Cohesion between purpose, people, and parts & pieces are key to a successful maker program say experts. A recent panel hosted by The New Media Consortium detailed a framework for designing maker spaces and maker programs, allocating resources, and supporting making as a quality learning experience.
“Learners as Creators” was the latest webinar in the NMC Beyond the Horizon series, and featured insight from panelists Tim Carrigan of the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) and Peter Wardrip from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has created a method for 3D printing hydraulically-powered robot parts that require no assembly.
That’s right — we can now 3D print entire robots. Perhaps more troubling is that one day, robots will be able to print robots. It’s the beginning of the end.
But when we give children the time and space to make – and present them with a pile of materials – they fall to it with such a will. The appetite to make is there, even when no one speaks of it.
Making connects the hand, eye and brain in a very special way. It’s empowering for both maker and viewer. The act of making is optimistic; it’s an act of faith. People of all ages feel better for doing it.
Making can also be very social – conversations can meander while hands are kept busy. But it can also be very personal and give confidence to children who listen to their own internal monologue that takes place as they make in solitude.
If we want a world full of creative, entrepreneurial thinkers, we need to enable and sustain making from a very young age. Not all of us will become sculptors or engineers or designers, but we will become more connected, rounded and creative people.
So while making may sometimes seem inconvenient, we need to find the time, space and resources to make it happen.
Making education more accessible is our mission. We’ve put what you love about our flagship laptop in a slimmer form factor and much smaller price tag.
MERGING PRACTICALITY AND DESIGN
Designed with ergonomics in mind, pi-topCEED comes with back stand adjustable up to 180° and can be wall-mounted.
YOUR GATEWAY TO TECHNOLOGY
You’ll be able to customise your pi-topCEED by adding and changing component as well as creating hardware and software projects with no experience required.
As I’ve mentioned in some other posts, I come from a background in Experiential Education (yes, it is a specific professional discipline). I’ve also discussed reflecting on the learning activities to increase the chances of extracting learning as well as transferable skills and knowledge from the activities. This is an integral part of experiential education – see my previous posts, Where is reflection in the learning process? and The Maker as a Reflective Practitioner.
Another concept common to Experiential Education, that also increases the chances that transferable skills and knowledge result, is framing or frontloading the activities as part of introducing them.
Frontloading is making clear the purpose of an activity prior to actually doing it. The idea is that if participants clearly understand the purpose or lesson upfront, that lesson will repeatedly show itself during the action component. (http://chiji.com/processing.htm)
It helps participants use the upcoming activity to build on prior knowledge and experience It helps participants set purpose and intention for the activity It distributes expertise to the participants before the activity begins, as opposed to the facilitator or instructor being the only expert (http://experience.jumpfoundation.org/what-is-frontloading/)
Some of the general themes and ideas for frontloading making activities include:"
As part of this growing trend, school libraries are stepping up to the plate to offer students unprecedented access to tools and technology. Across districts, resources include everything from the parts and equipment necessary to build electrical circuits to the hardware and software that would enable students to print their own 3D prototypes. Some makerspaces even include traditional woodworking and crafting tools.
While the value of time spent tinkering may not be immediately apparent to some, makerspace proponents say hands-on work helps students hone their critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities, all while encouraging them to collaborate with peers. With those competencies in their toolkit, students can more easily navigate the STEM education network and, eventually, the workplace.
Last year, 16-year old Ayoade Balogun, along with several other high school students, created the MESA Summer Bridge Program. This summer camp program introduced middle school girls to design and engineering by working on a project to help their community in Central Virginia. Over the course of 3 months, Ayoade put together the plans and curriculum for the camp and gathered the support and funding needed for the project. That summer, Ayoade worked with middle school girls to build a bridge that would make it easier and safer for people to traverse an area of the Rivanna Trail in need of repair. Ayoade’s inspiration for the Bridge Program was a similar camp she attended when she was younger that made her realize she could work on solutions to problems that she really cared about. She wanted to make sure that other girls would have the same opportunity to become innovators, problem-solvers and Makers.
he hot new Makerspace Movement is NOT new to Murray Hill Middle School. Eighteen years ago we designed and opened the school with the idea that we would have creation labs in the Media Center, GT room, and the TV studio. We started with video production, iMovie, Specular LogoMotion, Hyperstudio, and animation with Hollyood High kids. Here's an example of an EARLY (2003) video production called Bookfellas, featuring some Guy Ritchie-esque film direction techniques. These kids are now all grown up and we've kept evolving, too!
