Situating Makerspaces in Schools - Hybrid Pedagogy
America’s obsession with STEM is dangerous, Fareed Zakaria warns us, and our hunch is that most readers of Hybrid Pedagogy would tend to agree. We, Colin and Josh, certainly do. But the conversation that typically follows that headline rarely seems productive: a turf war for institutional priority and students’ time drawn on traditional disciplinary lines. Even when STEM advocates throw a bone to the value of creativity by adding “A” for Arts (making “STEAM”), the pendulum still swings, and the conversation never seems to advance.
The Makings of Maker Spaces, Part 2: Espress Yourself
Espresso Book Machines tie self-publishing to Maker culture In his presentation at the 2012 Computers in Libraries conference, Fiacre O’Duinn defined Maker culture as “learning through hands-on creation; a combination of technology, art, and citizen science; and a sharing of results and, often, process.” Whether its via 3-D printers, microcontrollers, knitting, or gardening, Makers want to shape everyday objects to be reflections of themselves, not have their identities be made up of the objects they use.
“Fostering a digital culture in the primary school library: developing creativity through gaming.”
“Fostering a digital culture in the primary school library: developing creativity through gaming.” What does this mean? What would it look like? Is it possible? This essay is an analysis to demonstrate this scenario is not only possible but is within the role of twenty first century school libraries. A primary school library – what does it look like and what is its role in the fast changing, collaborative and participatory technology rich world of the 21st century learner?
The Makings of Maker Spaces, Part 3: A Fabulous Home for Cocreation
The Fab Lab helps Fayetteville users build and play Over the past year , the Fayetteville Free Library (FFL) has enjoyed the successful rollout of its Fabulous Laboratory (Fab Lab), a Maker space that resulted from the library’s commitment to community engagement and innovation. During this time, the library’s staff have been honored to speak about the Fab Lab and to explain not only its success but also the variety of challenges and assumptions that most libraries will face when developing a similar space. One of the most important contributing factors to FFL’s success is its culture of innovation that requires the team to think beyond the limitations of the past and to imagine a new vision for the community. As part of this culture, FFL has developed a staffing model that takes advantage of our close proximity to Syracuse University’s iSchool, one of the most renowned library and information science schools in our nation.
A Librarian's Guide to Makerspaces: 16 Resources
"There were more than 135 million adult makers, more than half of the total adult population in America, in 2015." What is a makerspace? You’ve no doubt been hearing that word more than a few times over the past several years. Makerspaces, also called hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs, are collaborative spaces where people gather to get creative with DIY projects, invent new ones, and share ideas. Since the first official makerspace convened six years ago in a library in upstate New York, libraries have remained an ideal setting for makerspace events across the country.
PIXIO — Magnetic Construction Set In The Pixel Art Style by PIXIO
For this purpose, we chose the ideal shape — a cube, like a pixel in the digital world. At the same time, this is the most fundamental form and absolutely symmetrical volume object with an equal number of faces. It is perfect both mathematically and aesthetically. As connectors, we decided to use powerful magnets so that we could connect the blocks on any side.
Makerspace in your school library
Earlier this year I wrote a post about Hackerspaces and Makerspaces, after attending the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington. I met up with Buffy Hamilton for lunch, and as ever was inspired with the responsive way she grabs an initiative and runs with it. So I wasn’t surprised to find Buffy writing Makerspaces, Participatory Learning, and Libraries where she ‘nailed’ the opportunity. Now here she is, putting forward the New Chapter for 2012-2013 proposal for A Makerspace Culture of Learning at the Unquiet Library. Love it! In a sense, this is not a new concept at all, particularly for primary schools, as kids are hands-on and experimental in their classroom experiences.
Lewisville Public Library
The Hive, Lewisville Public Library's makerspace, is home to innovation and creativity. The Hive features two 3D printers, a laser cutter, a Carvey CNC milling machine, two sewing machines, a serger and an embroidery machine. Two Design Computers in The Hive feature specialized design software for creating and preparing projects to be run on the equipment in the makerspace. Software available on the Design Computers includes: A collaboration space is also included in The Hive, featuring mobile tables, chairs, and whiteboard which allow users to alter the workspace to fit their needs. The Hive is:
School Libraries and Makerspaces: Can They Coexist?
More and more schools are coming to value maker education and exploring ways to create makerspaces in their schools. Many schools are discussing how they might utilize their library to facilitate this. As my school has increased our commitment to constructionist learning and maker education over the last few years, we have done so in close collaboration with our school library. In exploring the relationship between the school library and school makerspace, it's not difficult to see why conversations about the growth of makerspaces are often tied to the conversation about the future of libraries. Both makerspaces and libraries are constructivist learning spaces that share a number of common goals, while approaching them in different ways and through very different material resources.
27 Makerspace Materials & Supplies - Makerspaces.com
Free Supply List (PDF) – 100+ Makerspace Materials and Supplies What makerspace materials and supplies should you buy or stock for your hands-on learning lab? There are a lot of options out there to choose from and it can be confusing when you’re first starting out as a maker educator. Instead of just spending money randomly on items you think you will need, it’s always a great idea to work backwards first. You need to make a list of your goals for your makerspace and then define some of the projects you want to do in your makerspace.
