BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The maker movement is an emerging trend that has the potential to have an impact on a number of different areas. Educational institutions have started to appreciate the potential educational benefits of engaging young people with the maker movement. Thus, makerspaces and fablabs have been cropping up in universities, public libraries, and schools across the globe. We believe the maker movement can also play an important role in fostering inclusion of disadvantaged youth. Through making and tinkering, as well as engaging with communities of makers, young people may in fact be able to develop the resources necessary to tackle their disadvantage. The efforts of the organizations partnering on this initiative shall result in the achievement of the following strategic objectives: - a greater understanding of the benefits of makerspaces vis a vis inclusion of disadvantaged youth - increased cooperation between makerspaces and youth organizations, youth centres, etc. - increased communication between actors of the maker movement across Europe on the topics of education and inclusion of youth - stronger connections between makerspaces across Europe - improved quality of makerspace activities targeting disadvantaged youth The operational objective of this partnership consists in producing a set of resources to assist and encourage implementation of educational making workshops for youth. In particular we envisage to deliver the following outputs: 1) A methodology to run practical making workshops with young people at risk of social exclusion. 2) a MOOC (massive online open course) to encourage any actor from the youth sector to set up makerspace-like environments with the ultimate aim of running educational and inclusive making activities. 3) a set of tools to recognize and validate learning outcomes of youth engaging in making activities. 4) a guide on open source tools and equipments for running making workshop. The guide will include tutorials on a set of open source softwares commonly employed in a makerspace setting. For example, 3D modeling softwares, graphic design softwares. All outputs mentioned above will be tested extensively on the occasion of pilot tests, ran by the participating organizations in the areas where they operate. IMPACT The promotion of the project outcomes and results is expected to impact on the development of educational making workshops targeting youth in a situation (or at risk) of exclusion, across Europe. These shall be conducive to youth partaking in these activities developing a set of skills related to their social and psychological reactivation, to employment and education. The impact of the project on stakeholders include the strengthening of relationship between organization active in youth work and non formal education and places for the promotion of digital and maker culture (makerspace-like environments). DISSEMINATION The consortium has identified dissemination opportunities relating to the following dissemination channels: online and off-line press, websites and online communities, social networks, public events, other consortia operating at EU and international level. Some examples of the dissemination activities we will undertake are: - publication of the intellectual outputs on online platforms for digital DIY (Tinkercad.com, Thingiverse.com) - publication of the project deliverables on platforms for sharing of education resources (wikidebrouillards.org, movilab.org) - presentation of the project outputs and its results on the occasion of public events on non formal education, youth work, digital DIY, among which maker faires, Mini maker faires.
BACKGROUND The maker movement is an emerging trend with the potential to have an impact on a number of different areas. Educational institutions have started to appreciate the potential educational benefits of engaging young people with the maker movement. We believe the movement can also play an important role in fostering inclusion of disadvantaged youth. Through making and tinkering, as well as engaging with communities of makers, young people may in fact be able to develop the resources necessary to tackle their disadvantage. OBJECTIVES The operational objectives of this partnership consisted in producing a set of resources to assist and encourage the implementation of educational maker activities for youth: - A methodology to run practical maker activities with young people at risk of social exclusion - Video tutorials to encourage actors from the youth sector to set up makerspace-like environments with the ultimate aim of running educational and inclusive maker activities - A guide and a set of tools to recognize and validate learning outcomes of youth engaging in maker activities - A guide on open source tools and equipment for running maker activities The partnership gave the consortium the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise with each other. This allowed us to gain a greater understanding of the benefits of makerspaces in different settings and contexts, especially vis a vis inclusion of disadvantaged youth. The project also allowed us to forge strong connections and inspiration for follow-up collaborations and projects. The methodology for educational maker activities made by the consortium and the developed maker activities are clear and hands-on examples of how makerspaces and youth workers can improve the quality of their activities, with a focus on targeting disadvantaged youth. UNDERTAKEN ACTIVITIES Each partner took the lead in one the IO's. Trànsit Projectes took the lead in the development of the methodology for educational maker activities; NOD Makerspace planned and filmed the video tutorials on how to set up a makerspace-like environment; Digijeunes used their experience to develop the guide and the set of tools to recognize and validate learning outcomes, and Horizon Lab used their knowledge to create a hands-on manual on the use of open source tools and equipment. Timelab took the lead in the project management and the evaluation of the different outputs. To ensure the quality of the IO's, they were pilot tested with young people. The COVID-19 pandemic made this process more difficult than anticipated, but every organization succeeded in piloting both their own and outputs of the other partners. Digijeunes and Trànsit Projectes joined forces to organize digital piloting workshops. NOD Makerspace provided know-how and support to other national organizations setting up makerspaces around the country. An evaluation form was used to collect feedback from the participants and the other organizations. PARTICIPANTS The project focuses on the potential of makerspaces to be an educational and inclusive space for socially disadvantaged children. The idea was to look for those common elements in maker education that would help us to define the parameters that a makerspace needs to have to be inclusive. How to create attractive activities for young people. IMPACT The promotion of the project outcomes and results has an impact on the development of educational making workshops targeting youth in a situation (or at risk) of exclusion, across Europe. Youth that participated in activities organized by the partner organizations developed a set of skills related to their social and psychological reactivation, to employment and education. The impact of the project on stakeholders include the strengthening of relationships between organizations active in youth work and non formal education and places for the promotion of digital and maker culture (makerspace-like environments). DISSEMINATION The consortium used several channels to disseminate the results of the project: online and offline press, websites and online communities, social networks and public events. Activities undertaken are: - Publication of the IO's on the project website and the websites of the partnering organizations and their SNS - Publication of the IO's on online platforms for digital DIY, such as Tinkercad.com, Thingiverse.com and Instructables.com - Leaflets with information on the projects for online and offline dissemination - Informative posts on social media - Digital Multiplier Event to share the outputs with representatives of educational institutions, youth centers, instructional environments, NGOs, youth - practitioners, local policy makers,... - Offline meetings and tours of the makerspaces with local, national and international stakeholders demonstrating the opportunities and challenges of managing makerspace environments and delivering educational workshops for youth at risk of exclusion