Thanks Brian!

This work was funded by NSF Early-concept Grants for Exploration Research (EAGER).  The EAGER funding supports research in early stages with potentially transformative ideas or approaches, i.e. "high risk". The approach in the project of using new technologies, VR and telepresence, for creating learning communities in the context of Makerspace is relatively new and untested, kind of risky :).  

What have we learned? On a logistical side of the hardware and network, the Oculus serves as a great tool and improvements are happening all the time on VR hardware; bandwidth is rarely an issue.  Bandwidth for the telepresence robot can be an issue, luckily our partners at the Sidney Public Library worked with local ISP to increase their bandwidth.  In addition we had the opportunity to try out multiple VR software applications that support collaboration and/or exporting of files for manufacturing on maker equipment (not all do). Here's some more info on VR & telepresence from our project.

Our qualitative research suggests we are forming learning communities and supporting makerspaces in a positive way.  We are conducting some research with youth in a pre-post design and are wrapping that phase up over the next couple of weeks.  One of the neat things is having the presence in the space to support the makers.  With telepresence and VR we teach and co-teach classes, support clubs, provide just-in-time instruction. To serve as an example:  Dr. Barker and a university student co-led a club with local 4-H educators to build a Magic Mirror in tandem with a 4-H club in Sidney NE.  The club's finished project received special recognition at the Nebraska State Fair.  

Libraries are fabulous!  We partnered with the Sidney Public library for this project.  The library serves, among other roles, a meeting and connection point in the community.  Partnering with the library was a perfect fit for our project.  Nebraska 4-H/Extension and Nebraska Library Commission have a broad network, covering all 93 counties, to have local impact.  Nebraska Extension is currently partnered with the Library Commission on an IMLS grant to support the Maker Movement.  We foresee continued collaboration and synergy in our work with libraries.

Thanks for the question!

Edits: Spelling

Hi Michelle,

Prior to the grant funding we had worked with the Nebraska Library Commission and the Sidney Public Library and knew there was a lot of interest and buy-in from the community.  We conducted a number of face-to-face meetings with city officials, school teachers and administrators, Extension educators and library staff during the proposal process as well.

Ginger, we have had multiple 'aha' moments.  A couple high-lights: the digital to physical manifestation process on multiple maker tools was an idea we wanted to explore but weren't really clear on the details.  Once we had digital 3d models created in VR (like .stl, .glb, .obj) an obvious output was to 3d printer, but we also came up with some neat ways to further manipulate the files for laser and CNC.  Another great 'cool' moment was using collaborative VR.  The students really 'took' to it faster than us adults.  Sculpting/designing together feels a lot like real-life. 

We started with the technologies themselves by staying with commercially available apps and hardware.  Luckily one of our partners, Knowinnovation, 'plays' in this innovative space and has helped us guide us in the process.  Knowinnovation helped form our guiding principles for choosing apps and tech to use for the project. The guiding principles of collaboration; ability to share designs (export capability); and developmentally appropriate (not too easy or not too hard) gives us the ability to review apps quickly.  Throughout the project we have stayed open to 'new' apps that fall under these guiding principles.  We encourage the project staff and mentors to explore apps that may benefit the project.  Although participants didn't come up with new apps, they became more proficient in the use of the apps and tools we provided, allowing for some creative work.