Webinar: Makers Gonna Make

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Makers Gonna Make: Maker Ed in Remote/Hybrid Learning Environments

Wednesday, October 28, 2020 – 12pm ET/ 9am PT

Webinar Signup

Many libraries use makerspaces to teach and engage, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, buildings have been closed and people have been distanced. So libraries are doing what they always do: innovate. From student-led remote projects to take-home kits to lists of resources that can be found around the house (sticky rice adhesive!), makerspaces have gone virtual.

Please join Leslie Preddy, Stacy Brown, and Maggie Melo as they discuss big-picture questions about how makerspaces can work at a distance. Moderated by Heather Moorefield-Lang, it’s sure to be a lively and informative conversation, and there will be plenty of time for comments and questions. Bring a friend!

  • Of interest to school librarians, library students, and other librarians working with makerspaces
  • Discuss how makerspaces can work well virtually
  • Get and share ideas for innovative maker programs

To get the ideas flowing, check out these short video lessons made by our webinar presenters on creative ways to conduct maker activities with your students—even from a distance!

Sponsored by ABC-CLIO

Can’t make it on October 28? Register to be updated when the recording is available for viewing!

Presenters

  • Stacy Brown is the 21st-century learning coordinator at The Davis Academy in Atlanta, GA. Brown is a national presenter and contributor to professional books and journals on topics relating to libraries, technology, innovation, and education. She is the author of The School Librarian’s Technology Playbook: Innovative Strategies to Inspire Teachers and Learners. She is a regional director of the Georgia Technology Competition and a board member of Savvy Cyber Kids, Inc. and Atlanta Area Technology Educators. She can be found on Twitter and Instagram @21stStacy.
  • Maggie Melo is an assistant professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She co-founded the University of Arizona’s first makerspace, the iSpace, in the university’s Science-Engineering Library. Her research resides at the intersection of innovation, critical maker culture, and the development of equitable and inclusive learning spaces (e.g. makerspaces) in academic libraries.
  • Leslie Preddy is the school librarian at Perry Meridian Middle School in Indianapolis, Indiana, and instructional leadership editor for School Library Connection magazine. Her book SSR with Intervention: A School Library Action Research Project was named one of the best professional books of 2007 by Teacher Librarian and her book Social Readers: Promoting Reading in the 21st Century, was highly recommended by Library Media Connection. Her latest book is School Library Makerspaces.

Moderator

  • Heather Moorefield-Lang serves as associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the department of library and information science. Her research is focused on emerging technologies and their use in education and libraries. She has had the honor of being nominated for the White House Champion of Change for Making in 2016. Heather is also the editor of School Library Makerspaces in Action. To learn more visit her YouTube channel “Tech 15” or follow her on Twitter @actinginthelib.

Webinar graphic with headshots of speakers and covers of books that will be door prizes

Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium (CLAPS)

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Centering voices from the margins: Unsettling the exceptionalist lore of makerspaces

Jennifer Nichols, University of Arizona & Maggie Melo, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Tuesday, September 15, 2020: 1-2 pm PDT (Zoom/Online)

This talk centers on the limitations and challenges emerging from this particular brand of “maker culture,” and emphasizes the critical work that is being done to cultivate anti-oppressive, inclusive and equitable making environments. The Maker Movement has inspired hundreds of public, school, and academic libraries to integrate makerspaces into their own ecosystems. This social phenomenon purports an enthusiasm and techno-optimistic approach to engaging with the world with STEM-rich technologies, and consistently overshadows the material limitations and drawbacks that this movement simultaneously purports. The Maker Movement has popularized a narrow, classist, predominantly white, and heteronormative conceptualization of maker culture. Makerspaces, like libraries, are not neutral, but rather are imbued with ideologies stemming from Silicon Valley that consequently dictate who makes, why making occurs, and what is considered making. Specifically, this talk will highlight the voices within the edited collection, Re-making the Library Makerspace Critical Theories, Reflections, and Practices. The book captures how librarians and educators have disrupted and re-made their makerspaces in response to the constraints of the Maker Movement’s “makerspace.” This collection extends a critical examination of library makerspaces at the site of praxis with critical considerations around race, age, class, gender, sexuality, power, and ability will be centered in this volume. 

View more and register online!

Maker Ed: Remaking the Library Makerspace

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The Sixth Annual Maker Educator Convening

Remaking the Library Makerspace: New Moves toward Equity and Joy

Co-presenters: Jennifer Nichols and Brianna Marshall)

October 2-3, 2020

  • This panel is a discussion between contributing authors to Re-making the Library Makerspace Critical Theories, Reflections, and Practices, a forthcoming book from Library Juice Press (October 2020), edited by facilitators Jennifer Nichols and Maggie Melo. The volume contains the following four sections, and will be used as a framework to guide this discussion. 
    • Who Belongs in the Makerspace? Power and Critical Theories
    • Movement, Empathy, and Inclusion in Youth Makerspaces
    • Counternarratives
    • Re-imagined Makerspaces: Policies, Procedures, and Culture 
  • Chapters celebrate successes and progress, acknowledge power and structural issues and offer reflections on moving forward toward social justice and equity. By highlighting authors who offer new ideas and perspectives for cultivating both equity and joy, we propose the use of liberatory design practices to both encourage self reflection and facilitate meaningful connection between participants.

View more and register through Makered.org!