A MAKER SPACE IS the venue in which such tinkering takes place as well as the mindset in which students begin to think beyond their previous horizons via designing and building hands-on activities that combine arts, crafts, engineering, music, performance, creative reuse, science, and technology” (Goldcrownenrichment, 2017).

When considering Multi-Modal Meaning (multiple modes of representing knowledge via text, image, sound and data) as an affordance for e-learning, consideration of the Makers Space Movement is inevitable. According to Owayang (2014), the maker movement puts “power into the hands of the people to fund, design, prototype, produce, manufacture, distribute and market their own goods.

President Barack Obama suggested that we are all makers and that making would fuel our collective future. 

 Others seem to agree on a global scale, as the number of maker spaces has increased considerably across the world (see January 2016 chart below).

From an educational perspective, “making” is seen most frequently in local libraries though more and more often, they are being built in K-12, collegiate and corporate settings. (Herold, 2016) noted that there are some concerns about whether the original intent for free flowing thinking and collaboration which once were the hallmark of such spaces, will be lost in educational environments. The next level of work for maker spaces will involve city wide collaborations within municipalities, schools, corporations and libraries working collaboratively to build spaces with the potential to fuel innovation for their locales.

For additional information:

https://www.makerspaces.com/what-is-a-makerspace/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mklywR7TQxs 

http://www.goldcrownenrichment.org/maker-movement/ 

http://knowledgequest.aasl.org/how-we-define-makerspaces/  

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2014/02/13/maker-movement-and-3d-printing-industry-stats/

https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/maker-movement-understanding-research-says/

https://www.fastcompany.com/3057349/how-the-maker-movement-is-revitalizing-industry-in-american-cities

http://www.mcgrawhillprofessionalbusinessblog.com/2014/03/07/the-maker-movement-is-changing-the-world/

For Reference:

Herold, B. (2016). The maker movement: Understanding what the research says. EdWeek Marketbrief.

Owayang, J. (2014). Maker movement and 3D printing: Industry stats. Engage Sciences.

Rainwater, B (2016). How the maker movement is revitalizing industry in American cities.