Virtual Makerspace Mini-Literature Review

Making creates evidence of learning. – Doug Dougherty

To recap from my last post, I am hoping to make a virtual makerspace for students at my school. The idea is to give them opportunities to build skills like collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking through passive programming that they can access when they have free computer time.

I found several resources on makerspaces, and some examples of virtual makerspaces. However, information on virtual makerspaces is a bit sparse. While I did find some studies, they often defined “makerspace” differently and were less relevant to my context upon inspection. Accordingly, I found resources that are written with physical makerspaces in mind but could apply to virtual makerspaces as well.

I began with podcasts, and found several that I am still planning to listen to. One of my favourite education podcasts is Cult of Pedagogy, so a good place to start was “What is the Point of a Makerspace”, a blog post and podcast episode in which Jennifer Gonzales interviews John Spencer. His definition is “simply a space designed and dedicated to hands-on creativity”, where a product (physical or digital) is created.

A comment on Cult of Pedagogy led me to the Renovated Learning website and the post “Defining Makerspaces: What the Research Says”. Here, Diana Rendina summarizes definitions from a number of different sources. Along the way, a few trends pop up: creativity, community, open-endedness, and giving students opportunities to make something.

I also explored what my school and public libraries have to offer and found several relevant books at the Winnipeg Public Library. After briefly looking them over, my favourite was not focused on makerspaces but rather the broader maker movement: Free to Make by Dale Dougherty (the creator of Make: magazine) and Ariane Conrad. Several chapters seemed very relevant to my virtual makerspace project, including “The Maker Mindset” which went into some of the research supporting putting time and energy into making, as well as “Making is Learning”. I read the latter chapter and particularly appreciated the quote “making creates evidence of learning” (p. 194)

Dougherty also distinguishes between three kinds of projects: directed projects, guided projects, and open projects. He suggests that at least fifty percent of a maker program should be dedicated to open projects (p.189). This brings me back to the idea of passive or self-directed programming, like those described in the School Library Journal article “DIY to the Rescue: 10 Librarian-Tested Passive Programs”. This article emphasizes that self-directed programs do not need to be elaborate. It discusses starting points, ways to assess the effectiveness of programs, and gives 10 examples of passive programs.

I also found these two resources that provided me with questions to ask when developing my virtual makerspace:

• • “Developing Pedagogy for the Creation of a School Makerspace: Building on Constructionism, Design Thinking, and the Reggio Emilia Approach” which looks for commonalities between three well known pedagogies and uses those similarities to create questions that can guide educators, and
  • Sethi De Clercq’s blog post “Instant Learning” which asks whether we are teaching students to expect instant results and posits with this brilliant question to evaluate EdTech tools: “Will this help them learn to sit with wonder, curiosity, or challenge, even when it’s slow?”

My next steps are focused on taking the wisdom from the resources I found on physical makerspaces and applying it to a virtual context. One resource I found late in this process and haven’t yet been able to listen to is the “Virtual Makerspace” episode from the School Librarians United podcast, where a teacher librarian discusses transitioning to a virtual makerspace in 2020 as part of remote learning:

One final resource is the staff and students at my school. They can tell me what they do with their computer time now and what they would like the virtual makerspace to achieve. I may even pilot it with a couple classes in the fall before making it available to all students. While the other resources listed here are valuable and helpful, I believe listening to the people who will use the makerspace will be the most influential.

Works cited:

Becker, S. (2016). Developing Pedagogy for the Creation of a School Makerspace: Building on Constructionism, Design Thinking, and the Reggio Emilia Approach. The Journal of Educational Thought (JET) / Revue de La Pensée Éducative, 49(2), 192–209.

Bubert, L. (n.d.). DIY to the Rescue: 10 Librarian-Tested Passive Programming Activities. School Library Journal. Retrieved May 24, 2026, from https://www.slj.com/story/DIY-to-the-rescue-10-librarian-tested-passive-programs

Clercq, S. D. (2025, June 4). Are We Teaching Children to Expect Learning to Be Instant? Flipped Classroom Tutorials. https://sethideclercq.com/2025/06/instant-learning/

Dougherty, D., & Conrad, A. (2016). Free to Make: How the Maker Movement is Changing Our Schools, Our Jobs, and Our Minds. North Atlantic Books.

Gonzalez, J. (2018, May 20). What Is the Point of a Makerspace? Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/makerspace/

Rendina, D. (2015, April 2). Defining Makerspaces: What the Research Says. Renovated Learning. http://www.renovatedlearning.com/2015/04/02/defining-makerspaces-part-1/