According to google a hackerspace is:

a place in which people with an interest in computing or technology can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.

To read more about what a hackerspace is go here

The struggle in education in today's status quo is that everything seems to be standardized and learning is methodological, which can narrow down the minds of the students. It mainly depends on students' own initiative to become creative, critical thinkers. NightOwl was born out of a dissatisfaction with this situation.

The aim for NightOwl is therefore to create a place and culture of curiosity, creativity and cultivating each and everyone's skills, building and establishing progressive education. Important is that we do things because we like them, not because we have to. Having fun and not being pressured to deliver are vital parts of this.

So in short: to us a hackerspace is a place where a community of technology enthusiasts, a.k.a. geeks, have fun, work on their own projects, and get help and inspiration form others.

If you are for instance interested in learning how to build a flying drone, the hackerspace is a great environment to learn where to start.

Our main goals are:

• Build cool stuff, whether it is software, electronics, art, 3D printed, made of metal or dark matter, a figment of your imagination or simply want to prepare for the Dalek invasion of earth.
• Help students and other people interested in technology improve their skills beyond what regular education teaches them
• Contribute our knowledge and skills to improve our community

To simply put it, its the future of education. Entrepreneurs or people nowadays are in need of new ideas to innovate or to progress and most of the time the bureaucratic tendencies hinder the innovation of the students and maybe some professionals as well.

A simple answer to the question, how do you get the students to be innovative? You let them. You get out of their way, and that's one of our primary principles in Night Owl, to let students be independent and allow them to do what they are interested to do. Its relatively similar to Google employee's 20% time philosophy, in that range of time you get ideas out of this world and start innovating. Here is a good article about it.

Technology will be standard and will change what mentors value and test for. Basically, if you can ask Siri to answer a question, then you will not be evaluated on that. Instead, learning will be project based.

Independent learning is when an individual is able to think, act and pursue their own studies autonomously, without the same levels of support you receive from a teacher at school.

its when two or more people (often groups) work together through idea sharing and thinking to accomplish a common goal. When people collaborate, they are able to utilize the strengths and skills of everyone involved.