Modern resource centre inspires education students
EDUCATION students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University are in for a treat this evening when the faculty officially launches its new resource centre.
Equipped with state-of-theart multimedia, free Wi-Fi, a wealth of literature, and other equipment, the centre is situated in the former bio-kinetics gymnasium on the NMMU south campus.
Although being officially launched tonight, it opened its doors to undergraduate education students at the beginning of the year.
It includes a wheelchairfriendly lift and a mezzanine floor.
The project, which cost more than R1-million, was overseen by faculty of education operations manager Dr Tulsi Morar.
“We realised the previous space was too small. It was always overcrowded and was a drab-looking space, not very welcoming,” Morar said.
“There was a definite need for more space to provide for peer tutoring, group activities and engagement.”
According to Morar, the faculty aims to train and qualify more teachers as demand grows, especially in crucial subjects like mathematics and science.
“More upgrades and materials are planned for the future because the point of any university is to create knowledge through interaction, and this space does facilitate that.”
According to resource centre manager Taryn Isaacs De Vega, the new space is three times the size of the previous centre.
“There is now enough capacity for roughly 300 students [whereas] the previous centre could only hold 30 and some- times we had more than 50 students crammed into the small space,” she said.
The director of the School for Initial Teacher Engagement (Site) at NMMU, Professor Aletta Delport, said the resource centre had a contemporary design, creating a lively atmosphere to encourage students to think out of the box when designing lesson plans.
According to Delport, the centre offers education students access to more materials to optimise their learning experience.
“The centre holds several re- sources for students to tap into and to facilitate the process of teaching and learning, and optimise education,” Delport said.
Newly appointed dean of education Dr Muki Moeng said the centre was both a place for learning and a place to create communities for learning.
“We are all social beings and this centre offers a space for students to engage with each other and their learning materials, and where students can produce their own material to add to the existing curriculum.”
Final-year BEd student Jessica de Lange, 22, from Despatch, who regularly uses the facilities in the resource centre, said she was very impressed with the additional space.
“It is nice to be here. We feel very comfortable here, with the extra resources available and place to do group work.
“I have no problem coming here to work, it isn’t noisy and there is no interference,” she said.
Second-year BEd student Mthunzikazi Nobatyi, 21, originally from Lusikisiki, said she also found the new resource centre useful.
“There is a lot more space which allows us to study freely.”