We Have a Winner!

Post date: May 22, 2014 8:57:46 PM

Congratulations to Park Center senior Tyler Linton for submitting the winning selection in the Media Center naming contest. Our shared learning space will now be entitled, "The Park Center Learning Commons." Honorable Mention goes to teacher Paul Shriver, who suggested "The Nexus," which he explained, "...is a thing that connects the elements of a group, and the new media center will be a place where students and staff can connect with each other, with the web, with resources, and with their futures. A nexus is also thought of as a place or event where things come together, like students getting together to collaborate." It is the center of the matter, just as our Learning Commons is the center of our school community. So we have decided to include a tagline: "The Nexus of the School." Tyler wins a $50-60 gift certificate for Best Buy Co., and Paul will also receive a gift certificate of $20-25.

Naming the learning area a learning commons puts Park Center at the forefront of the movement in the world of school library spaces, moving from a focus on the resource repository aspect to that of a place where all community members can come to collaborate, create, discover, research, study, share, and enjoy learning. The re-configured space will include charging stations for mobile devices; more flexible seating areas to meet a diversity of needs; four collaboration tables with large monitors with which people can easily share the contents of their devices; a Maker Space with a 3-D printer, 3-D scanner, large format flatbed scanner, and plenty of other tools for making physical objects and displays. New carpeting will be installed over the summer. If our furnishing request is granted, we will also have a new lounge area. Collaborations with the Art department should produce student-created art for signage throughout the Learning Commons as well as increased display of student art from the bookshelf surfaces.

The name of our MakerSpace has yet to be determined, but we are mulling over nautical references for numerous parts of the ship, and will post those decisions here, once they are made.

Welcome to the Park Center Learning Commons: The Nexus of the School!