This report by the New Media Consortium highlights maker spaces as a Technology to Watch with a widespread adoption time of two to three years. The report doesn’t go into great detail about how the maker spaces would play out, especially in a liberal arts college environment, but still stands as an additional support for more hands-on creative spaces in college and the value it brings to students and graduates.
I’m not sure we can truly call ourselves a Fab Lab or Maker Space yet but with an awesome laser cutter along with a networked Solidworks license we’re well on our way.