Pedagogical bodies & technological spaces

The following two spaces which I visited are unique in which they are located within the faculties and are designated as multi purpose learning space for the students within those faculties.

The industrial engineering lab is what they call it although it is really not a lab in the traditional sense. It is a large space which is separated into two units. One is an open space with many long tables and chairs, with one corner equipped with a few computers. And the walls have Internet connections, and in one end of the room there is a projector screen. Adjacent to the open room is a lecture/computer room which has a slanted floor design. Food and drink is generally prohibited in the ‘lab’ although sometimes students break the rule.

On the day when I talked to the engineering students, there were four groups of students in the open room, each doing very different things. Two of the larger groups (8 to 10 students) were doing event planning type of things for their department or student organization. One smaller group (about 4 students) was doing their coursework assignment together. One group was doing project work.  I talked to the group which was planning events, and students told me they love this place because they don’t have to fight with the rest of the students on campus for spaces. One student told me there’s no need to go to other places within the campus because this place is so great. They said they also used the library study space, but only when they studied individually. But the ‘lab’ is certainly a place they feel they belong to. I was told by a department staff that such a space is rare even within the engineering faculty, and people would be very ‘envious’ if they knew about it. Technically speaking the space belongs to the university, so there is always the fear that the university would take it back one day and redistribute it among the departments. This fear is not totally imagined because the curriculum reform has already flattened the 1^st year curriculum structure of the faculty, so that the students are no longer grouped into individual departments upon entering the faculty. Many of the first year courses are now co-taught by teaching staff from different departments, and so it has huge implications for resource allocation, and possibly space management.

The ‘Common Room’ is what people call it. It is located on the 1^st floor of the Education Faculty building. It is a place designated for all the post-graduate students within the faculty. The Education Faculty is unique because it doesn’t have any departmental structure; it is just one large faculty operating on different academic themes. Space is always a major issue within the faculty because it is so limited comparing to the Engineering Faculty which has a much longer history. This is why such a space seems even more precious, and more or less reflects how much the faculty values its post-graduate student body or research matters in general. It is not a very large space, about the size of a small 20 student classroom. Its setting is like a ‘lounge’ space where students can have a coffee break, and read newspapers. In fact, during lunch time, many students would bring their lunch there to eat. Yet it is more than that because it’s got projector screens and projectors, and newspaper racks with all sorts of research periodicals. It is an informal space where researchers gather freely and very often discuss their research with each other over a cup of coffee or sandwich. The source of light is good there and it is shielded from the busy environments outside. I personally found it a much better place to have a more serious or intellectual conversation comparing to Star Bucks or the like. It is perhaps also because people who go there are all researchers, and it is very easy to find common topics and interest. Since most of the postgraduate students were from Mainland China and overseas, they were surprised to hear when I told them such kind of space is actually rare among other faculties. Some of them told me they felt very lucky to have such a space entirely dedicated to them.