Abstract

Maker culture is dedicated to people “making their own functional devices, whether it is technological gadgets, open source hardware and software, or nearly any other aspect of physical life” (McCall, 2009). While maker culture is frequently found in communities it is beginning to gain prominence in formal educational settings. This paper reports on a qualitative study designed to explore undergraduate student learning within a maker course at a small public liberal arts university. Students were immersed in maker culture using a learner-centered project-based approach to learn about and use 3D printing, electronics, robotics, and other resources and tools. Student blog postings and end-of-course evaluations served as data sources. Three themes emerged: a) Peers and Collaboration Matter, b) Time, Trial and Error, and the Role of Persistence and c) Failure is Part of the Learning Process bring to light the various ways students experienced maker culture and what they learned.

Citation

Kayler, M., Owens, T. & Meadows, G. (2013). Inspiring Maker Culture through Collaboration, Persistence, and Failure. In R. McBride & M. Searson (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2013--Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1179-1184). New Orleans, Louisiana, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 13, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/48281/.