Listen and learn: Edtalk 
Recorded Session
This engaging presentation is designed to guide educators through the dynamic landscape of “Innovation and Exploration Spaces”, and it will highlight the essential role these spaces should play in modern pedagogy. This presentation will offer educators insights into how to harness and optimize the potential of these important spaces to enrich learning experiences and meet the needs for ALL learners. By delving into best practices, successful, proven school experiences and explorations, and emerging new technology-rich products, this presentation will equip educators with the tools and inspiration needed to foster creativity, critical thinking, development of problem- solving skills, and engaging hands-on learning for ALL students.
State and national assessments are showing alarming declines in student achievement, and student engagement also continues to suffer. Learning lag is real, and it has become more disturbing in almost every school district. But there is hope, if schools can implement programs and learning opportunities in which students can explore and develop essential 21st Century skills in innovative environments such as the “Innovation and Exploration Spaces” described in this session. Educators who recognize the power and potential “Innovation and Exploration Spaces” offer, must take the reins, to engage students and hook them on the excitement of innovative learning! The time is NOW!
Several years ago, before the world-wide pandemic, when the concept of “makerspaces’ began taking hold, schools everywhere joined the bandwagon so they could say they also had a “Makerspace”. Yet many schools still today continue to lack a clear vision of what the intent or purpose of those ‘spaces’ should be, and the true potential they could offer if designed effectively, to focus on technology integration and important “Future-Proof Skills”! Unfortunately, in many cases, the “makerspaces” that developed pre-pandemic, have turned into Art, Craft, and “Making” places, with as many or more art supplies as technology supplies. This perspective is totally out of sync for what the needs of today’s students are, and educators need to re-focus, to get this valuable “school real estate” in line with the technology and learning needs of 21st Century students. The time to implement or re-direct and re-focus these important spaces is NOW! These valuable spaces must be used to propel technology-driven innovation, exploration, inventing and creating, and to reignite learning and engagement!
The speaker will help participants embrace the importance of using technology-rich “Innovation and Exploration Spaces“ to engage diverse students and to provide ALL students with opportunities to engage and pursue inquiry with topics of interest to them. She will also discuss ways to fund these important “technology-rich learning spaces”, the necessity of equitable and accessible scheduling of these spaces, consideration of where in a school these spaces should be located, and how to measure their effectiveness.
The speaker will provide a clear vision of what effective, specifically designed technology-rich ”Innovation and Exploration Spaces” should be and the potential they offer for increasing student learning, and enhancing and intensifying student engagement, helping participants embrace the importance of creating student-centered “learning spaces” that may include “making”, but definitely move away from a standard ‘making mindset’ to a broader more engaging learning world that focuses on designing, creating, inventing, innovating, analyzing, evaluating, application of critical thinking, collaboration, and the integration of graphic, audio and video generation tools - a learning space that will maximize technology to increase student engagement and achievement! These “technology-rich learning spaces” must be places where students can utilize innovative technology and apply rich concepts to real world problem solving, places to collaborate, communicate, and use critical thinking, to create and invent, pursue topics of interest, and places that ignite a love of learning and engagement for ALL 21st Century students.
As a result of the presentation:
1. Participants will learn about and recognize the importance of re-focusing their vision for creating effective, immersive, technology-rich learning spaces, moving away from a limited “maker” space concept, and expanding and re-focusing their vision to include creating, designing, exploring, and inventing. Participants will learn how to design and implement “Innovation and Exploration Spaces”, to develop student-centered, technology-rich learning environments where resources in a variety of formats, at varying levels of difficulty and complexity, and where age-appropriate technology tools come together, so students can analyze, design, invent, and ‘make’ products, models, robots, and pursue topics of interest.
2. Participants will learn how to utilize rich technology tools to facilitate student learning, to collaborate with peers, to communicate what they have learned, and to ‘unlock’ learning pathways and expand and incorporate higher order applications of technology, to develop ‘future-proof skills’, to ignite a love of learning for all students and launch students into a successful path for College and Career Readiness.
3. Participants will learn criteria for what resources and technology tools to include in effective “Innovation and Exploration Spaces”, how to assure equitable and accessible scheduling of these spaces, where to best locate these spaces within a traditional school or alternative learning landscape, and how to maximize their use to advance learning and engagement for every student.
4. Participants will learn how to differentiate learning opportunities for students of varying abilities, interests, and experience, and they will learn ways to engage diverse students, including age-appropriate real-world problem-solving challenges, and development of essential 21st Century “Future-Proof Skills”, using rich technology resources.
I. Introduction and background information to support the creation and implementation of “Innovation and Exploration-Focused Learning Spaces” – helping participants re-focus, to include, but greatly expand from the prevalent and more limited concept of “making” and constructing.
