Through the readings of this week, I found that "the community" is an essential part of the maker spaces. As Douglas and John pointed out, the role of the instructor is changing, as the community online can provide more resources than the individual instructor (a growing digital, networked infrastructure is amplifying our ability to access and use nearly unlimited resources and incredible instruments while connecting with one another at the same time). I remember when I was taking programming classes, usually the sessions were for the collaborative efforts to figure out the errors as well as searching similar errors online to figure out how others have solved them. Especially programming and coding are built collectively; it is important to share and work together (not necessarily in the same space and time). As can see in Sam's Story (Douglas and John), Scratch is one of the nice platforms, which is a simplified and well-organized version of other programming community.
From the readings, I also came up with the idea of "curating". As the significance of the class seems to move from "what to teach" to " how to connect", connecting not only people but also proper resources is required to the instructors. There are ideal concepts for maker spaces, yet how to execute the idea of providing proper resources and guide to students to express themselves and accommodating interactive environments would be a key concern and challenge. Along with this concern, how the instructor positions oneself between rules and players would also be an interesting challenge (play can be defined as the tension between the rules of the game and the freedom to act within those rules).
Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change (Vol. 219). Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.
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