UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For more than a decade, Gay and Bill Krause have played a crucial role in enhancing the Penn State College of Education’s impact on students, faculty and, in turn, learners at every level who ultimately benefit from their work. With their most recent gift of $1.2 million to create the Pedagogy Innovation Lab (PIL) and establish a program support endowment, they will extend the capabilities of the Krause Studios for Innovation into the area of hands-on creative activity and embodied learning.
“The Krause Studios and Pedagogy Innovation Lab will allow the College of Education to introduce our next generation of teachers to new and emerging technologies and approaches to teaching and engaging their students,” said Gay Krause. “Educated students are critical to an educated democratic society, increasing the potential for peace around the world.”
The Krause Studios for Innovation have become a vital hub for teaching and learning in the college — a place for collaboration and shared experiences among students and faculty, for new ideas and experimentation in pedagogical practices, and for new uses of technology.
“This new gift will enable us to renovate a 1,400-square-foot space adjacent to the existing Krause Studios, creating a vibrant and versatile classroom that supports the discovery of new pedagogies through making and other creative activities, and provides funding to sustain the PIL during its critical first years,” said Kim Lawless, dean of the Penn State College of Education. “We are deeply grateful for the generosity and vision that have informed Gay and Bill’s philanthropy and for the trust they have placed in us to fulfill their aspirations for the field of education.”
The PIL will lay the groundwork for new research on the integration of makerspaces into K–12 and higher education, new opportunities for partnerships between the Penn State College of Education and like-minded organizations, and new hands-on experiences that will shape the ways in which students imagine the pedagogical possibilities of makerspaces — and how they ultimately realize those possibilities with their own students.
“Helping teachers leverage technology can prepare students for the digital world they will face in their future careers, and incorporating technology in the classroom can ignite a passion for learning and encourage students to explore new subjects,” Gay Krause said. “Technology can break down barriers and enable students of all abilities to access education on an equal footing.”
She said technology provides instant feedback to students, allowing them to track their progress and improve their performance in real-time, and can streamline administrative tasks, giving teachers more time to focus on creating engaging lessons and interacting with their students.
“By leveraging technology to engage students, we can break down traditional stereotypes about education and demonstrate that learning can be exciting,” she said.
The space will include the kinds of equipment common to makerspaces, such as 3D printers, a laser cutter and woodworking equipment that will allow students to design and build real objects, taking an idea from concept to physical reality all in one space. A one-button podcast studio will provide students with the means to create within the audio and video realm. The PIL also will include several elements to facilitate classroom teaching, presentations and collaboration, such as a whiteboard/glassboard, wall-mounted touch-screen monitors, and a retractable stage for spoken-word and other performance-based presentations.
“What sets the PIL apart from a typical makerspace is its pedagogically oriented design,” Lawless said. “That is, we have designed it as a space that has the affordances of a makerspace, but that can be used and arranged flexibly to explore pedagogical practices of making and creative activity within a classroom setting. The room will flex to meet the needs of teaching and learning in the moment, transcending the traditional notions of the space and place of technology.”
Drawing on her years of experience as a teacher and principal, Gay Krause established the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, in 2000. Under her direction, the center has offered professional training to more than 23,000 educators in the effective use of classroom technology and more engaging, high-quality instruction in science, technology, education, arts and math (STEAM) and related subjects.
Bill Krause has been a Silicon Valley executive since the early 1970s. As president and CEO of 3Com, he guided the data networking company from a venture capital-funded startup to a publicly traded, multinational enterprise with assets in excess of $1 billion when he retired. He now is president of the private investment firm LWK Ventures.
With the record-breaking success of “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” which raised $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2022, philanthropy is helping to sustain the University’s tradition of education, research and service to communities across the Commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable our institution to open doors and welcome students from every background, support for transformative experiences allows our students and faculty to fulfill their vast potential for leadership, and gifts toward discovery and excellence help us to serve and impact the world we share. To learn more about the impact of giving and the continuing need for support, visit raise.psu.edu.