This is a guest post written by Jenny Hill Ed.D. Assistant Professor of Teacher Development (Library Media emphasis) at SCSU. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development? Apply today!
Imagine a 5-day buffet of information, technology, and innovation that is continually being refilled by the hour with the world’s experts, educators, and practitioners. Thanks to a generous scholarship from Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE), I was able to attend the 2019 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference held in Philadelphia, PA.
With nearly 20,000 people in attendance and approximately 2,000 sessions to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start! One area of interest I had was looking at makerspaces for libraries. Makerspaces, according to Redina (2015, n.p.) are “place[s] where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore and discover using a variety of tools and materials.” They have appeared in library spaces as early as 2011 (Mann, 2018) and support standards outlined by both the American Association of School Librarians and the International Society for Technology in Education. According to a recent 2017-1018 survey, librarians and media specialists are one of the top educators who are mainly responsible for implementing makerspaces in their school or district.
When designing a makerspace, one good question to ask students is, “can you create something that demonstrates your understanding?” If the answer is yes, then the sky is the limit! Objects can be made with high-tech materials such as 3D-printers and laser cutters or as simple as cardboard and duct tape. Makerspaces are also being used to help kids solve real world problems. One media center even developed a “Read and Feed” where elementary students had access to both a little library and a food shelf on their campus. Watch their inspirational story here: https://youtu.be/sCtjmWfIjG4
Other highlights of my time at ISTE included visiting the NASA play ground where I tried on virtual reality goggles for the first time: we don’t quite have Star Trek’s hollow deck figured out yet, but we are getting close! I also enjoying hearing TED speaker Danielle Fienberg, head of photography at PIXAR share how computer science education impacted her career, and of course, meeting Brain Pop’s Moby! I hope you can attend next year when the ISTE conference is held in Anaheim, CA.
Jenny Hill
Assistant Professor, SCSU
jchill@stcloudstate.edu
@Bibliophile84
