We also directed students to online tutorials for each of the tools and insisted that they access and view these prior to asking the teacher(s) for. Indeed, we found that the guides (and the tools as a result) became much easier to use as they progressed through the weekly activities (see Figure 4). The guides were consistently written in a way that facilitated the transfer of skills from one tool to the next. One of the strategies we used to help them develop autonomy was creating and providing them with visual "walk-through guides" that they could access on the iPads when they were not sure what to do next. Combining text, recording, and picture options conveys student meaning more effectively, and in turn provides opportunities for academic successes previously not experienced.
The students in this program had ubiquitous access to iPads, which they used to research information and create digital texts through apps like WordSwag, Popplet, Picktochart, PicCollage and Evernote. Students who struggle in traditional learning environments often find expressing themselves easier when they use multimodal tools and technologies (Hughes, 2009). Throughout the creation of their book, students were encouraged to take increased responsibility for their learning with each successive question, and to explore their learning process through reflection questions. The inquiry-based approach, set in a makerspace environment where many materials were available to them, helped the Digital making with "At-Risk" youth students to direct their own learning. addition to contemplating important topics related to their future goals and developing intrapersonal skills, the students also developed in other ways.
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