It's OK to Start Small!
We recently expanded upon our Makerspace offerings thanks to being inspired by several of my librarian friends in our amazing #TLChat PLN! (Pls see resources below!) Kids can come in during lunch or when they've finished their work to explore, craft, and create in the Library Media Center. I re-purposed some of my empty study carrels for this Makerspace center at the top corner of our library. The grouping includes a Lego Creation Station, a Duct Tape Craft Cubby, and a Makey Makey Coding Corner. (heh heh heh worked on those cute name for like....days!)
Last year at Big Walnut Middle School in Sunbury, Ohio, there were some days when fewer than ten students passed through the library doors. Just like in so many other schools, students and teachers had a growing number of resources available to them through tablets, Chromebooks, e-readers and interactive whiteboards, so they no longer needed to visit the library like they once did.
Some schools have addressed this problem by converting their libraries to makerspaces. These hands-on environments allow students to to build, create, design, and experiment. When we see makerspaces, we tend to see big Lego tables, coding and computing tools like Raspberry Pi kits, and 3-D printers where students can see their creations come to life.
But Big Walnut principal Penny Sturtevant had a vision that was a bit different from the makerspaces she was seeing. She wanted her library to be a place that was a little less open-ended, a place where students did hands-on work, but as an extension of what was happening their classrooms. Instead of taking her inspiration from the maker movement, Sturtevant was interested in trends she was seeing toward more personalized learning.
One of the exciting projects the Curtin Library Makerspace is working on this year is to establish a virtual makerspace using Minecraft. We have purchased some licences for Minecraft EDU, and will be exploring its potential as a learning environment for our library clients. As an extension to this project, we are investigating how we …
I have a recent interest in both Growth Mindsets and Maker Education; and have blogged and presented on both of these topics. As such and because of my passion for both of these area, I have been thinking about the intersection between the two. This intersection, I found, is strong and powerful.
Download free - 100% tested - 3D printable objects created by talented designers from around the world. Share your ideas and designs, grow your profile, and become a part of the 3D printing community.
Using a clever mix of 3D printing and a few well-placed shadows, this sundial designed by Mojoptix projects the actual time as if displayed on a digital clock. The plastic component that casts the shadow—called a gnomon— is printed with extremely tiny holes that create pinpoint dots of light in th
As the maker movement makes strides in education, it's important to identify its learning benefits -- and find more robust ways to define and document success.
They are known from countless science fiction films: holograms.
They are a symbol for the distant future, where technology rules the world and reality and virtuality are fused together. But this future is not so far. Because today can easily produce any holograms, if he wants. One need only plastic film and his smartphone. It is easy and looks absolutely spectacular: I do not know how it works, but that's the fascination not diminish.
You just have this VIDEO (here along) play and give the film on your mobile phone. So far I have therefore each excited with this absolute eye-catcher. Share this idea, added the other in pure amazement.
Maker education (often referred to as “Maker Ed”) is a new school of educational thought that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects.
Stewart Middle Magnet is a STEM magnet school, and part of our curriculum comes from Project Lead the Way, including classes in engineering, robotics and aerospace. The Design Process is an important part of that curriculum. It also ties in beautifully with what we do in our makerspace. So it made sense for me to partner up with one of our Project Lead the Way classes to teach our students about the basics of the design process. While this was a lesson with a specific class, it could easily work with small groups, after-school clubs, or any group that you bring into your makerspace.
Activating Prior Knowledge I started out by surveying my students to see who had already heard of the design process. If they had, I had them explain it from their point of view. We talked about our experiences creating and building things (projects in the makerspace, building with our toys as kids) and what kind of processes we tend to experience when that happens.
