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"If I could sing a parody, which trust me, you DO NOT want to hear, I'd rewrite Megan Trainor's famous song "All About that Bass,"  with the lyrics, "It's not about the space… all learning."    It's almost comical for me to say it's not about the space, because truthfully, I've loved putting together every single learning space I've ever created.  From watching the evolution of my classrooms when I taught fourth grade, until this year's space, my goals have always been the same.  Use the materials you have around you, buy as little standardized stuff as possible, create the space, and remix, redo, and revise to make the space work for learners."

"Ten years ago, I walked past a newsstand and out of the myriad of multicolored covers, one jumped out at me: MAKE magazine. As someone who grew up making stuff, this magazine spoke directly to me. I bought copies and immediately brought them to the director of my school. I remember triumphantly exclaiming "We should show this to all of the teachers-think of the projects we can do!" A decade later, well-intentioned schools that create dedicated "maker spaces" worry me. For the uninitiated, a maker space often houses ultramodern tools like a laser cutter or 3D printers, mixed with drill presses, table saws, and soldering irons, or perhaps screen printing equipment or sewing machines. My fear is that stand-alone maker spaces will cause the powerful act of creation to be confined to only certain parts of the school building. I worry that yesterday's centralized computer lab-which we rightly democratized and decentralized by putting computers in every classroom-is today's maker space. When I walk past a new room being outfitted with a laser cutter or a drill press and hear, "This is our maker space!" I am tempted to ask: "What happens in all of the other spaces? What do people do there?" The act of creation is transformative. An individual's self-image is forever changed when he or she can hold up a real object-a real contribution to the world-and say, "I made this." In a time when students' lives are increasingly virtual, abstract and vicarious experiences, it is every teacher's job to make learning, and life, "hands-on." "

"Think your library needs a renovation? You might be right, but before spending unnecessary money on a major overhaul, you might want to think again. I receive inquiries all of the time from schools whose library's are not used, and thought that renovating their space was going to do the trick. Oftentimes, even with a big referendum that allows for a state-of-the-art renovation, those spaces continue to be unused. The solution to turning a library around is NOT a renovation, it is the culture. Upon my arrival at New Milford High School, I walked into a library that was unused and that was referred to by my principal at the time, Eric Sheninger, as a barren wasteland.  We didn't have the luxury of a big sum of money to renovate our space, so we were forced to think of other ways to make changes in our space.  Those changes focused not on how the space looked, but on transforming the culture of the space. "

"I didn't think 2015 would be the year I created a teen maker space, but it was-and it turned out to be an exciting, challenging, and rewarding experience. After six months of planning, our maker space at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, Ohio, where I am the YA services coordinator, opened last month. How did it come together? Organically. It began during our teen summer reading program seven months ago, when I hosted a few extremely popular Maker Mondays. Our children's librarian, Debbie Baker, and I created a collection of circulating maker-related titles. We also assembled 20 small circulating maker kits with Snap Circuits (kits for creating objects with electronic circuitry), stop-motion animation materials, and LEGO. These were such a hit that a dedicated maker space seemed ideal for us. Ideal-until we considered our budget and space restraints. We started planning anyway. Our process began with a lot of research, online and in person, visiting libraries and maker faires. There was heavy-duty continuing ed: online workshops and webinars, many hosted by School Library Journal. We knew that a maker space would benefit our community, but we couldn't see how to make it happen. With time and goal adjustments, we reached the finish line and launched in January."

"You may be familiar with maker spaces. In one form or another, hands-on teaching has always involved kids in "making." Today's new focus on maker spaces is taking making to a whole new level. Visualize a space filled with an assortment of materials and tools where people explore ideas together, create, and invent. Now think of such a space existing in a school - a space where students can go to imagine, investigate, figure things out, and design prototypes. Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager explain this growing school phenomenon in their MiddleWeb article, Maker Schools: Classroom Tinkers & Inventors."

"The maker movement was front and center at the 2015 ISTE conference-and that's a good thing for me. After following maker initiatives with great interest for some time now, I have the opportunity to design a maker space this year for 6th-12th grade students at my school, Worcester (MA) Academy. A search of this year's program at ISTE, held June 28 to July 1 in Philadelphia, using the term "constructivist learning/maker movement" resulted in 67 related sessions. The ISTE Librarians Network hosted a maker station at their Digital Age Playground and convened a panel on library maker spaces, featuring elementary and middle school librarians, a school administrator, and the coordinator of a public library maker initiative. Vendors and exhibitors demonstrated tools, lessons, and ideas for maker spaces. Meanwhile, a four-hour Maker Playground Wednesday morning drew a huge crowd of attendees. One of my goals at the conference was to gather ideas and tips to help me create my library's maker space. Here are some highlights of what I discovered at ISTE."

Space, whether physical or virtual, can have a significant impact on learning. Learning Spaces focuses on how learner expectations influence such spaces, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments: faculty, learning technologists, librarians, and administrators. Information technology has brought unique capabilities to learning spaces, whether stimulating greater interaction through the use of collaborative tools, videoconferencing with international experts, or opening virtual worlds for exploration. This e-book represents an ongoing exploration as we bring together space, technology, and pedagogy to ensure learner success.

"The space nerds at NASA have officially hopped on the Meghan Trainor parody train with their ode to the Orion spacecraft, "All About That Space." The Pathways Interns of NASA's Johnson Space Center recorded and filmed the parody song to encourage further public interest in Orion, which saw its first successful test flight on Dec. 5. The spacecraft orbited Earth twice during its flight and traveled 60,000 miles before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean as planned. NASA's parody isn't the first space-themed "All About That Bass" parody - a group of geeky ladies penned a similar, Star Wars-themed parody in November."

