Connected Spaces: A Technological Tool Kit for Supporting Mentorship Between Geographically Distributed Makers (Poster 4)

• In Event: Design Principles for Creating Accessible and Inclusive Introductory Computing Experiences

Abstract

Effective learning environments that invite young people make—to design, debug, and fabricate—artifacts to address personally meaningful problems must also include opportunities for participants to engage in core STEM+C practices of collaboration, building on the knowledge of others, mentorship, and the use of digital tools. Acquiring these skills is critically important within and across underserved communities where the “digital divide” threatens to create a generation of have and have-nots in computational and 21st century skills (Cullen, 2011). Though makerspaces are prevalent in US cities many are either located at high resourced schools or in drop-in spaces where consistent access necessary for in-depth explorations is limited. Black, Latinx, and women makers may struggle to find communities that have members "like them" as these spaces have been largely dominated by white men (Barton et al., 2016). This lack of community can prevent students from connecting with their peers to debug their projects, share insights, or engage in the kinds of peer mentorship that is essential for developing their sense of inclusion in the larger community of makers.
In response, the Connected Spaces (C/S) project is exploring a technology framework for connecting geographically distributed middle and high school students, engaged in making, to like-minded colleagues, technical assistance, and mentorship. Technologies developed in C/S aim to enable the formation of, and ongoing support for, small distributed learning communities of makers actively engaged in creating digital and tangible tools to address issues of personal value and meaning.
While many makerspaces leaned heavily on video chat technologies during closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hands-on technical support is difficult to accomplish using existing tools. In this poster we describe the connected spaces suit of tools that provide more opportunities for embodied, synchronous, and asynchronous mentorship between learners. This includes the REACH projector, a two-way communication device that uses a pico video projector, a camera, and an embedded microcomputer to enable a user to place an artifact on the work surface and project the artifact onto a second user’s REACH projector (enabling real-time two-way communication between spaces); an affinities dashboard, that allows students to find peer mentors with the necessary interests or expertise; and an asynchronous public wall that enabled students to post videos or their problems that peers could help solve.
In addition to showcasing the technology, we also highlight our iterative design process, and data collected from a workshop connecting middle school makers in both the American midwest and American northeast. This data highlights the challenge of supporting asynchronous mentorship, and informal collaboration between makers that are geographically distributed, but reveals opportunities for connecting experts and novices virtually in a busy and active makerspace. Further, these new approaches to peer mentorship and collaboration provide more opportunities for youth to see themselves as authentic experts, and by requiring them to unpack their own understanding to explain it to others, we also provide rich new ways for them to advance their own knowledge (Roscoe & Chi, 2007).

Authors

• Nathan Holbert, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Mike Tissenbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Casey Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Isa Correa, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kevin Hall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ashita Bawankule, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author