DreamSpace Academy
Co-Creating The Dreams
A non-profit social enterprise in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Since 2018 it has helped young people and communities learn, make, and turn ideas into work that solves local problems.
What we do
From curiosity to change
Learn a skill by making something. Use it on a real problem close to home. Then get the support to grow what works.
What we do
From curiosity to change
Learn a skill by making something. Use it on a real problem close to home. Then get the support to grow what works.
Education
Teaching and learning. Teaching in schools, at partner sites, online and at the academy: making, robotics and electronics, software and AI, media, business and entrepreneurship, and courses for teachers.
Programmes and domains
Innovation
Solving local problems. Labs where young people take on real problems in their own communities, build prototypes and test them with the people who will use them, alongside the academy’s own applied research.
Labs and research
Entrepreneurship
Turning ideas into work. Support for people who want to turn a tested idea into a venture: bootcamps, the DreamShot Startup Challenge, mentors, introductions and incubation.
Ventures and incubation
How we do it
The Changemaker Journey
From exploring to changing a community: how learners in our STEAM programmes grow. Each stage names what the work is for. How deep someone goes in one subject is measured separately, by levels that belong to a course, never to a person.
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Explorer
“What can I do?”
Get hands-on with tools and ideas in a welcoming, guided space.
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Maker
“Can I make something?”
Build reliable capability through sustained, assessed projects in a chosen subject.
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Innovator
“Can I make it better?”
Apply that capability to an open problem that exists outside the room.
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Changemaker
“Can I make a difference?”
Turn tested work into sustained contribution to a community.
The STEAM programmes are one part of what DreamSpace Academy teaches. The academy also runs business and entrepreneurship trainings, digital security and media literacy training, and training for teachers and people already at work. What the academy teaches.
The Changemaker Journey in fullThe education standard
The education standard: evidence, not attendance
Completion needs evidence against a published standard, not attendance. Placement is by what someone can demonstrate, so prior learning counts however it was gained. In the STEAM programmes, a stage describes purpose, and is named rather than numbered; a level describes depth inside one subject, and belongs to a course rather than to a person. The teaching approach sets out each one.
Constructionism makes the case for learning by building things other people can see and use[1, 4]. Systematic reviews find that makerspaces support creativity, across a large body of studies[24, 25]. And assessing maker work is well precedented rather than experimental[21]. The reference library lists every source this site draws on.
Innovation & enterprise
Research, entrepreneurship and business skills taught from the first stage rather than added at the end.
Learn, Make, Solve, Earn: how well each is evidenced
Learn, Make, Solve, Earn. There is good evidence for the first three in learning by making. There is not for Earn, so the academy treats it as a hypothesis to measure rather than a claim.
The MakerSpace
MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy
MakerSpace by DreamSpace Academy is a community makerspace built to be replicated as a social franchise. A local partner provides the space. DreamSpace Academy provides the design of the unit, the brand, the operating standard and a licence to run its programmes there. The programmes do not need a MakerSpace, and run in schools, at partner sites and online as well.
The purpose
To put the capability to solve local challenges into local hands, and the conditions that keep it there.
Mission
Co-creating with underserved communities the capability to keep solving their own challenges, through education, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Vision
Communities solving their own challenges.
The goal: one hundred local challenges solved by local people, by 2050. Progress toward the goal will be counted against a published definition of a solved local challenge, not against the number of workshops delivered.
Taking part
How to join, visit or work with the academy
What is running right now changes often: places, dates, the language of delivery, fees or funded places, and access arrangements. Ask DreamSpace Academy directly for those.
Learners and parents
Ask what is open now and what the placement check involves. No prior qualification is needed to start. The FAQ answers other common questions.
Schools and community organisations
The academy delivers in partnership with schools and community groups. A partner that wants a space of its own can set up a MakerSpace; what that involves on both sides is set out under replication.
Get in touch
Start here
Every page on this site
About the organisation
Origin, belief, purpose, definition, mission, vision, values and standards of practice.
Why this work exists
The seven conditions the model is built to change, and what is not claimed about them.
Theory of change
Four streams, the medium-term layer, and a grade for how well each claim is evidenced.
The DreamSpace Lifecycle
Ways in, the test that converts a candidate into a changemaker, the four support modes, and the exits that are not failures.
Labs & research
What a lab is, its three uses, the four conditions before anything is called a lab, and the academy's own research plans.
Ventures & incubation
The founder funnel, what the incubation record contains, and how all three kinds of outcome are reported.
Venture pathway
Two ways in, the gate, venture building, the four support modes, and what is still open.
Impact & the global goals
Nine goals with what carries each one, and the two that came off the list.
How the work is funded
Where the money comes from, what the model is trying to become, and the rules for describing the academy's own role.
Measurement
The results hierarchy, the innovation ladder, the eight instruments, and the reporting rules.
Learning by making
The core definitions, what is fixed, what is left open, and the published work it is built on.
The Changemaker Journey
The stages used in the STEAM programmes, how depth in a subject is tracked, movement and placement, and the maker profile.
Facilitation
How teaching is sequenced, the two delivery modes, and what a trainer and facilitator do.
Assessment
The completion standard, its evidence states, and what a certificate needs.
Programmes and domains
What the academy teaches beyond the STEAM programmes, the subjects they offer now, how depth inside a course is structured, and what every course has to publish.
Innovation & enterprise
Research, entrepreneurship and business literacy as a strand through every domain, and what “Earn” claims.
The MakerSpace
The replicable makerspace, and who provides what in a social franchise.
Replication
The Starter Unit, who provides what, unit economics as a planning case, and the expected risks.
Common questions
Questions from parents, schools, donors and partners, including the ones with no settled answer yet.
Articles
Cited explanations of the choices behind the practice.
Glossary
Every term used in a specific sense, what each one excludes, and the words this site does not use.
References
The published works this site draws on, grouped by topic.