• Corpus ID: 626042

A Card-Sorting Task to Establish Community Values in Designing Makerspaces

@inproceedings{Meehan2014ACT,
  title={A Card-Sorting Task to Establish Community Values in Designing Makerspaces},
  author={Riley Jack Meehan},
  year={2014}
}

• R. Meehan
• Published 2014
• Art

This paper describes preliminary work on the design of a novel interview method for examining how existing values of school communities are integrating into new makerspaces. This new method involves a card-sorting task, similar to those used by information architects to design websites. Our card-sorting task is designed specifically to scaffold rising makers' discussions about their values and commitments for spaces that support tinkering and making. With the increase in excitement around making as a tool to broaden engagement in STEM, literacy, and art, schools designing spaces may adopt externally defined conceptions of making. This design-research method is aimed at refocusing participants’ efforts on local definitions of making crafted by members of the existing community. The design and results presented in this paper are preliminary and ongoing, but the motivation is consistent with concerns that have been expressed by many in the emerging field of making: How do we create maker environments that are responsive to the needs and strengths of the existing school community?