Makerspace in Education
The Maker Movement is the practice of creating and includes making in many formats. Making includes what we would have, until recently, called hobbies. One exception that defines the current maker movement is an emphasis on collaborative creation and public sharing (Halverson & Sheridan 2014).
There are many examples of community makerspaces in the US. Autodesk runs a Maker Facility where professional artists use the equipment and materials to support their craft with their only responsibility being to write and share Instructables to the Autodesk Instructables website. Community maker spaces exist where adults work in collaboration to build and share their creations. And, public libraries have begun creating makerspaces to inspire children and adults to simply play together and create something. I personally work with a mobile makerspace that travels to schools and libraries and community centers. Georgia State University has created the Exlab (Experience, Experiment, Explore) space for students to use for both classroom assignments and personal maker activities.
The White House hosted their first Maker Faire in 2014 and President Obama declared “I am calling on people across the country to join us in sparking creativity and encouraging invention in their communities”(White House 2014).
Current literature provides ideas about Maker Education and what a makerspace in a school should be. Halverson and Sheridan (2014) proposed the following idea that making is a direct extension of learning.
“Learning in making is, emphatically, not interchangeable with schooling. Learning through making reaches across the divide between formal and informal learning, pushing us to think more expansively about where and how learning happens. In this way we can talk about the who, what and how of learning without getting hung up on the rules and constraints that govern different settings” (p.498).
Martin (2015) examined the Promise of the Maker Movement for Education and drew from the philosophies of Maria Montessori with the following idea of the Maker Movement for learning;
“The Maker Movement is a new phenomenon, but it is build from familiar pieces, and its relevance to education has deep roots. It has long been argued that children and youth can learn by playing and building with interesting tools and materials. Making and building can foster learning in a variety of ways that mesh with long-established theories of how learning unfolds” (p3).
Maker Education has the potential to change classroom environments, increase equity in learning outcomes and enhance the shift towards authentic assessment and away from standardized assessment (Martin 2015). Maker Education promotes the 4 C’s Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity which are consistently identified as necessary for college and career readiness (NEA 2018).
Maker Education has a connection to STEM skills that can inspire students of all backgrounds towards a career in fields that have traditionally been underrepresented by females and minorities.
Theoretical Foundations:
Expanding the Maker Movement into education is supporting by several learning theories:
Constructivism is a theory described by Jean Piaget with developmental roots in the ideas of John Dewey, Maria Montessori and Lev Vygotsky (Gonzalez 2016). Constructivism stated that learning is an active process that happens as a consequence of experience. Past experiences and cultural factors all influence the learning that students construct for themselves. Teaching and learning occur when students use their past knowledge and experiences and current learning experiences and combine them to build new knowledge ((Psenka et al 2017). Constructivism focuses on the role of the teacher as a facilitator who supports student learning rather than an expert who imparts knowledge to an audience. Students are encouraged to search for answers to questions that they design and to apply that knowledge appropriately (Gonzalez 2016). Constructivism links directly to MakerEd because it posits a student centered approach to learning and teaching.
Constructionism is a theory described by Seymour Papert. Seymour Papert interpreted and applied Piaget’s constructivist research to describe constructionism. This theory, like constructivism, focuses on student centered learning experiences. Like Constructivism, learners are actively constructing knowledge (van der Poel et al.2016). Unlike Constructivism, Constructionism focuses on the making of tangible objects. Papert was one of the first to use new technologies to apply constructivist principles to learning and he and his colleagues at MIT were among the first to introduce students to learning via technology. Students were encouraged to explore and create using relevant and innovative technology solutions. This contrasted with prior approaches where students were expected to be taught by technology (Psenka et al 2017). Constructionism provides intuitive support for MakerEd because students are encouraged to create in order to learn. The created objects can be technology related, as was the focus of Papert and his colleagues, or they can be music, arts, building or even tinkering with unfamiliar materials (Constructionism & Constructivism 2016). The important part of designing a constructionist learning environment is that students are the center of all learning activities.
