Join Our Video Project: #ShowUsYourMakerSpace
“Maker spaces”—facilities designed to encourage hands-on activity and experimentation—have become an increasingly exciting part of many schools’ digital-learning and career-tech offerings. With their focus on inventiveness and collaboration, they also offer new ways of looking at classroom or learning-space design.
To showcase the composition and variety of these facilities, Education Week is asking educators to post short videos of their schools’ maker spaces to YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram over the next month, using the hashtag #ShowUsYourMakerSpace. (Photos are OK, too.)
We’ll select from the posted clips to create a special video gallery to accompany an upcoming story on maker spacers. Our hope is both to highlight schools’ creativity and to give educators a chance to share ideas and what works in designing these new learning spaces.
Here are some of our favorites so far:
Some video-production tips:
- Be Brief: Videos should be less than three minutes long and show off your maker space. If you need help getting started, you could ask an educator or student to describe the best part of your maker space.
- Camera tip: Hold the camera in a horizontal position so the video is wider rather than taller.
- Lighting tip: Just like taking a photograph, video is best when the brightest light source is behind you. Avoid filming into windows.
- Sound tip: Cell phones have small microphones that pick up every noise in the room. If someone is talking to the camera, try pulling that person away from the loudest part of the room so viewers can hear them better.
- Experiment and have fun!
Remember, the hashtag is #ShowUsYourMakerSpace.