Connected Spaces: A Technological Framework for Fostering Collaboration by Linking Novice Makers with Mentors and Peers

互联空间（C/S）项目将研究和开发一个技术工具包和设计框架，旨在将青年创客与同行、导师和技术援助联系起来。创客们修补、设计、创造和发明，他们经常在拥有传统材料和工具以及3d打印机、电子产品、计算机设计和其他技术的创客空间里与同行合作。黑人、拉丁裔和女性初高中学习者可能很难找到有“像他们一样”成员的创客社区。该项目旨在将在STEM领域代表性不足的潜在初中和高中创客与同行、导师和技术援助联系起来。C/S包括两个主要的技术组件：提供连接和知识感知的数字仪表板，以及支持协作和调试的导师投影仪。青年和大学生导师将通过大学和社区组织合作伙伴招募。该项目将研究，作为这些联系的结果，参与的学习者是否会提高他们作为创造者的归属感和认同感，并培养他们追求STEM职业道路的兴趣。通过研发过程，将直接接触到150多名参与者。项目研究成果和资源将在网上共享，并通过会议和出版物广泛传播给研究人员、设计师、创客空间和教育工作者。C/S将设计一套数字工具，支持新手制造者、同行和导师之间有意义的合作。研究将侧重于理解C/S支持的互动与学生对STEM的知识和兴趣之间的关系。通过开发C/S及其在不同人群社区的图书馆、社区和大学创客空间的推广，项目研究旨在回答以下主要问题：1)将初高中学生连接成一个分布式创客社区，可以支持新手创客之间哪些形式的社会互动和协作建设？2)在通过互联空间与同伴、辅导员和导师互动后，学习者对STEM职业的看法和追求STEM职业的愿望发生了怎样的变化？该项目将使用定量和定性方法收集数据，并跨多个交互层次分析这些数据。测量这种情况发生的程度将需要记录特定类型的交互和协作，以及评估这些交互是富有成效和有意义的程度。该项目由“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目资助，该项目支持有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣的实践、项目要素、背景和过程的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Connected Spaces (C/S) project will research and develop a technological toolkit and design framework designed to connect youth makers with peers, mentors, and technical assistance. Makers tinker, design, create and invent, often working with peers in makerspaces equipped with traditional materials and tools as well as with 3-D printers, electronics, computer design and other technologies. Black, Latinx, and female middle and high school learners may struggle to find maker communities that have members "like them." The project is designed to connect prospective and geographically distributed middle and high school makers who are underrepresented in STEM with peers, mentors, and technical assistance. C/S includes two primary technological components: a digital dashboard for providing connection and knowledge awareness, and the Mentor Projector for supporting collaboration and debugging. Youth and undergraduate mentors will be recruited through university and community organization partners. The project will research whether, as a result of these connections, participating learners will improve their sense of belonging and identity as makers and develop increased interest in pursuing STEM career pathways. Through the research and development process, over 150 participants will be reached directly. Project research findings and resources will be shared online and disseminated widely through conferences and in publications reaching researchers, designers, makerspaces, and educators. C/S will design a set of digital tools that support meaningful collaborations between novice makers, peers, and mentors. Research will focus on understand the relationship between the interactions supported by C/S and students’ knowledge and interest in STEM. Through the development C/S and its rollout across library, community, and university makerspaces in communities with diverse populations, project research aims to answer the following overarching questions: 1) What forms of social interactions and collaborative construction between novice makers can be supported by connecting middle and high school students as a distributed community of makers? 2) How do learners’ perceptions of STEM careers and their desire to pursue them change after interacting with peers, facilitators, and mentors through Connected Spaces? The project will collect data using quantitative and qualitative methods and analyze this data across multiple levels of interaction. Measuring the degree to which this occurs will require documenting the specific kinds of interactions and collaborations as well as evaluating the degree to which these interactions are productive and meaningful. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.