Motivation Theory suggest that there are two systems of motivation: Intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic Motivation comes from inside the student and does not involve an external reward. Extrinsic Motivation is external to the learner. Instructional design must consider motivation as a factor of human performance (Reiser and Dempsey 2018). Maker Education Intrinsically motivates students by connecting to their natural interest in active learning and play. Children are inherently curious beings as evidenced by their skill at asking questions a they explore the world. This exhibits a natural, intrinsic motivation to learn (Montessori 2017). Extrinsic motivation in MakerEd does not come from constructed systems of rewards and praise. Extrinsic motivation derives from reaction to student products. Making is a social activity and in most cases students are able to present or use the item that they have created in front of a group of peers or other stakeholders where they receive relevant, naturalistic feedback.
Case Study:
The Organization:
The KSU iTeach MakerBus is an organization that is dedicated to helping school communities implement MakerEducation. The iTeach MakerBus is a not for profit organization.
The KSU iTeach MakerBus is one of many mobile makerspaces that are popping up all over the country.
Georgia State University Bio Bus-https://biobus.gsu.edu/
STEM Bus-https://stemrevolution.org/stembus
STEAM Truck-https://www.steamtruck.org/
Santa Clara University mobile Maker Lab- https://www.scu.edu/engineering/beyond-the-classroom/outreach/mobile-maker-lab/
Makers 4 Good- Santa Clara University- http://makers4good.org/pages/scu-mobile-maker-lab.html
Actua- Canada- https://actua.ca/en/maker-mobile
The bus is staffed by highly qualified K-12 teachers and instructional technology coaches who work in the iTeach Department at the KSU Bagwell College of Education. There are 60 coaches available to work bus events when they are not otherwise scheduled. Four coaches at a time work on the bus with one coach serving as lead for the day. The MakerBus has a project lead who manages event scheduling, staff scheduling, billing, content curation, etc. The MakerBus has an engagement lead who manages logistics, maintenance, travel.
The MakerBus travels daily to schools within 100 miles of Kennesaw State University and travels for extended visits to schools outside of the 100 mile radius of KSU. The MakerBus provides both student experiential learning and hands on teacher professional development.The MakerBus can serve up to 150 students a day in exploration type activities but often serves smaller groups in project based activities. The MakerBus can serve up to 30 teachers a day in hands on professional development that connects curriculum to making.
The Challenge: The KSU iTeach MakerBus is staffed by over 60 different people. These staff members work on many different projects to fulfill their responsibilities at KSU iTeach. The MakerBus is only one of their responsibilities. There are only two staff members who work full time on the MakerBus and are fully focused on MakerEd. The two full time MakerBus staff, Project Lead and Engagement Manager, take turns on the MakerBus.
In order to support equity in leadership roles among the staff and also to make sure that MakerBus events can operate in the event key staff are not available the staff on the bus rotate the event lead position. The event lead role includes keeping time, greeting the participants, interacting with school staff, addressing technology issues, reporting problems to the project lead. The other staff members man stations where students participate in hands on learning activities.
The MakerBus is experiencing a challenge because there are so many staff members available at different times and there has not been formal training or performance support provided to all staff. While each staff member receives instructional videos that support the activity that they will be implementing they have not all received professional support regarding the mission and philosophy of MakerEd and the Makerbus and how to promote the maker mindset among students and teachers. Learning in the more informal setting of the Makerbus is a shift in mindset for most teachers and while our staff members are exceptional and innovative they may still need support in making this shift. In an informal learning environment adjustments need to be made in student/staff interactions, behavioral interventions, expectation management and level of support/scaffolding. All staff also needs to understand how to setup and breakdown event equipment, store it and tie it down for the ride in order to maintain equipment and driver/rider safety.
Solutions: Effective Solutions to this problem should be supported by the theories that support Maker Education and designed with the students at the center of the learning. In order to help staff develop vocabulary and skill sets to support students in an informal learning environment we need to support their growth within that type of environment. There are several options for solutions:
Performance Support- The full time MakerBus Staff will work to create performance support that event staff can access throughout the day as it is required. Short videos attached to qr codes that answer questions or provide inspirational support for working with students on maker activities. This type of just in time informal support will be a good model for staff as they explore Maker Education. The Project Lead can also curate an online repository of resources to support staff growth in learning about Maker Education at their own pace. Staff members can be asked to contribute to topics within the repository to help build their knowledge as well as that of other staff.
Training- The Project Lead can develop an in person training option that immerses participants in experiential learning while modeling appropriate vocabulary and interactions to promote a maker mindset in an informal learning environment.
Authored by: Leigh Martin