Students becoming content creators rather than merely
content consumers is a trend identified in the New Media Consortium Horizon
Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition (page 14).
The trend started with “makerspaces,” a communal place where a group of people
join forces to purchase a range of tools that are then shared among the group.
Colleges and universities are developing the concept on
campus, providing students with spaces where learning and content creation is
integrated as part of their instruction. The spaces provide traditional tools, along
with electronic equipment and 3-D printers, to allow students to work on class
and self-directed projects.
“A shift is taking place in the focus of pedagogical
practice on university campuses all over the world as students across a wide
variety of disciplines are learning by making and creating rather than from the
simple consumption of content,” the authors of the report wrote. “Creativity,
as illustrated by the growth of user-generated videos, maker communities, and
crowdfunded projects in the past couple years, is increasingly the means for
active, hands-on learning.”
The report highlights the work at Indiana University,
Bloomington, which uses its Make-to-Learn Initiative to examine how a
do-it-yourself culture can advance learning. Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
TN, has created its Student as Producer program that creates semester-long opportunities
for student-centered activities, such as creating podcasts and multimedia entries
on course blogs.
Campus libraries have become the location of choice for
makerspaces because they also provide students with video equipment loans and
studios, digitizing facilities, and publication services. The report predicts
the trend will reach its full impact on campus in three to five years.
