For example, some community spaces make arrangements to reserve and use public libraries or other community facilities on a regular basis for meetings and special events. Spaces can be in a permanent facility that houses the space and all related equipment and staff or hosts the space for specific events. A review of these directories and an examination of the individual space characteristics generates considerations for location, technology and tools available, personnel, and access. Websites such as, , and maintain user-generated directories and profiles. A Framework for Defining MakerspacesĬharacteristics or profiles of spaces take on different dimensions under closer scrutiny. Each of these spaces, regardless of host, include diverse approaches to equipment, space, and activities that operate in the spirit of the maker movement. Now a global group with more than 25,000 members, the primary facility provides space for members “to build projects and prototypes, collaborate with other members, take classes in their areas of interest, and teach classes in their areas of expertise” (The Geek Group, n.d., para. One of the oldest community spaces, The Geek Group out of Grand Rapids, MI, began as a collaboration between community members and Grand Valley State University, in the mid 1990s to facilitate innovation, play, and learning. Helena branch of Beaufort County Library in South Carolina (Ginsberg, 2015), public libraries large and small see the potential of and value in making. From the Chicago Public Library’s Maker Lab to the Creation Station at the St. The emphasis on the informal and exploration translates to a wide variety of spaces including public libraries, community centers, PK-12 classrooms, and even university facilities. “Makerspaces are informal sites for creative production in art, science, and engineering where people of all ages blend digital and physical technologies to explore ideas, learn technical skills, and create new products” (Sheridan et al., 2014, p. While the maker movement itself seems broad and general, the physical spaces that host making activities are even more varied. In the midst of this booming informal learning phenomenon, however, it provides a prime opportunity for PK-12 schools and universities to explore the implications for formal learning. The very nature of working with others when making, hacking, or tinkering creates opportunities for collaborative learning through problem and/or project-based means. The relationship to constructionism (Papert & Harel, 1991) arises naturally through the focus on making something and the learning that occurs through that process. In other words, the social nature of learning defined in constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978) takes shape in a makerspace through interacting with others, learning from those more experienced, proceeding at the learner’s own pace, and disconnecting from most formal learning expectations. Regardless of which term is used, the hands-on approach to learning from experts and informal structure with particular attention on a truly personal, intrinsic endeavor (Kurti, Kurti, & Fleming, 2014) situates making firmly between constructivism and constructionism. Still others use the terms interchangeably to denote a generic emphasis on creating and exploration. Some call it tinkering, referring to the spirit behind American innovators such as Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs (Lahart, 2009) while others call it hacking, in the essence of the hackerspaces that originally rose in popularity throughout Europe during the 1980s and 1990s (Minsker, 2009). Being a maker means embracing the “do it yourself” or DIY mindset (Morin, 2013), and engaging in making takes different forms. The intersection between constructivism, constructionism, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning comprises the heart of the maker movement. Defining and Differentiating the Makerspace. The following is the citation to the original article.ĭousay, T. Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published in Educational Technology, and is published here with permission.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |