Across the country, local community centers such as libraries are funding fab labs, maker labs, and technology labs. How do these spaces impact not only the youth in the community, but the community as whole? Additionally, how does this take the community away from the school?

I ask the last part of this question because in multiple classes I've taken through the Illinois college of education, we are taught that when a school becomes a community center, the school is supported and only improves. How does the shift of technology hub from school to library shift a school centered community? Is this a good thing, because it provides access of specialized technology to the community as a whole? Or alternatively, are students not recieving as much education on these tools because they are not in the school, and potenitally not accesible to some students? 

The article below talks brings several resources to light of how makerspaces impact a community as a whole. 

https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces/

Additionally, I enjoyed this highlight about how a makerspace in a community library can light an educational spark.

"One could argue that the phenomenon of makerspaces has led to a revitalization and reimagining of libraries in a digital world. As the means of circulating and accessing digital information outside of libraries continue to grow, this renaissance for the library as a place to gather, create, and collaborate has led to benefits for the host facilities just as much, if not more, than participants. Like book clubs, workshops, and other group meetings, hosting a makerspace alongside traditional offerings in a library is fast becoming the hands-on approach to learning and developing new skills."

Additionally, makerspaces in communities only enhance the educational theories of Vygotsky, Froebel, and Montessori. These are interstingly laid out in the article "Makerspaces in the Early Years" headed by Jackie Marsh.

"Early childhood pioneers such as Froebel (1899) and Montessori (1917/ 1965) argued that children learn when they make active choices about what they want to do, in stimulating environments. In the twentieth century, Piaget (1936/ 1953) and Vygotsky (1978) dominated the understanding of a constructivist approach to early learning, and whilst Vygotsky’s work can be characterised as more sociocultural in nature, the two strands of work overlap: The two theories of leaning that have dominated thinking in the early years literature and in the professional education of teachers – the work of Piaget and Vygotsky – can both be interpreted as offering support for an active learning pedagogy, or at least drawing attention to features of the learning process that require active engagement with the environment and the people in it. (Stephen, Ellis, and Martlew, 2010: 317) Influenced, therefore, by a long-established body of thought that emphasises the need for children to be able to lead their own learning, early childhood provision fosters independent learning and promotes the active engagement of learners. Similarly, a range of scholars point to the way in which makerspaces enable participants to become active learners who are self-directed (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014; Martinez, & Stager, 2013; Sheridan et al., 2014)"

So my question is, is there a way to better connect local libraries to their schools in order to provide these spaces for both students and adults in the community? How can we raise funding to reinvent what a community library looks like? And how can these ideas be implemented in low income communities to help people further their skills regardless of the level they are starting out at?

References

Marsh, J., Kumpulainen, K., Nisha, B., Velicu, A., Blum-Ross, A., Hyatt, D., Jónsdóttir, S.R., Levy, R., Little, S., Marusteru, G., Ólafsdóttir, M.E., Sandvik, K., Scott, F., Thestrup, K., Arnseth, H.C., Dýrfjörð, K., Jornet, A., Kjartansdóttir, S.H., Pahl, K., Pétursdóttir, S. and Thorsteinsson, G. (2017) Makerspaces in the Early Years: A Literature Review. University of Sheffield: MakEY Project.