ABSTRACT
The last decade has seen a blossoming of the Maker Movement and activities in online and offline makerspaces. Online examples are communities such as DIY where makers show their home made designs, Instructables where makers provide instructions on how to make anything, Scratch where youth programmers share their code, or communities like Ravelry that provide instructions, directions, and examples for knit and crochet designs (Kuznetsov & Paulos, 2010). Local makerspaces have been set up in various organizations, such as old warehouses, church basements, and community technology centers, where youth and adults interested in learning and sharing technical expertise can come and work together on projects and receive access to tools and assistance (Blikstein, 2013; Sheridan et al., 2014). Likewise children museums, science centers, and public libraries have opened their doors by providing dedicated makerspaces on their exhibit floors where visitors can engage in and learn by making things with support of maker mentors (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014; Honey & Kanter, 2013). But one of the key challenges in setting up makerspaces, activities, and communities for learning has been how to foster the social connections that are a critical feature of many self-organized maker communities.
