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Making the most of Maker Spaces and STEAM will require professional development and a new mindset for all learners. 

"Welcome to this fourth post in a series that brings STEM, STEAM, and Maker Space together with Project Based Learning and proper technology integration in the classroom. You will discover around one hundred resources in this series along with some great ideas for finding student success.  Before reading, please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS and also give me a follow on "

"Welcome to this fifth post in a series that brings STEM, STEAM, and Maker Space together with Project Based Learning and proper technology integration in the classroom. You will discover around one hundred resources in this series along with some great ideas for finding student success.  Before reading, please take a moment to subscribe by email or RSS and also give me a follow on "

"Welcome to this second post in a series that brings STEM, STEAM, and Maker Space together with Project Based Learning and proper technology integration in the classroom. You will discover around one hundred resources in this series along with some great ideas for finding student success."

"Don't let anyone tell you that the iPad doesn't play well with Google Apps! There are now 50 Google Apps for iOS. Let's dive-in, and discover the best Google Apps for the iPad. Learn practical tips and tricks to save you time and storage space, practical integration ideas for the classroom and shared iPads, and ways to stay more productive with Google."

A collaborative learning space for science undergrads

Digital Education Research Network (DERN)

"The idea of dissection in the classroom is nothing new. Science teachers have been delighting (and occasionally sickening) students for decades by giving them hands-on experience with organisms and tools. What is new, however, is the movement to create un-making spaces in the classroom. Giving kids access to old, broken-down electronics and a safe place to take them apart as they seek to answer why and how things work is an effective and environmentally-friendly teaching technique."

"There are some useful web tools that you can use with your students to create a classroom magazine or books and the titles below are the ones I would recommend the most. The purpose behind using these tools with your students is twofold: First they provide them with a virtual space where they can create, share and document their learning and showcase their work. Second they offer them an opportunity to exercise their functional literacy and employ their digital literacy skills to make meaning using a system of multimodal signs that comprise, text, graphics, pictures, charts, and videos."

"Libraries have existed since approximately 2600 BCE as an archive of recorded knowledge. From tablets and scrolls to bound books, they have cataloged resources and served as a locus of knowledge. Today, with the digitization of content and the ubiquity of the internet, information is no longer confined to printed materials accessible only in a single, physical location. Consider this: Project Gutenberg and its affiliates make over 100,000 public domain works available digitally, and Google has scanned over 30 million books through its library project. Libraries are reinventing themselves as content becomes more accessible online and their role becomes less about housing tomes and more about connecting learners and constructing knowledge. Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts has been in the vanguard of this transition since 2009, when it announced its plans for a "bookless" library. A database of millions of digital resources superseded their 20,000-volume collection of books, and a café replaced the circulation desk. With this transition, not only did the way in which students consumed content change, but also how they utilized the library space. Rather than maintain a quiet location for individual study, the school wanted to create an environment for "collaboration and knowledge co-construction.""

"As the maker movement continues to build in numbers, I've been particularly interested in the critical research that is scrutinizing the dynamics of interaction and learning within spaces of making. I recently got a chance to talk digitally with Shirin Vossoughi and Meg Escudé about their research into tinkering, equity, and gesture. I'm particularly excited about the scrutiny into aspects of making that are sometimes overlooked and how this work can extend to educator professional development: "

Behind the rhetoric and politics, education is about the outcomes it achieves for its learners. More than being about the nuances of technology, learning space design, curriculum structures and pedagogical practices schools should have effective answers to questions that focus on what they hope to achieve for their learners. How we answer this question should then dictate the measures we utilise to achieve these goals and it is to these ends that we must apply our efforts.

At some point, we will need to pause. Lift our heads up and survey the scenery in this new world. Then, let us hope that we ask the right questions. Making time and space for a moment of pause and reflection will be crucial if it becomes clear that this is more than a brief fling with online learning.

"We are starting a journey into the new terrain of parenting in response to school closures and home-bound learning opportunities for students. As we know that our children call many different types of places home, with varying degrees of access to resources and experiences, we want to be mindful of not projecting a "right way" or "best way," and be more intentional of providing some resources and considerations that we hope to be useful. We want to acknowledge and curate great resources that are coming together in our communities. Many started from educational services and companies but also more grassroots support from teachers, often out of concern for their students. First and foremost, as a parent, it is not your responsibility to be the teacher right now. It is helpful for you to support and encourage your child to continue exploring questions and keep up a reading practice and attempt to solve problems- but it is most important that you provide them space to connect, feel, wonder, try, and find refuge in these uncertain times."

"Check123 is the web's first Video Encyclopedia. Come and learn about arts, history, science, space, animals and more in 1, 2, or 3 minute Videos!!"

"I am by no means a 3D printing expert.  But I do have three 3D printers in my library makerspace (and one in my previous space).  And I have a lot of students who are very interested in learning more about 3D printing.  Some students have built their own 3D printers from kits and love to come hang out and tell me about their latest projects.  Other students have no CAD (computer aided design) experience but are eager to start building. In order to help all of these students better utilize and access our 3D printers, I created a short, Intro to 3D printing session that I teach afterschool every quarter.  It's essentially an orientation to how 3D printing works, how to create a design and how to get it ready to print."