Makerspace: Celebrating creativity in teaching
17 May 2023
Join us to explore the ways in which crafting, tinkering, and wondering can engage and empower educators and learners.
Contact Tracey or Guylaine to find out more.
Past event: The Educator Makerspace ran from 2020/2021 until 2024/2025.
A makerspace is a place where people come together to create or invent things, either using traditional crafts or technology. At the AlphaPlus Educator Makerspace, we combine the craft of teaching with newer technologies to make things that elevate teaching and learning. We choose a teaching craft and match it to a technology and then get together to tinker and experiment.
Here are some of the highlights of the AlphaPlus Educator Makerspace experience as described by a former participant:
“The stimulation of being in a group of curious, congenial educators/lifelong learners; the access to an excellently curated bank of resources and expert coaching thanks to Guylaine and Tracey; the flexibility of project direction, pacing and final product deadline, which in my case likely made the difference between not finishing and creating something I was happy to share.”
Explore the Wayfinders Studio to see what happened in the makerspace.
In 2024, we are working with practitioners in a activity-creation makerspace. Our theme is Empowering Learners with Choice (Differentiated Learning) and our technology is Docs, Slides and Forms.
See more here: 2024: Docs, Slides and Forms
In 2023, we worked with practitioners in a activity-creation makerspace. Our theme was Engaged Learning and our technology was Open Education Resources (OER) and H5P.
See more here: 2023: H5P and OER
In 2022, we worked with practitioners in a digital-storytelling makerspace. Our theme was Empowered Practice and the technology was video production.
See more here: 2022: Digital StoryTelling
In 2021, AlphaPlus interviewed eight facilitators about how they applied their knowledge of content, pedagogy and technology to the pivot to remote learning.
See more here: The Pivot to Remote Learning
The Wayfinder’s experience is an ongoing mission, as part of a fun and motley crew, to discover what is important and what is needed in my work with adult learners. The chance to experiment with tools that can make a true difference in my practice. The opportunity to uncover, connect with, and share the stories of our teaching and learning.
Educator Makerspace participant
It is a guide or a map for processing your understanding, beliefs and ideas about educating and learning. It provides a flexible structure, plenty of resources or tools, and questions that inspire reflection about why you do what you do, and how you do it…..in some ways it is a means to creatively evaluate your own “process” and present it to others.
Educator Makerspace participant
I’m really grateful for the chance to participate in this program. It has definitely helped me feel less isolated as an educator, and more aware and a part of the professional literacy network across Ontario. Also, viewing this experience as an adult learner, this was one of the few times I have felt fully supported and accommodated in a learning project, based on my own needs, preferences, and life situation, which is hilariously ironic but a big factor in my enjoyment and the quality of my outcomes.
Educator Makerspace participant
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