"The maker movement was front and center at the 2015 ISTE conference-and that's a good thing for me. After following maker initiatives with great interest for some time now, I have the opportunity to design a maker space this year for 6th-12th grade students at my school, Worcester (MA) Academy. A search of this year's program at ISTE, held June 28 to July 1 in Philadelphia, using the term "constructivist learning/maker movement" resulted in 67 related sessions. The ISTE Librarians Network hosted a maker station at their Digital Age Playground and convened a panel on library maker spaces, featuring elementary and middle school librarians, a school administrator, and the coordinator of a public library maker initiative. Vendors and exhibitors demonstrated tools, lessons, and ideas for maker spaces. Meanwhile, a four-hour Maker Playground Wednesday morning drew a huge crowd of attendees. One of my goals at the conference was to gather ideas and tips to help me create my library's maker space. Here are some highlights of what I discovered at ISTE."

"The Youth Makerspace Playbook is a resource providing context and support around planning spaces for youth to make. It offers practical suggestions on finding spaces to make, outfitting spaces with tools and materials, exploring the possible educational approaches within spaces, and sustaining spaces in the long-term. Accompanying the Youth Makerspace Playbook is "Makerspaces: Highlights of Select Literature," a selection of the latest thinking emerging from the growth of makerspaces and their developing roles in education and communities. "

"The discovery of gravitational waves that was announced a few weeks ago substantiated Albert Einstein's oracular ideas about black holes.The importance of such a discovery in scientists' eyes is that it will help shed light on many enigmatic issues about the genesis of the universe. Your students might have heard about this scientific breakthrough and though they might probably not fully understand the full concept of gravitational waves and Einstein's general relativity but their desire to learn more about space and its workings might be revived. Students can actually learn a great deal about space using iPad apps. There is a wide variety of excellent apps created specifically to help students and even young learners explore the workings of space and understand some of its topics. Below is a collection of some examples of NASA apps  students can use to learn more about space:"

"In Nick Provenzano's book, Your Starter Guide to Makerspaces, he makes the case that a maker space can start a movement inside your school. I agree wholeheartedly. There are many folks who have been saying to "stop" using the word Makerspace, and it shouldn't only be one space. But sometimes this space is the seed that plants a maker movement into a maker culture. At Centennial School District (where I'm the Director of Tech and Innovation) we've been slowly beginning to build a maker culture out of maker spaces. It is a process and one that doesn't happen overnight. Here is a few things/ideas we've done that have jumpstarted the movement towards a culture:"

"he 21st century is challenging old notions of learning spaces. The idea that students must be seated at desks working in rows is quickly becoming archaic. Technology and collaborative work environments are changing the design of learning spaces. Experts hope that the emerging paradigm will translate into improved learning spaces and influence future architectural design."

"Think about dreaming, like building stilts. Think about designing, like collaborating in a flexible space from funky-colored chairs on wheels. Think about testing, like crafting conductivity testers needed for your classmates. Think about making, like programming and assembling a security card system for the space. Above all, think. Schools now are thinking a lot about maker spaces, and the term can mean many things, as shown in the examples above, from Brandywine High, St. Elizabeth, Newark High and Tatnall schools, respectively."

"What can you do with The Maker Space at the Cincinnati Library? The Maker Space is an incredibly useful resource for local makers and creatives of all kinds in the Cincinnati area. It is located at the main branch of the Cincinnati Library in downtown Cincinnati. In this podcast episode, we ask Ella Mulford (Maker Space Queen) about all the equipment available for use, what kind of preparations we need to make before using it and, what kind of cool stuff we can make there."

"Our school libraries are no longer made up of the rows upon rows of stacks and hushed, immovable wooden desks. At least, not if we expect them to support the innovative learning styles of our students. The libraries of today need to be interactive learning environments that support a multitude of learning styles and modalities. While a full scale renovation would be awesome, many of us simply don't have the budgets to completely makeover our spaces all at once. But we can still pursue smaller, less expensive changes that can transform our spaces for our students. Here's five things you can do to change up your space: "

"The 21st century is challenging old notions of learning spaces. The idea that students must be seated at desks working in rows is quickly becoming archaic. Technology and collaborative work environments are changing the design of learning spaces. Experts hope that the emerging paradigm will translate into improved learning spaces and influence future architectural design."

"We are about to launch our Maker Space in our school library media center - it is going to be what is referred to as a 'soft launch.' Our technology facilitator and one of our classroom teachers are really the driving force behind this initiative, and much more familiar with the items we have purchased. While I'm more than happy to house the materials and provide space for them to be used, I know almost nothing about them. So, I'm hopeful that I will be able to form a team of interested students to help manage the project. Tomorrow after school we will have our 'Maker Team Interest Meeting.' From the students who show up, we're planning on forming a team to rotate being on hand when the maker space is open. They'll be in charge of answering questions, helping students figure out directions, and keeping everything orderly.  Wish us luck!"

"I got my copy of Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success at ISTE 2015 this summer in Philadelphia.  I love reading about and studying learning space design theory.  I truly feel that innovative learning environments can transform how our students learn.  This book is an excellent introduction to active learning spaces and strategies we can use in designing and redesigning learning spaces, from hacking our furniture to working with architects on new construction."

"Makerspaces are a really hot commodity in schools and the focus of a lot of the conversation that surrounds improving learning spaces.  That's exciting, and an opportunity to provide new spaces that add capability for students and teachers is always a good thing. So, given this interest, what are some design questions to consider when thinking of adding a space that has maker capabilities?  Here are my top five which focus on the design of such a space:"