THE INGENUITY HUB Developing a “Seamless Classroom” at the University of North Florida By Jeff Chamberlain Dean, Hicks Honors College, University of North Florida Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidate
How can the University of North Florida ramp up innovation and collaboration among students and faculty in the post-pandemic world? Generation Z is the most digitally interconnected in history, but its members still hanker for personal interaction, so they need the opportunity to connect in person. UNF is committed to the idea of the “seamless classroom” — a space for learning that brings students together, capitalizes on their digital knowhow, connects them to the local and global community, and fosters innovation and new approaches to solving problems. If UNF can position itself as a model of the “seamless classroom,” it will become extremely attractive to bright, engaged, and dedicated students. So what would the “seamless classroom” look like? A great model will be the “Ingenuity Hub” we are planning for the Hicks Honors College Learning/Living Center, which will include both a physical center and virtual collaboration space accessible 24/7. The Living/ Learning Center, with a tentative completion date of 2023, will itself be the focus of a ferment of ideas and innovation, since the integration of student residences with academic and learning spaces stimulates greater learning and creativity. The facility is being planned as a learning building — a state-of-the-art building (net zero on energy if possible) where all of us who reside and work learn to live more naturally, sustainably, and resourcefully. At the very heart of the building — at the center and confluence of living and learning — will be the Ingenuity Hub. It will have a large touchscreen interface which showcases the collaborations going on using an integrated platform such as Bluescape — collaborations that will be taking place in the Hub, but also all over campus, in the Jacksonville community, and, 66
indeed, from any connected device in the world. It will, in essence, be a classroom with maker space-type resources, high-tech wizardry, and the large touchscreen interface. The touchscreen, which will be visible to people walking along the corridor spines of the building, will draw people in, engage them, and help them see the connections and possibilities in a very tangible way. The Hub will be a portal of seamless connection and collaboration with the world. The Ingenuity Hub is a project I am working on as part of my role as a Faculty Innovation Candidate with the University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program. It’s not the type of project I envisioned when I first became an academic. I am not a typical “tech geek” — I am a historian of Early Modern England. When I got into honors education, though, I became an advocate for multi- and interdisciplinary education. I worked with faculty (in Business, Engineering, and other disciplines which were pretty foreign to me) who were doing cutting-edge work with students, and I became enthralled with the opportunities to engage students in problemsolving using the latest collaboration technology. I understood how Humanities was vital to innovation because it was a window on the human condition, and helped engender the empathy which is so vital to Design Thinking, human-centered design, and other innovation approaches. I learned to let students lead the way in terms of keeping on top of the latest software and technological tools, and found that they were more motivated to engage when they were able to work in both a virtual and in-person environment. I am working with designers, facilities managers, faculty, students, and donors to create a space for interaction and innovation that will encourage students engaged in interdisciplinary projects to solve some of
