what is a makerspace?

This webinar is with Laura Fleming, it’s about Maker-space.  Laura started by giving us an overview about the maker movement, which is the moving on from the dissemination, synthesis and understanding of knowledge to rather than making of knowledge (knowledge construction). This is giving us a global revolution of people who rather make things then buy things and were driving innovation, manufacturing , engineering , industrial design, and hardware technology. We see the maker movement also extending to areas like music, media, and food. It’s truly has become a revolution in learning. 

The maker movement creates new opportunities for allover learners, these opportunities for all educators to give students authentic learning opportunities that go beyond their typical classroom experiences and to rethink traditional learning environment to include those nurture creativity and innovation that will benefit our students in school and beyond.

Whether you are a school library, whether you teach fifth grade … Fleming believes that is something in this movement for everyone. First what we should talk about is moving learners form consumption to creation and turning their knowledge into action. The maker movement will allow learners to develop the skills, the confidence, the knowledge, and the realization of their own capabilities to think about problem, to design solutions, to create solutions, to critique what they make, and to make better skills.

It encourages a growth mind set, encourages risk and failure that failure is a necessary step on the road to success and innovation. This is the way we want learning to happen and the way learning happens naturally anyway. We know kids learn by exploring, playing, doing, and making, these kinds of things lead to deeper engagement.

What is a Maker-space? Some people think that a maker-space is just a corner of the room with a lot of stuff and gadgets, and it’s really a lot more than that. It is a metaphor for a unique learning environment that encourages tinkering, play, and open ended exploration for all   

Fleming has been a New Jersey educator for 17 years as a classroom teacher and media specialist for K-8 schools and now a library and media specialist for grades 9-12.  She developed a formal maker-space at New Milford High School by the principal, Eric Sheninger. She took a photo for the library when she first begin in the middle of the day, the library look like not one person walked into the library that day, not one teacher and not one student. So the challenge is to transform her library into learning environment that students needed it, wanted it, deserve it, and valued.

To create the Maker-space in the library Fleming used the school’s existing space and resources and also she used the web to create a virtual extension of our Maker-space. She used a successful planning process, she started with the learners, and the first thing she did was not focusing to buy materials, equipment, and a bunch of stuff before taking time to actually plan out the space. In developing her Maker-space she spent a lot of time just talking to the students, to understand their learners. She asked about their needs, wants, and interests. At the same time, she assessed the existing curricula, existing program in her school, and program within the school community. She also considered the global trends and best practices and then she took time to develop themes, after developing their themes such as like robotics, engineering inventions, brainwave technologies, computer coding, electricity/electronics… she finally got to the order of the equipment and the supplies.

Because it is an informal learning space, different kinds of kids from different classes and age levels mingle. “What are you making?” I love that. It opens the door to so many possibilities.

She worked to make her informal learning space a place where it is okay to tinker, play, invent, and take chances. Failure isn’t penalized. At best, we recognize failure as part of the inventing process. The kids came up with was building computers and surprise Fleming. After that she ordered tools and materials, Fleming started creating fixed stations which are in place indefinitely; the other stations come and go with projects, learners can sit down and do something independently immediately and flexible stations include a Lego table, littleBits bar, 3D printing and design station, a MaKey MaKey station, and our take-apart technology station, which is where the practice of building computers evolved.