Makerspaces

Educause provides a brief but informative summary of Makerspaces in education. They outline what Makerspaces are, how Makerspaces work, who's using them and what are the implications for teaching and learning.

This is a well organized blog by Michelle Davis, teacher-librarian and graduate student in educational technology and design from British Columbia, who provides information on what a Makerspace is and Makerspaces and learning theories.

This article, reprinted from the June 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is a thoughtful and insightful examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement. The authors’ analysis and argument are strong, and the benefits they tout are inspiring.

Week 4 Essential question: What is the pedagogy behind a Maker Space? What are the benefits of this pedagogy to students? #UAEmergTech

Digital Pedagogy Lab is a practical institute that helps prepare learners, educators, librarians, administrators, and others to teach and work with digital technology. It offers access to the online journal, "Hybrid Pedagogy: A Digital Journal of Learning, Teaching and Technology."

Around the world, there is a new movement to use the new tools and technology of the Maker Movement to give people authentic learning experiences beyond textbooks and tests. The Stanford FabLearn Fellows are a group of 18 educators who are working at the forefront of this new movement in all corners of the globe. They teach in FabLabs, makerspaces, classrooms, libraries, community centers, and museums – all with the goal of making learning more meaningful in the modern world.
In this free e-book, the FabLearn Fellows share projects, assessment strategies, lesson planning guides, and ideas from their learning spaces. In over 200 pages illustrated with color photos of real student work, the Fellows take you on a tour of the future of learning.

Content is from Faculty Focus, which publishes articles on effective teaching strategies for the college classroom.

This essay by Chickering and Ehrmann describe some of the most cost-effective and appropriate ways to use computers, video, and telecommunications technologies to advance the Seven Principles.

In this paper, from the Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2012 (pp. 1988-1993), the authors describe the evolution of a project conducted to explore mobile learning, lessons learned and the changes in web participatory technologies that now enable a more open approach to the use of mobile devices. Web 2.0 and social media now facilitate the ready implementation of mobile devices into higher education, particularly through authentic learning environments and tasks, where they can be used in learning activities, research contexts and for the publication of student generated products. The paper concludes with key implications for practice.

This article, from the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2010, 26(1), 28-43, considers issues pertaining to the design of personalised learning spaces, resources and environments using social software and media, and how they might be used to promote and achieve learner self direction. Of importance to attaining the longstanding goal of student centred learning is the need to acknowledge the importance of including informal modes of learning in the learning experience.

This article, from the Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007, investigates the affordances of Web 2.0 and social software and the choices and constraints
they offer to tertiary teachers and learners. A discussion of emerging pedagogical models is presented to demonstrate that we now have access to an enabling suite of tools to support greater learner choice and self-direction.

This article, from Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 1 (2009) 478–482, introduces theoretical aspects of using Web 2.0 technologies in higher education. The article's goals are:
• to present models of integrating Web 2.0 technologies in teaching, learning and assessment.
• to identify the potential benefits of these technologies as well as to highlight some of the problematic issues / barriers encountered, surrounding the pedagogical use of Web 2.0 in higher education.