The Merriam-Webster Dictionary provides two definitions of the hive mind:
- The collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects (such as bees or ants) regarded as comparable to a single mind controlling the behavior of an individual organism.
- The collective thoughts, ideas, and opinions of a group of people (such as Internet users) regarded as functioning together as a single mind.
How does this concept relate to a makerspace and our school libraries? According to the article, Making Space for Creation, Not Just Consumption, “A makerspace refers to students coming together to create and share resources, knowledge, and other ‘stuff.” Essentially, it is a space where our students can come together to create, collaborate, and co-work, like bees do in their hives.
Incorporating makerspaces into libraries has a life-altering impact on our school communities, giving students the tools, access, and training necessary to tinker with and remake their world as they collaborate with others. They can then share these creations with their peers in a way that has a lasting impact. Typically, makerspaces will:
- Foster play and exploration
- Facilitate informal learning opportunities
- Nurture peer-to-peer training and interactions
- Work with students, teachers, and admin as true partners, not just as users or patrons
- Develop a culture of creating as opposed to consuming
Diana Rendina has an excellent blog titled Renovated Learning, which focuses on “building a culture of creativity and discovery in education.” The blog takes us on quite a journey with developing successful makerspaces in school libraries, as she accomplished this herself when she worked in a middle school library.
First, we should ask ourselves 5 questions when planning a makerspace:
- What are the goals of my makerspace?
- You might want to focus on one domain to begin with, such as providing exposure to technologies or creative expression through crafts and DIY projects.
- What does my school already have?
- Some schools already have one device for every student.
- Some schools have an iPad cart.
- Some schools have bins with unused items just sitting around.
- How much physical space do I have?
- You might have an entire room to devote to the space.
- You might have one corner.
- You might need to create a cart.
- How will it be used?
- Will it be a mobile makerspace?
- Will classes come specifically to use it?
- Geared towards students with free time?
- Makerspace clubs?
- Where will I get supplies?
- Small grants
- Donors Choose projects
- Book Fair profits
- Donations
Rendina includes a step-by-step tutorial of how she started her own makerspace entitled, The Stewart Makerspace Journey: An Overview of the 1st Two Years of a Makerspace. She includes monthly updates about grants, awards, supplies, spaces, clubs, and collaboration. She shares struggles, failures, and blossoming moments as well. Rendina left the library in 2017, but you can still follow makerspace projects and creations via the school’s media center Twitter feed.
School libraries should be changing and updating every year in order to maintain a 21st century learning environment. The library should no longer be the silent place it once was, requiring every student to come in single file, sit criss-cross on the carpet, and remain silent as a story is read aloud before being allowed to check out one or two books in a quiet and orderly manner. Students should not be required to zip their lips and be shushed at every corner of the library. More and more schools are recognizing this and have become supportive of an environment that values collaboration, that values the hive mind. Traditional school libraries have wooden tables, imposing shelves spaced perfectly so that one child can peruse the offerings as one time, but those spaces don’t provide a collaborative, creative, and co-working environment for students. It would be ideal to have an enormous budget in order to supply our students with a 21st century library experience rather than be stuck in a traditional setting throughout their formative years. However, in yet another wonderful post, Rendina offers suggestions for creating collaborative spaces in our libraries in an economical and easy way:
- Group furniture items together.
- The key is to provide a variety of spaces that students can choose from.
- Whiteboards for brainstorming.
- Paint a wall with whiteboard paint.
- Shower board from Home Depot works too.
- Find an unused whiteboard in the school and have it moved.
- Check out this post for more ideas.
- Provide power.
- Power strips with USB ports.
- Have charging cables available for check out.
- Or check out The Daring Librarian’s guide to “Giving Kids the Power!”
- Teaming tables.
- These can run from expensive to relatively reasonable, but they are fantastic for supporting student collaboration on digital devices.
- Make it mobile.
- Traditional library furniture is often heavy and meant to stay in one place, see if faculty or staff can help add castors because being able to move and rearrange helps students easily create their own collaborative spaces.
Lastly, as school librarians know, budgets aren’t always quite as big as our dreams. Rendina offers resources that are aimed at helping school librarians with this very dilemma. There are presentations, articles, and websites that focus on finding grants and funding resources for schools. She has personally secured over $15,000 worth of grants and other funding to help build her library’s collection, refurnish the library, and create makerspaces. She tells us, “the money is out there if you put in a little time and elbow grease to get it.” Check out Grants and Funding: Resources to help educators find the money they need for their schools. You will find:
- Grant search engines
- Crowdsourcing
- Recommended reading
- Technology
- Professional development
- And other resources
As Laura Flemming said, “It is my belief that every child has the right to invent, tinker, create, innovate, create, and do.” So let’s educate ourselves on makerspaces and start our collaborative, creative, and co-working projects today!
For more thoughts and ideas:
- A community of people who have a passion for making things, and who want to share that with others by setting up a makerspace. This playbook will help you establish a wonderful new resource in your school. It shares knowledge and experience from the makerspace team as well as from those who have already started their own makerspaces.
Thinkers and Tinkers: The Maker Movement
- “Making things and then making those things better is at the core of humanity,” quotes the homepage of this fantastic website. This professional development site offers the basics of makerspaces, background, context, and applications.
Inspiring Makerspace Videos:
Swearingen the Librarian 