A dynamic community resource and help exemplify the value and impact of the maker movement on campuses and in their surrounding communities. The Higher Education Maker Alliance created MakeSchools.org as a shared knowledge base and higher ed. community to will catalog the value and impact of maker culture in universities around the nation.
In June 2014, the White House convened its first ever Maker Faire, highlighting President Barack Obama’s enthusiastic support for the Maker movement and its potential benefits for the US in the future. At the event, 153 higher education institutions pledged support for Making activities on their campuses. We created the MakeSchools Alliance in response to President Obama’s leadership at that event to further this activity nationwide.
The Alliance worked to connected institutions around the nation dedicated to empowering ‘Maker culture’ on their campuses. The Alliance’s mission was to bring together this growing higher education community together to “Foster a New Generation of Makers.” Towards this, the Alliance engages leading universities, art and design schools, and community colleges around the nation who are committed to promoting Maker education and empowering a new generation of Makers – both within their institutions and out to their communities. It supported this community by capturing best practices and facilitate research that examines the impact of Making on learning, student retention, degree completion and campus success. Its online face, MakeSchools.org, serves as a dynamic platform, a publicly-accessible resource, and a community knowledge-base to assemble, share and discuss outcomes, resources and best practices for higher ed Makers.