, as well as peer-to-peer tutoring and one-onone learning. Libraries, and other school spaces, have moved away 20 EARCOS Triannual Journal
from being archives and lectures rooms, and have instead turned into learning commons. These are spaces that encourage participatory learning and allow for students to draw understanding from a variety of sources. As enrollment has grown and the programs offered have evolved, GIFS found itself in need of more flexible and dynamic spaces for learning. The growth in the elementary school spurred the need for more elementary classrooms. In addition, the school’s original library and tech center, while charming in their own way, were looking their age and needed more interactive community spaces. The Design Process In addition to serving the learning needs of students, GIFS also wanted to hear the voices of teachers, parents, and staff that would use the space in other ways. The process of coming to a design that was both functional and fashionable needed to be a team effort. As a school that deeply believes in community and family, input from all stakeholders was an important step in pulling together the initial ideas for the new spaces. With these concerns in mind, an administrative and teaching team set about brainstorming ideas for renovation. Soliciting ideas from parents, students, and teachers, the team put together a list of “musthaves” and a list of “would-love-to-haves.” Some of the “must-haves”
