Library Futures Spaces
Where teaching, learning, space, and technology meet to create the future of the classroom environment.
What are Library Futures Spaces?
Our Library Futures Spaces are learning environments operated by JMU Libraries that support experimentation in teaching, learning, technology, and making.
Two Futures Spaces
Library Futures Classroom
Our Futures Classroom is a flexible teaching space where faculty experiment with new approaches to teaching and learning. The Futures Classroom, located in Carrier Library, invites faculty to propose experiments in teaching and learning that explore a central question: What does it look like when the classroom itself becomes a co‑teacher?
3SPACE Classroom
3SPACE is a 3D printing classroom where students move ideas into prototypes. Established in 2013 as the nation’s first general-education college 3D printing classroom, 3SPACE serves students and faculty from every discipline at JMU, providing opportunities to learn, prototype, design, and create using emerging technologies.
The Library Connection
Why does JMU Libraries offer these learning spaces?
They help to fulfill our mission because they are:
- Cross-Disciplinary: Students and faculty from all majors and colleges can use Library Futures spaces, allowing for unique learning experiences for everyone involved.
- Learning-Focused: Library Futures spaces were designed as classrooms and learning environments – not simply fabrication services.
- Supported by Libraries Resources and Expertise: Library Futures spaces connect faculty and students with educational technology expertise, instructional support, equipment, and learning spaces throughout JMU Libraries.
The Learning Model:
Think → Make → Reflect
The Futures Classroom is a space designed for thinking, collaboration, and experimentation
3SPACE is a space designed for making, prototyping, fabrication
Libraries staff and other resources support reflection, documentation, and sharing
These two learning spaces, together with library services and support, create a learning ecosystem in which students have the opportunity to think, make, and reflect on their learning.
What Happens in These Spaces?
Library Futures Spaces are more than just classrooms—they are incubators for a growing body of knowledge about how students learn, how faculty teach, and how emerging technologies and learning environments shape those experiences.
- Teaching Experiments: Faculty apply through a “Call for Experimentation” form, where they are asked how they want to experiment with the space, technology, and resources of the library, as well as an overarching “Learning Question” for their course and the experiment.
- Student Projects & Prototypes: Possible Extension: Students who participate in courses in Library Futures Spaces will have many opportunities for hands-on projects and learning through the Futures Classroom and 3SPACE. Student projects and prototypes are displayed in both spaces.
- Faculty Stories: Faculty and students are observed and interviewed throughout the semester to capture the essence of their experimentation. JMU Libraries is in a unique position of neutrality that allows for a showcase of how space, technology, and learning can all come together across campus.
- Learning Space Insights: Utilizing the Libraries Futures Spaces allows for insights into how teaching and learning can be shaped in the future across all disciplines. Learn what the future for learning, teaching, and technology looks like.
- Technology Exploration: In addition to experimentation with the physicality of Libraries Futures Spaces, both the Futures Classroom and 3SPACE invite experimentation with new and evolving technologies. The Libraries Futures Spaces are supported by a great team of educational technologists.
Apply to Teach in the Library Futures Spaces
JMU Libraries makes a Call for Experiments at the beginning of each semester for the following semester. The application timeline is the same for both the Futures Classroom and 3SPACE.
Application Window
- Fall Courses: February 1 – March 1; decisions by April 1
- Spring Courses: September 1 – October 1; decisions by November 1
Questions?
Contact Jamie Calcagno-Roach (calcagjm@jmu.edu) or the JMU Libraries Learning Innovations & Design Desk.