Benefits for your library

Benefits for Your Library

Although it’s tempting to want to stay away from the mess and chaos of a middle school makerspace, there are many benefits to creating a makerspace as part of your learning commons. They can be broken down into the following categories:

1) maker spaces support the American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st Century Learner

2) Makerspaces increase opportunities for library collaboration with other teachers

3) Makerspaces make the library model of differentiation in the school.

21st CENTURY LEARNING

Among the common beliefs of the American Association of School Librarians in the Standards for the 21st Century Learner are:

Inquiry provides a framework for learning
Technology skills are crucial for future employment needs
The continuing expansion of information demands that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.
Learning has a social context

Each of these beliefs in turn could be seen as a benefit to maker spaces.

Inquiry provides a framework for learning

Inquiry is the very point of maker spaces (Loercher, Preddy, Derry 2013). Makerspaces are where students, inspired by their own questions, pursue their own lines of inquiry.

Technology skills are crucial for future employment needs

Makerspaces are often places to tinker with new technologies, putting them to work on real problems and applications in real time. They allow students to build new connections working with new tools and technologies

The continuing expansion of information demands that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.

Because makerspaces require trial and error, experimentation, and collaborative learning, students are forced to think through problems and constantly review and improve their thinking.

Learning has a social context

Learning has a social context in the makerspace because students collaborate on problem solving. Also the students are each other's teachers using and building upon each other’s work and solutions.

It is easy to see makerspaces as a natural way to engage students to:

Inquire thinking critically and gain knowledge
Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge
Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society
Pursue personal and aesthetic grown

LIBRARY COLLABORATION

As makerspaces encourage collaboration among students so to can they encourage collaboration among content area teachers and teacher librarians. A marker space can draw students and teachers into the library.

Consider Koechlin and Loertscher’s LIIITE model of teacher librarians and you can easily see not only where makerspaces fit in but also why once teachers collaborate with you they won’t want to stop.

DIFFERENTIATION

A makerspace is a model of personalized learning. Although the tools and the rules of physics are the same for each student, the way each student approaches the makerspace will be his or her own. No other space in the school provides the same opportunities for differentiation. (Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C.,2015)

Consider the uTEC Model which was created to show a student’s progression from using a makerspace to becoming an innovator.

Works Cited

American Association of School Librarians (2007) Standards for the 21st Century Learner. PDF. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2007.pdf

Derry,B, Loertscher, D, & Preddy, L S (2013) Makerspaces in the School Library Learning Commons and the uTEC Maker Model Teacher Librarian 41(2) 48-51

Koechilin,C, & Loertscher,D. (2016) LIIITE Model https://sites.google.com/site/learningpostersgallery/the-liiite-model

Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C. (2015). Coteaching and the Learning Commons. Teacher Librarian, 43(2), 12-16.

Moorefield-Lang, Heather. (2015). Change in the Making: Makerspaces and the Ever-Changing Landscape of Libraries. TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning, 59(3), 107-112.

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