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Makerspaces as Tertiary Artifacts? The Meaning of Material Artifacts in Students’ Social Interaction During Technology-Rich Creative Learning

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Part of the book series: Social Interaction in Learning and Development ((SILD))

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Abstract

This chapter contributes to research knowledge on the meaning of material artifacts in students’ social interactions in technology-rich, creative educational spaces. In specific, drawing on sociocultural theorizing (Grossen, 2010; Vygotsky, 1986, 1997) and Wartofsky’s (1979) schema of mediating artifacts, we investigated the meaning of material artifacts in students’ social interactions during their engagement in hands-on creative science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) design and making activities in a school’s makerspace. The chapter illuminates students artifactmediating interactions in the makerspace and considers how these create opportunities and tensions for students’ creative and transformative learning actions. In doing so, it describes the transitional, progressive, and also tension-laden embodiments of material artifacts in students’ social interactions that account for routine, procedural, and/or imaginative future-oriented practices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their thanks to Jenny Renlund and Jenny Byman for their assistance in data analysis. The research reported in this chapter was funded by the Academy of Finland Learning by Making: The educational potential of school-based makerspaces for young learners’ digital competencies (iMake) project (no: 310790).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Kristiina Kumpulainen & Anu Kajamaa

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  1. Kristiina Kumpulainen
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  2. Anu Kajamaa
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Correspondence to Kristiina Kumpulainen .

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  1. Faculté de Psychologie et Sciences de l'éducation, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

    Nathalie Muller Mirza

  2. Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Marcelo Dos Santos Mamed

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Kumpulainen, K., Kajamaa, A. (2021). Makerspaces as Tertiary Artifacts? The Meaning of Material Artifacts in Students’ Social Interaction During Technology-Rich Creative Learning. In: Muller Mirza, N., Dos Santos Mamed, M. (eds) Dialogical Approaches and Tensions in Learning and Development . Social Interaction in Learning and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84226-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84226-0_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84225-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-84226-0

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