Making and learning together: Where the makerspace mindset meets platforms for creativity (original) (raw)
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Makerspace or Maker(-): Making Culture as an Alternative Society to Mass Consumption
International Journal of Social and Economic Sciences, 2018
We are in the midst of a never-ending paradigm shift of standards and insights in a technology-focused educational structure that is constantly developing. Because of the democratization of information with widespread use of the Internet, the organization of educational processes has loosened its effectiveness of existing hierarchical structures. Education once was a one-way communication between the teacher and the students, and has transformed into an experience-oriented structure with a multi-faceted communication. One of the most common implementation examples of today's experience-oriented education component is the Makerspace, which is rapidly becoming widely celebrated in educational societies [1]. Makerspace can be defined as common spaces where participants create practical projects that will reinforce their knowledge and skills based on their internal motivations. However, makerspaces can move away from the basic principles that led to their existence and become the consumers of life, not the producers of life. When it comes to the use of makerspace in educational content, some confrontational social and ethical responsibilities arise. In this article, the author discusses the necessary content components which would be required for an efficient use of Makerspaces based on the experiences in the VA455 Physical Computing course being given at Sabanci University. During this course, students are introduced several topics about how to integrate the use of computational systems by utilizing various physical sensors to create interactive art and design projects. In this paper, while the discussions focus on the nature of makerspaces, the author aims to illustrate emerging educational paradigms in the intersection of using technology as a socializing platform for various interest groups.
Education Research International
Makerspaces are environments where individuals use technologies to make physical artifacts within a community of fellow Makers. There has been growing interest in the educational potential of Making activities which has resulted in many schools procuring tools and technologies to set up their Makerspaces. However, there is scant research investigating the efficacy of Making these newly emerging Makerspaces intended for learning. In our work, we narrow this gap in knowledge between the claimed educational potential of Making and its attainment. By synthesizing prior work and publically available data on Makerspaces, we introduce a framework to situate the educational considerations for Makerspaces and recommend directions for future research on educational Makerspaces. Being cognizant of the Maker culture having emerged outside of the academic literature, we synthesize publically available data from 53 untraditional but relevant sources. These sources include definitions of Making fo...
Materials-to-develop-with: The making of a makerspace
British Journal of Educational Technology
Across from the makerspace entrance, stacked against the blue-and-white-painted wall, sits the 3D printer queue, consisting of 4 double-stacked tables and 12 3D printers. Connected by network cables, microcomputers and custom-made software, the printers automatically queue prints. Youth and staff can upload files, and the software checks the status of each printer before distributing the files. The printers are almost evenly spaced, suggesting a finished installation, though their visible wiring toppling over the tables makes the workstation appear in-progress. When no 3D printing workshops are being facilitated, some printers run at their own speed, slowly squirting filament across the plane, filling the air with a mellow cacophony of high-and low-pitched sounds while slowly rotating filament spools. Perhaps fastened too loosely, one of the spools bounces onto the floor, unwinding the dark blue filament. As the printer marches on, a former youth and now staff member, Darnel (pseudonym), picks up the spool and winds it back into place. The 3D printer queue as described here has not always had this form. In fact, Darnel joined the makerspace when the first 3D printer kit arrived and the space focused on facilitating
AERA 2016 Division C: Learning and Instruction (Section 3a: Learning Environments) Chair: Angela Calabrese Barton, Michigan State University Discussant: Kris Gutiérrez, University of California, Berkeley Abstract Despite the growing interest and attention paid to maker spaces for transforming how we understand ‘what counts’ as learning, as a learner, and as learning environment, there is little evidence that the maker movement has been broadly successful in involving a diverse audience. Few studies have focused on the equity-oriented dimensions of makerspaces and making. Our session seeks to reverse this trend. Across the 8 papers/posters, we present examples of studies focused on designing/enacting inclusive makerspaces for young people in formal or informal education settings, provide innovative theoretical and methodological tools for better understanding learning and development of young people who participate in making, and discuss how researchers and practitioners can collaborate to build makerspaces for all.
Flexibility to Learn : Material Artifacts in Makerspaces
2015
Youth-centered makerspaces, applauded for their development of intrinsic motivation and interdisciplinary skills through project creation, come in many forms. This paper explores how material artifacts support learning through their representation of time, projects, and tools for making in three makerspaces. The sociocultural constructs of boundary-crossing and distributed cognition are used as a lens to explore selected artifacts flexibility for coconstructed learning in the spaces. Our analysis of boundary crossing focuses on perceived boundaries between adults and youths, insiders and outsiders of makerspaces, and accessible practices, as well as how material artifacts communicate crossing these boundaries. Characterizing the flexibility of artifacts in relation to pliability, accessibility, and mobility, we found that material artifacts can promote co-constructive learning, for example by distributing workflows across artifacts, and that the study of material artifacts might inf...
