To better grasp the issue of underrepresentation in makerspaces, it's crucial to closely examine the environment where these problems arise. A spatial enumeration of a makerspace, which is a complete listing of items within a collection or environment, extends such an evaluation. By responding to this overarching research question, "why do…

Despite numerous studies indicating the positive contribution of 3D modeling and printing (3DMP) in learning settings, its current educational use is still rather limited. For the adoption of 3DMP in classrooms, it is critical to understand the views and perceptions of teachers on such new technology. To better understand how teachers perceive…

While the majority of workplace learning is informal, most organizational resources devoted to learning are allocated to more formal means, such as training. The purpose of this study was to investigate how instructional designers facilitate informal learning in the workplace. Three hundred eighty-five practitioners completed an online survey…

Makerspace tools and technologies are becoming increasingly popular in K-12 educational settings. While makerspace education has the potential to democratize educational spaces, the integration of these new technologies into the classroom is not trivial. In this paper, we analyze a university-based makerspace apprenticeship program for pre-service…

Despite the emphasis on open educational resources in our field, there are surprisingly few examples of open textbooks in our field, as well as in graduate education generally, despite the findings from research that these books can be affordable, high quality, and advantageous to students and faculty. In this article I describe one process for…

This literature review identifies the content and scope of empirical academic research on making, makerspaces, and fablabs. Using an overview approach, 150 peer reviewed studies were analyzed using expanded activity theory as a framework to examine how researchers have explored various components in a makerspace (subjects, tools, community, rules,…

First conceived as spaces stocked with D.I.Y. tools and materials for community members to join together in the activity of making, makerspaces have begun popping up in schools, libraries, universities and museums across the world. The maker mindset summarizes the ideology of the maker movement--a set of values predicated on making, sharing,…

There has been increased interest in utilizing making activities in classroom-based educational environments and research suggests these activities may promote desirable student dispositions such as increased confidence and agency. To realize these benefits, teachers must experience maker-centered learning in order to design and integrate these…

Making and makerspaces are currently an exciting topic in education. The constructionist nature of learning through making, however, creates an inherent tension for teachers -- one where the need to meet specific standards must be balanced with the open-ended, creative problem-solving that making supports. Unlike the traditional teacher-centered…

The issue this paper addresses is the lack of attention to inclusivity of people with visual impairments in the maker movement. To capture major challenges which blind makers are faced with in makerspaces and to learn how to pursue a more accessible making ecology, three online communities for blind makers (The Blind Arduino Blog; Raspberry VI;…

Maker-centered learning is a creative hands-on educational strategy that uses a variety of tools and materials to support the iterative design of physical or digital artifacts. It involves the "messy" process of trial and error; therefore, authentic integration of maker-centered learning requires teachers to embrace ambiguity. This…

Supporting collaborative discourse with discussion forums in a typical Learning Management System (LMS) remains challenging. This article reports on a design case of an "unLMS" approach, which aimed to devise a networked learning environment not based on an LMS for collaborative discourse in an online course. To support such discourse,…

As makerspaces begin to move into school libraries and classrooms, there is a growing need for professional development to help K-12 educators answer common questions such as "what is a makerspace," "why should I bother with a makerspace," "how do I run a makerspace," and "how do I teach from a makerspace?"…

As makerspaces begin to move into school libraries and classrooms, there is a growing need for professional development to help K-12 educators answer common questions such as "what is a makerspace," "why should I bother with a makerspace," "how do I run a makerspace," and "how do I teach from a makerspace?"…

As higher education institutions seek to prepare an increasingly diverse population of students for a rapidly changing future, makerspaces offer a pedagogical approach for engaging all learners in active thinking and hands-on learning while promoting creativity, problem solving, and collaboration skills. In this paper, we discuss ways to integrate…