Exploring Makerspaces: Home

Intuitively, it makes sense that the interactive and social nature of making encourages active learning, and educators find active and collaborative learning to be an effective way to develop skills in experimentation and problem-solving.1 Significance and Rise of the Maker Movement A look at the developments that led to the creation of makerspaces can help us to understand just what goes on in makerspaces. Based on these common elements, a satisfactory definition for makerspaces might be as follows: A makerspace is a physical space that provides access to equipment and guidance in a flexible format that responds to the interests and skill levels of users collaborating on selfdirected projects.\n So, that collaborative learning ... our community's kind of permeated with the spirit of collaboration, I think."

Project Enable is a unique Discovery Center for differently-abled learners that complements the college's other efforts that provide inclusive learning experiences. Project Enable aims to support students with different learning preferences and to help students overcome any barriers to communicating and learning.

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.

In this essay, Erica Halverson and Kimberly Sheridan provide the context for research on the maker movement as they consider the emerging role of making in education. The authors describe the theoretical roots of the movement and draw connections to related research on formal and informal education. They present points of tension between making and formal education practices as they come into contact with one another, exploring whether the newness attributed to the maker movement is really all that new and reflecting on its potential pedagogical impacts on teaching and learning.

Makerspaces are becoming more common on university campuses, but there is great variation in what constitutes a makerspace. On some campuses, many departmental classroom laboratories are being renamed or repurposed as makerspaces. Alternatively, other colleges are creating college-wide makerspaces for their students, and a few universities are even creating makerspaces for their entire campuses or their entire communities. This paper presents the idea that university makerspaces can be a great source of innovation if they are properly conceived. Makerspaces that seek to create innovation should have certain characteristics. However, many of these characteristics do not come naturally to university-based makerspaces. Instead, a deliberate effort must be made to help promote innovation from a makerspace. In fact, many makerspace models inadvertently and explicitly exclude characteristics that are important to innovation. For example, a makerspace that is created by an engineering college might be more innovative if it allowed the use of the space by students outside of engineering (e.g., art, history, business). Making this happen might require a different funding structure or a different physical location for the makerspace. Of course, no direct recipe or checklist exists that will ensure innovation. However, this paper lists characteristics that should be considered when designing or operating a makerspace. It is suggested that these characteristics will lead to increased makerspace innovation. The goal of this paper is to make makerspace administrators and participants aware of characteristics of the space that may lead to increased innovation.

Makerspaces and accompanying technologies are exciting new services being offered in libraries. However, these come with their own challenges and successes. Training for maker learning locations continues to be difficult to obtain. Inservice librarians rely on peers in the field and online resources for their training. Most preservice librarians are graduating each semester not knowing the skills needed to maintain and serve in makerspaces. As library services continue to change what skill sets are needed to sustain the ever-changing library environment? In this study, 12 interviews were conducted one-on-one with librarians possessing makerspace facilities in their library settings. The interviews were used to gain feedback regarding the makerspace locations in each library. Interviews were digitally audiotaped and transcribed. Results were organized into thematic codes using NVivo 10 qualitative data analysis software. Some emergent themes include librarian and patron training, makerspace implementation, staffing models, and overall reactions.

An increasing number of libraries and museums provide transformative learning spaces, often called "Learning Labs" and "Makerspaces." These spaces invite users to explore traditional and digital media, interact with mentors and peers, and engage in creative projects. For these spaces and programs to be sustainable, it is essential that they are staffed by qualified professionals and support staff. This research study investigated the competencies required for the successful performance of professionals in library and museum learning spaces. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with professionals working in leading learning spaces in the U.S. The findings include top competencies (e.g., ability to learn, adapt to new situations, collaborate, serve as an advocate, and serve diverse people) and skills (e.g., management, program development, grant writing, technology, and facilitating learning) required for professionals, as well as relevance of higher education to prepare them for their current positions. The study generated curricular design implications for LIS educators with an emphasis on teaching and learning with technologies.

This article will provide you with the fundamentals on how to develop a makerspace from a proposal to production. Inspired by the success experienced by Jade Garret at George Mason University while starting the Mason Information Exchange (MIX), which was the first of its kind at her University. This article will discuss some the challenges and strategies to overcome them, so that you can effectively influence your campus.