Facespaces and Makerbooks | W10 Q2 | Forum

While this set of articles may be vastly different from my area of interest, there are some underlying patterns of thought. Where the concepts from the readings and my area of interest diverge comes from the physical difference in the setting. I am interested in the physicalness of making and the interactions within physical makerspaces whereas these readings focus on the online interactions, in the Asterhan and Rosenberg (2015) article, these are specifically the interactions online between students and teachers. Where the concepts of the readings and my own interests coverage is the concept of connection within SNSs is analogous to the feelings of connection within makerspaces. Leveraging your friend groups on SNSs to discover new techniques or skills is something that is of utmost importance within the making community. Along with the community aspect, there is also the connecting theme of identity exploration. Within a makerspace, people explore new abilities and roles within their friend groups (e.g., making scarfs for friends in winter, creating lighting schemes for the holidays through miniature electronics). This empowerment can be felt through SNSs as people explore new identities such as authorship. It is actually through this underlying connection that the concept for this semester’s paper was developed.