WHAT WORKS

Maker Spacesand the LearningCommonsDav!d V. Loertscher

In the 1960s, when school librarieswere being transformed into mul-timedia centers, we not only trans-

formed the collections to include pho-nograph records, sound filmstrips, and8-mm silent loop films, but there wasalso a major trend to create a corner ofthe library for make and take.Here kids made hand-drawn transparencies, posters, and used 35-mm cameras to create slide shows, and they experimented withlarge video cameras if the school could afford them-sometimesthere was even a sound studio for doing the morning show for theschool. At the district level, make-and-take workshop areas werevery popular. It was once said that if the rate of lamination at thesecenters continued to grow, the elementary teachers of Americawould have laminated the world and everything in it. And we cer-tainly served those teachers by allowing them to make overheadson our fancy 3M machines, and those purple dittos almost madeus stagger back to our rooms (you have to be very old to get that).

Hopefully, a half-century later, particularly in the new Learn-ing Commons, there are still those make-and-take areas, but nowthose spaces are both physical and virtual. Kids use inexpensivecameras/cell phones to create videos, do mash-ups, build mod-els, create dazzling presentations, turn their projects into digitalformats and their posters in Glogster. This part of the LearningCommons crosses the barrier between pure academics and infor-mal learning. And the service brings in a chunk of kids who areattracted to advanced technologies that we offer. It is the place tocreate, build, construct, do, and express all kinds of both personaland collaborative products.

Is there such a space in your library/Learning Commons? In ourvarious visits across North America, we have seen two in opera-tion: one in an Edgewood middle school in Toronto known as theScience Experience Center (see the article in Teacher Librarian at:

and one at the board (district) level in Calgary, Canada.In the United States and elsewhere, there is new interest and

excitement in Makerspaces. These are places where design and en-trepreneurial ideas are allowed and where serious technology and

construction equipment are available in a place dedicated to play(meaning to make, construct, tinker, experiment, invent, and create).

We quote here on a press release from EdSurge about a recenttour of such places in Califomia:

On Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 at the picturesque College of San Ma-teo, Makerspace (http://makerspace.com/), Linda Kekelis of Tech-bridge stated.

Today, Techbridge kicked off its launch in sixteen schools inCalifomia. (Lucky kids!) (https://www.edsurge.com/n/makerspace-event-hclps-kick-off-u-s-department-of-education-bus-tour-across-america.jExhlbits ofArduinos, LEDs, circuits, robotics, andother geeky goodies lent the space a true Maker-esque aura. Asquadron of Department of Ed officials (in spijfy-fitting suits) ar-rived to celebrate the occasion. Both sides participated on stage(and amongst the crowd) in a lively discussion on how Maker ac-tivities mesh with the Department's grander pursuits of STEM andCommon Core goals. Undersecretary Martha Kanter, first on themic, set the tone for what is needed to make this happen: "We haveto move from an engine of bureaucracy to an engine of innovation. "

Karen Cator, Casey Shea (teacher at Analy high school), An-nMarie Thomas (Executive Director, Maker Education Initiative),and Paul Heckman (Professor and Associate Dean, School of Edu-cation, UC Davis) chimed in on a lively discussion, moderated byEdSurgc's Betsy on issues such as the research and pedagogy be-hind Making and learning, support for teachers, and how this allrelates to tests and Common Core.

You can view the panel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLWbYChywaQafeature=youtu.be.

Four middle school students got the last word. They are mak-ers, declared one, "because it's not boring. " Figuring out answers-rather than regurgitating the "right" response-keeps them comingback for more, said Riley Lewis.

Knowing that this event was happening, I sent my great graduateassistant, Jennifer Gulassa, and here is an excerpt from her report:

The room was a buzz of activity, men in suits were wrappedup in engaging conversations with t-shirt wearing teens, and sur-rounding the perimeter were maker tables demonstrating some ofthe hands-on activities created in Maker Spaces all over California.There were homemade 3D printers, robots drawing kaleidoscopepatterns on poster paper on the floor, cardboard laser-cut mod-els of a skull or a skateboard ramp, and makers enthusiasticallypresenting their process or the kit they created to share with otherpotential makers.

Dougherty, MAKE Magazine and Maker Faire publisher andinventor and now general manager of the Maker Media divisionof O'Reilly Media, Inc., gave an inspirational speech that con-centrated on the learner. "Every child is a maker. " He said thatthe maker kit will be the new textbook. Folks across the state andcountry are creating kits that teach various concepts via hands-onprojects. The kits, many of which were displayed around the room

OCTOBER 2012 4 5

during this conference, come complete withdirections, examples, tools, and materials,as well as expertise you will need to leadthis project in the classroom. It is project-based leaming in the most literal sense. Healso said that a maker is someone who isinterdisciplinary, who shares using opensources, has the desire to visualize her/hisphysical world and create.

Einally, Saul Grifßn, of Otherlab, madea beautifully illustrated graphic presenta-tion of the maker process. Otherlab is thecreator of Howtoons, comics that show

kids how to make things (http://projects.otherlab.com/). He talked about how somemakers/leamers have used the AutodeskCAD tool, which is offered free to educa-tors to problem-solve. Each student can beinspired to leam if they create their ownquestions and are then given the tools theyneed to find the answers. Griffin explained.He described reaching out to a skateboarderand asking him/her what would make skat-ing better. The student came up with theconcept of getting more air, and this de-veloped into designing a better ramp. The

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student used Autodesk to design a ramp,and the program created cardboard cut-outs and pattems for the maker/learnerto cut or pop out and glue together into asmall scale 3D model so that they can ac-tually test their theories before potentiallymoving on to the full-scale wooden ramp.The program also has the ability to showthe math involved in the different curves,so students have the ability to troubleshootand tweak while still designing virtually inAutodesk and leam the math in a concreteway besides.

The physical and digital nature of thesespaces as discussed was reminiscent of theLeaming Commons, though most of theMaker physical spaces are a lot messierthan the library as it is right now. Manyof the examples Dougherty and the pilotschools shared were outbuildings literallybuilt for these projects where there couldbe saw dust, metal and paper scraps, glue,and table saws, as well as modem tools likelaser-cutters, computer-controlled millingmachines, 3D printers, CAD sofiware readyto use to produce student creations, orCAM (computer aided manufacture). Thesemodem tech tools allow for an iterativedesign process that was not available tenyears ago. It feels like these Makerspacesare the cousin of the Leaming Commons,but there is great potential for inspirational'family gatherings, " so to speak, where theLeaming Commons and the Makerspaeescould come together and help one another.

Even the American Library Associa-tion is getting into the act, with a seriesof webinars (if you are lucky enough to bereading this article before Nov. 19, 2012)at http://ala-publishing.informz.net/Infor-mzDataService/OnlineVersion/Individual?mailinglnstanceld=26375950subscriberid= 1026764064. The reason they are in-terested is because of the success of such aspace in the Chicago Public Library.

So, what's our point? As teacher librar-ians we can embrace new and innovativeideas or allow them to grow up aroundus, excluding us, ignoring us, or we canembrace, join, encourage, and move to thecenter of both serious academics and theexciting movements in disruptive educa-tion. It's our time, folks.

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