‘Pop-up’ Maker-spaces: Catalysts for Creative Participatory Culture
2016
The changing technology landscape has reshaped the relationship between producers and consumers and has signaled a shift towards more collaborative and social cultural forms. These changing cultural practices are referred to as ‘Participatory Culture’. While the Internet offers an always on and readily accessible mode of engagement and involvement within participatory culture, these platforms need to be complemented with collaborative and creative participation in physical spaces for sustained engagement in real world cultural activities. Recent research on maker cultures and the growth of maker-spaces offers very relevant lessons in this regard. Using this research as a point of departure, we propose a decentralized and semi-organized form of maker-spaces called ‘pop-up’ maker-spaces that could act as triggers to create engagement within communities towards creative and collaborative production and informal knowledge sharing. Further, we describe three workshops that were setup as ...
Learning in the Making: A Comparative Case Study of Three Makerspaces
Harvard Educational Review, 2014
Through a comparative case study, Sheridan and colleagues explore how makerspaces may function as learning environments. Drawing on field observations, interviews, and analysis of artifacts, videos, and other documents, the authors describe features of three makerspaces and how participants learn and develop through complex design and making practices. They describe how the makerspaces help individuals identify problems, build models, learn and apply skills, revise ideas, and share new knowledge with others. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of their findings for this emergent field.
Bridging distance: Practical and pedagogical implications of virtual Makerspaces
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2020
Makerspaces are locations where people with common interests can work on projects, share ideas, tools, and expertise to make or create. There is an abundance of 'how to' guides and research studies on physical makerspaces, little research focuses on describing the virtual making processes and the experiences therein. This qualitative study explores the experiences of seven participants who engaged in a synchronous virtual makerspace. Meeting once a month over 16 weeks, members of the International Maker Educator Network (IMEN) participated in the making a robot. This case study This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. 3 describes how the virtual making occurred, the personal experiences of the makers, technology used to support virtual making, and the affordances and inhibitors of virtual making. Data are analysed through the lens of a professional learning community and the People, Means and Activities makerspace framework. The paper concludes with implications for virtual making in practice and future research opportunities.
Maker Literacies and Maker Citizenship in the MakEY (Makerspaces in the Early Years) Project
Multimodal Technologies and Interaction
In this paper, the potential relationship between creative citizenship and what may be termed ‘maker literacies’ is examined in the light of emergent findings from an international project on the use of makerspaces in early childhood, “MakEY” (see http://makeyproject.eu). The paper outlines the concept of creative citizenship and considers the notion of maker literacies before moving on to examine how maker literacies might be developed in early-years curricula in ways that foster civic engagement. Three vignettes are offered of makerspaces in early-years settings and a museum in Finland, Norway, and the UK. The activities outlined in the vignettes might be conceived of as ‘maker citizenship’, a concept which draws together understandings of making, digital literacies, and citizenship. The paper considers the implications of this analysis for future research and practice.
Global makerspaces: Creating places for children’s play, experimenting and communicating globally
Global Studies of Childhood
Contemporary children live in localities but are increasingly in a position where they connect globally with others across time and space. It can happen online through games, shared web pages and via social media and also through everyday schools and kindergartens. One possibility seems to be that children are able to play together in new ways that include both physical and virtual worlds. The local cultural and social life of children, with playing, experimenting and narrating can be expanded and combined with global interactions taking place on the internet. This themed edition is inspired by a number of questions asked at meetings of an international research project where children, teachers, preschool teachers and researchers communicated globally through the internet. This was part of the MakEY project, where we examined how makerspaces could develop young children's digital literacy and creativity (https://makeyproject.eu/). A school in Australia, a school in Denmark and one in Britain shared images and drawings and asked each other questions about things that made them curious. These meetings took place in what was framed as a global makerspace, where the focus was on inventing, constructing and experimenting using digital and analogue tools and materials in both local and global communities. A Google+ Group was used as the way to communicate. A number of questions arose from the research questions: How can we imagine a global makerspace, where children exchange and develop ideas, drawings, photos and objects to play with? What platforms are needed to support children's creativity, communication, play and co-production of ideas and objects across time and space? How does this exchange, transform our potential for knowledge building? How can teachers, parents and researchers take part in playing and experimenting together with the children? The articles in this themed edition frame a number of experiences, projects, suggestions and also generate more questions, based both upon the project The Global Makerspace, but also in other contexts. All of the articles can be used to inform future projects, where the focus is on play and experimentation across time and space both inside and outside educational settings. Steen Søndergaard describes a research project where the use of digital media in kindergartens moves into the global arena, with the goal of extending the local kindergarten digital experience to a wider, global context. He suggests we view the implementation of digital media as a ladder,