10 minutes
II. Creating a clear vision and establishing goals and objectives, to create effective technology-rich, student-centered learning environments where “inventing”, analyzing, evaluating, and independent inquiry will thrive.
10 minutes
III. Criteria and recommendations for what to include in “Innovation and Exploration Spaces”, how to best schedule these spaces, and consideration of where best to locate these spaces within a school, (to enable educators to reach their instructional and student learning goals and objectives). Discussion will include considerations for how these spaces might be used for after school programs, scheduling when schools employ a hybrid learning model, and how and if, these spaces can be scheduled or used by those learning in remote, virtual, or “home school” learning models.
15 minutes
IV. Engaging diverse learners and assuring equitable and accessible opportunities for ALL diverse learners. Successful school implementations will be shared, including implementations from diverse socio-economic locations and urban, rural, and/or suburban areas.
15 minutes
V. Questions and Answers and Wrap Up
10 minutes
https://www.nkcschools.org/Domain/43
https://www.oedb.org/librarian/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces
https://wp.nyu.edu/gallatin-schoolfortheearth/modules/makerspace-creation-innovation-ideation/
https://tlos.vt.edu/request/
www.interaction-design.org/literature/article
www.csulb.edu/university-library/innovation-space
www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1551-pearlman
www.makerspaceforeducation.com/makerspace.html
https://www.makerspaces.com/what-is-a-makerspace/
“Create a Makerspace for Your School in 5 Easy Steps.”
Concordia University – Portland Blog. July 14, 2018.
“Create a School Makerspace in 3 Simple Steps.” ISTE Blog. August 1, 2019. Nicole Krueger.
”Create Some Space for Ideation Sessions and Design Thinking.” Rikke Dan and Teo Siang.
“Design for the Changing Educational Landscape: Space, Place and the Future
Of Learning”. Andrew Harrison and Les Hutton. London: Routledge, 2014.
“Designing a Makerspace for Pre-and In-Service Teachers. Marguerite Koole, Jordan Epp, Kerry Anderson, Robert Hepner and Mohammad Hossain. University of Saskatchewan, Vol 8, 2017.
DigiFeb Kits: Mini Mobile Makespace Design in the Arts Community. Aaron Knochel. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 2017.
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”Equity-Oriented Pedagogical Strategies and Student Learning in After School Making”. Jean Ryoo and Lianna Kali. Emporium, San Francisco.
Gravitating Towards Technology in Education: Place of Makerspace”. Roland Izuagbe. Covenant University, Nigeria, 2017.
“How to Help Kids Innovate From an Early Age.” Digital Promise. July 27, 2018.
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Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Martinez, Sylvia Libow and Gary Stager. 2016.
“It’s Time to Remake the Makerspace, But Schools Shouldn’t Go It Alone.” Ed Surge. June 13, 2019. Jessica Hickey.
“Maker Movement Spreads Innovation One Project at a Time”. Sophia Bender and Kylie Peppeler. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol 95, pp 22-27, November 11, 2013.
“Makerspaces and Scientific Creativity Level of Middle School Students”. Global Journal of Arts Education. 2018.
“Makerspaces in the Early Years: A Literature Review”. Marsh, J.; Kumpulainen, K.; Nisha, B.; Velicu, A.; Blum-Ross, A.; Hyatt, D.; Jónsdóttir, S.R.; Levy, R.; Little, S.; Marusteru, G.; Ólafsdóttir, M.E.; Sandvik, K.; Scott, F.; Thestrup, K.; Arnseth, H.C.; Dýrfjörð, K.; Jornet, A.; Kjartansdóttir, S.H.; Pahl, K.; Pétursdóttir, S.; and Thorsteinsson, G. “Makerspaces in the Early Years: A Literature Review.” University of Sheffield: MakEY Project, 2017.
“Making and Makerspaces in Education: Resources for Innovative Learning.” Jessica Parker and Stephanie Chang.
“Making Schools Different: Alternative Approaches to Educating Young People.” Kitty te Riele, Editor. SAGE Publishing, Los Angeles, 2009.
“Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education Through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge.” Toru Liyoshi and M.S. Vijay Kumar; MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2008.
“Promoting Positive Technological Development in a Kindergarten Makerspace: A Qualitative Case Study”. Lectito Journals, European Journal of STEM Education, 2018.
Ruben Puenedura – SAMR Model for Higher Order Applications of Technology.
“The Case for School Makerspaces, According to Those Who Use Them.” Erin Gohl.
“Why Makerspaces Are the Key to Innovation.” The TECH Edvocate. January 19, 2017. Matthew Lynch.
“Why Your School Needs a Makerspace.” School Leaders Now. June 12, 2018. John Spencer.
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