Making “Math Making” Virtual

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, university professors are challenged to re-envision mathematics learning environments for virtual delivery. Those of us teaching in elementary teacher preparation programs are exploring different learning environments that not only promote meaningful learning but also foster positive attitudes about mathematics teaching. One learning environment that has been shown to be effective for introducing preservice teachers to the creative side of mathematics—the mathematics makerspace—promotes computational thinking and pedagogical understandings about teaching mathematics, but the collaborative, hands-on nature of such a learning environment is difficult to simulate in virtual delivery. This article describes the research-based design decisions for the re-envisioned virtual mathematics makerspace.


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The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic brought with it the need for all teachers, even university professors, to adjust delivery of instruction. In the mathematics methods courses offered by Brock University's Teacher Education program, making mathematics relevant to elementary preservice teachers so that they truly understand the omnipresence of mathematics in daily living had been the greatest challenge until the pandemic required all instruction to move online. Now, faced with designing instruction that ensures modeling of best practices for teaching mathematics, the new challenge is re-envisioning how collaborative mathematics activities can be adjusted to ensure meaningful learning takes place virtually. Specifically, this article reimagines organizing mathematics makerspaces and our design decisions in making "math making" virtual.

Makerspaces in Brock's Mathematics Methods Course for Elementary Preservice Teachers
Often faced with comments from preservice teachers that "Math is about following some set rules and procedures" or "Solving mathematical problems overwhelms me so I don't connect myself with the subject," Brock's methods instructors strive to change these negative perceptions about mathematics, which are rooted in the personal encounters of preservice teachers' K12 experiences (Akerson, 2017;Bekdemir, 2010), so that the misunderstanding that mathematics is only a subject of rules and procedures is not passed along to future students (Wood, 1988).
A makerspace is "a creative and uniquely adaptable learning environment with tools and materials, which can be physical and/or virtual, where students have an opportunity to explore, design, play, tinker, collaborate, inquire, experiment, solve problems and invent" (Meyer et al., 2018, p. 3). With the potential to expose preservice teachers to the creative side of mathematics by providing avenues for play, experimentation, and interdisciplinary connections, makerspaces encourage student acts of knowledge generation rather than mere consumption (Iwata et al., 2020). As well, the making mindset that is developed from participating in makerspaces fosters creativity and innovation, risk-taking, and problem-solving by providing a safe environment to explore ideas and inviting the learner to think in different ways with a "can-do attitude" (Dougherty, 2013, p. 9).
Indeed, Brock's mathematics makerspaces were found to effectively promote holistic mindsets about teaching mathematics in three areas: preservice teachers engaged in computational thinking throughout participation in the makerspace activities and described their thinking in computational terms; they developed confidence with, and knowledge about, how to teach effectively with technology tools to promote mathematics understandings; and they connected curriculum learning goals with makerspace activities, thereby identifying the value of makerspaces as alternative learning environments for the teaching of mathematics .

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Brock Education Journal 29 (2) Making Makerspaces Virtual With mathematics methods courses taking place virtually for Fall 2020, the question becomes how to adjust the makerspace experience effectively so that it remains a valuable and meaningful learning experience. Fortunately, research exploring virtual makerspaces is emerging. Lock et al. (2020) describe the act of virtual making as the process of synchronous and/or asynchronous making in an online environment. It can involve a virtual (i.e., Internet-driven or virtual-reality) environment to create, build and invent (Loertscher, 2015) that supports makers in direction, asking questions, sharing work, and giving and receiving feedback (Oliver, Moore, & Evans, 2017) while at a distance. (p. 3) Access to collaborative others who provide support, guidance, advice, and feedback during the making process is essential to virtual making. This is accomplished in virtual makerspaces in two ways. Asynchronously, makers work at a distance on their project, then meet virtually with others specifically for the purpose of sharing creative work and eliciting feedback. Or, makers can meet synchronously at a specified time for the purpose of doing the making togetherwhich simulates experiences in the face-to-face makerspaces (Lock et al., 2020).

Brock's 2020 Virtual Makerspace
In the original, physical mathematics makerspace stations, five stations were set up, which were stocked with all necessary supplies, tools, resources, and guides required to work with the materials/resources at each station. Preservice teachers spent 20 minutes at three of the stations, spending the first 1015 minutes exploring and creating with the materials, and the remaining 510 minutes documenting their K8 curriculum math connections, engaging in pedagogical discussions with others at the table, and recording reflections about what they were learning.
We quickly found that there was much more to contemplate in the re-envisioning process of physical station activities, which had been selected for their close alignment with the mathematics curriculum, to virtual environments. More than simply adapting the activities for digital environments, three design considerations required attention.   (2) Next, to participate in pedagogical and curriculum discussions around the making (the essential reason for the makerspace experiences), participants would need a virtual meeting space to simulate the face-to-face interactions. Microsoft Teams rooms and Sakai forums, our videoconferencing tool and learning management system available at Brock, would need to be established.
And finally, we realized that it was not feasible to conduct all the stations synchronously as some of the redesigned virtual station activities would best be accomplished individually and shared later. Therefore, it was necessary to review the five redesigned stations for ease of completion in the synchronous and asynchronous environments; the decision was made to break the virtual makerspace into 2 weeks, with asynchronous makerspace activities taking place in week 1 and the remaining synchronous makerspace activities in week 2. The asynchronous pedagogical learning could be documented through online journaling or reflections in forums, whereas the synchronous discussions with teammates could be documented through video-recording the session. Figure 3 provides details on the resulting three virtual environments that work together to provide a virtual mathematics makerspace experience. The mathematics makerspace is valuable for engaging preservice teachers in experiences that make math learning relevant to everyday life, and much more than just learning procedures.
Extending the learning community of preservice teachers through virtual makerspace activities and digital tools is one example of how teaching in the age of COVID-19 will not only support the growth of tech-savvy teachers so needed in a digital society, but also promote the development of teachers with a can-do mindset-willing to try new approaches and adjusting to meet the needs of their students in different teaching situations.