It's hard to believe that my first course teacher librarian course has come to an end. I have learned a lot and have enjoyed the course. I have been introduced to new topics and its been a fasicinating journey and I can't wait to use what I can in my practice. One of those things is our school makerspace. I have never used it and to my knowledge, nobody else has either. This is due to the fact that teachers at my school have not had any professional development on the topic. I thought it was rather a shame considering the research I found that shows that using makerspaces can encourage the development of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication in students. In addition to encouraging growth mindset, reluctant learners and problem solving skills. After learning of the benefits, I was sure that I wanted to use the makerspace with my class. So, when the final vision project was announced, I thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to learn more about makerspaces myself, and to provide teachers at my school with some information about makerspaces.
My Vision Project: Rationale
My final vision project is a website aimed at teachers at my school along with other teacher librarians who may come across my site. I named my website Diary of an Aspiring Teacher Librarian, a nod to the fact that I am a beginner on the journey to becoming a teacher librarian. I figure that the name of the website can be changed in the future, as I progress and become more comfortable in my knowledge and role. One of the key takeaways from this course for me is how important developing relationships with staff is and I wrote about this in an earlier post. A website will add another layer to my efforts to open lines of communication with staff and demonstrate my knowledge and learning. In addition, a website will allow teachers to explore on their own time and at their own pace.
On my website you will find 4 pages about makerspaces that I designed for those beginning with makerspaces. The pages cover what makerspaces are, reasons to use them, beginner challenges and suggestions for procedures. Earlier in the course I read Howard's research that found that teachers who are reluctant to use technology in the classroom do so often because they are not confident that they can trouble shoot if the need arises. It would follow that anything new and unfamiliar, such as new technology or makerspaces, can create a lot of stress and therefore reluctance to implement. Kristen Daniels also points out that supporting teachers means that we should differentiate for their various levels of knowledge.
I took their ideas to heart and tried to remember those ideas when choosing information to include. For instance:
1) I tried to provide enough beginning information and maker challenges so that teachers have choice. Those that may have no knowledge may wish to start with my page on what makerspaces are, while those with some knowledge of makerspaces may want to look over the maker challenges.
2) I have tried to provide videos whenever possible. The videos I chose are short, informative and engaging. Videos are accessible and after teaching all day, I know that I would rather watch a video on a teaching topic rather than read an article.
2) I focused on what I thought would help teachers at my school learn more about makerspaces and support them if they decided to try them in the future. The makerspace challenges I found, I saved to Padlet and embedded the Padlet into my webpage. I focused on finding maker challenges that used the reusable materials currently found in our school makerspace and then I added additional challenges that require consumable materials even though currently they are not stocked.
Struggles
I wrote a blog post previously about my struggles finding a topic that made sense to me in terms of my experience and finding a format I could continue to use as I learned more about topics that interested me. I also had some struggles with creating my website. I made my website using Wix after hearing how easy it was to use from several people. I have never used a website builder before. Wix was easy to use and I appreciated the pre-made templates. However, the templates at times change the postion of text or photos without warning and in a way that I did not like, such as providing a narrow window for a video. This I found frustrating. I also sometimes did not like all the blank spots that happened while using the templates. I wasted a lot of time trying to close the gaps, but couldn't figure out how to make it happen in some cases.
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| Big gap that I could not close between text and embedded Padlet |
After reading about Padlet, I decided to give it a try. I only tried the free version which provided me with 3 boards to experiment with. I created a board for maker projects using reusable materials, a maker projects board using consumable materials and one board for reading cultures. I like how you can customize it and easily reorder the links you have saved. I attempted to organize the boards somewhat using colours. I think having more boards would make organization easier, but I am not ready to make that kind of financial obligation at this point.
In the future I will add a page on robotics and 3D printers as we have these items as well, but the scope and length of this project did not allow me to explore these items. I had hoped to create some challenges of my own, but I spent much longer building the website than I had anticipated. I also wanted to use alt text with my photos to make the site more accessible, but this will have to be a future goal as well. I had lofty goals.
I learned a lot while working through out this course and on this project. Not only did I learn that creating a website was not as scary as it sounded, I also experimented with a new application, Padlet and collected many useful resources for implementing makerspaces. In order to create the pages on my website, I had to learn more about makerspaces. I watched the videos I found and read through the materials I linked to. I found that information regarding procedures to use in the makerspace hasn't been written about a lot and took some time to find, but I did find a few. Overall, I found that the process of creating the website made me feel more confident in terms of my own use of the makerspace and in offering my assistance and knowledge to those who may want to use the makerspace in my school.
Works Cited:
Daniels, Kristen, director. Empowering the Teacher Technophobe: Kristin Daniels at TEDxBurnsvilleED. YouTube, YouTube, 6 Nov. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=puiNcIFJTCU.
Howard, S. K. & Mozejko, A. (2015). Teachers: technology, change and resistance. In M. Henderson & G. Romeo (Eds.), Teaching and Digital Technologies: Big Issues and Critical Questions (pp. 307-317). Port Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Learning Problem Solving and Growth Mindset in a Makerspace. Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 16 Nov. 2018, www.edutopia.org/video/learning-problem-solving-and-growth-mindset-makerspace.
Novack, Staci. “CGI.” SpringerReference, doi:10.1007/springerreference_61782.
Provenzano, Nickolas. “4 Practices for Increasing Student Engagement.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 25 Apr. 2016, www.edutopia.org/blog/practices-for-increasing-student-engagement-nicholas-provenzano.
Vongkulluksn, Vanessa W., et al. “Growth Mindset Development in Design-Based Makerspace: a Longitudinal Study.” The Journal of Educational Research, 2021, pp. 1–27., doi:10.1080/00220671.2021.1872473.