THE NEW MAKERBOT SMART EXTRUDER+ - PRINT WITH CONFIDENCE AND EASE
Double the warranty of its predecessor, the Smart Extruder+ is a culmination of product design and 160,000+ hours of rigorous testing that delivers dependable, consistent performance with superior results using MakerBot PLA filament.
Inside, improved components and an enhanced sensor system ensure that your printing process is simple and reliable from start to finish. Designed for ease of use, this extruder ensures greater print success over time.
Makerspaces and 3D printing have come a long way in higher education, from early excitement over 3D-printed learning objects to a focus on creativity and higher-order thinking.
From admissions to jobs post-graduation, showcasing maker skills provides an edge in the competition—and now, there are apps for that. From colleges’ and universities’ decisions to allow student “maker” portfolios in admissions, to companies eager to hire talent that can demonstrate creative, problem-solving skill, the maker movement is gaining traction in education…and in the app store.
The “maker movement”— the push to have individuals construct functional products that are recreated and assembled using unused, discarded or broken electronic, plastic, silicon or virtually any raw material and/or product from a computer-related device—has considerable traction in the K-12 arena, and is gaining momentum in higher education (e.g. MIT’s maker admissions) as demonstrable skills are becoming critical in a world grown tired of SAT scores and all-too-common bachelor degrees. Even the White House held a Maker Faire in 2015.
“The context of making is playful,” Dougherty said. “At the high school level that’s when it stops being fun.” It’s that playful spirit that gets kids engaged, not a set curriculum or even access to technology. Kids have to feel invested and passionate about something to care about it for the long term. “If we are really about STEM, how do we make it fun, how do we make it engaging, how do we keep it playful?” Dougherty asked.
Parents are even starting to recognize the motivating power that this movement has on kids. “I think kids are going to be the drivers of change in this,” Dougherty said. “They’re going to be the ones asking for this, and asking if their parents can support them in this.” Dougherty knows many young people ready to go to high school who don’t see their passions being supported there. A lot of high schools got rid of classes like shop and metal work that were the “maker spaces” of a previous era. Parents didn’t see a use for those skills and they were gradually phased out.
I always love seeing new 3D printing patent applications. There has been some wacky-looking stuff presented — Samsung’s recently granted patent for a holographic 3D printer comes to mind — but I’ve never seen anything like the technology Boeing has come up with. The aerospace giant has recently filed a patent application for a process that 3D prints levitating objects. Yes, levitating objects. It seems ludicrous. Multiple 3D printer heads shoot material at a magical floating nugget that collects the material, layer by layer, and grows into, apparently, an airplane part. I can’t wrap my head around it, but Boeing is very serious. The proposed technology is called “Free-Form Spatial 3-D Printing Using Part Levitation,” and it involves a “nugget” (yes, that is in fact the scientific term) made of printed material that is suspended in space via magnetic fields. Several printer heads surround said nugget and deposit additional printing material onto it from all sides.
We’re excited to announce that littleBits CEO Ayah Bdeir will keynote on March 8th at SXSWedu! In conversation with Education Week editor Sean Cavanagh, Ayah will discuss the role of Maker Education and how it is supercharging STEM and STEAM learning in classrooms, libraries and makerspaces.
Ayah will be making a BIG announcement about littleBits, so tune in! Or follow us on Facebook or Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
Information Today invites you to submit your ideas for this year’s Internet Librarian International (ILI) – the library innovation conference.
Each year, ILI attracts hundreds of library and information professionals from around the world to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience. We’re seeking fresh new case studies, great stories, personal experiences and lessons learned from the ideas, strategies and practical implementations you’ve put in place to make a difference to your organisation, clients and communities.
As always, we welcome contributions from all types of libraries and info pros - public, academic, government, national or corporate libraries - as well as those working outside a 'traditional' library setting.
The majority of talks at ILI are usually short case studies of 15 minutes in length. Speakers are matched with one or two others to create themed sessions. But we do like to mix things up a little too. Let us know if you have an idea for a longer session or a mini keynote, or if you have an idea for an alternative format to share your presentation.
Yarn bombing is a sTextile artist Magda Sayeg transforms urban landscapes into her own playground by decorating everyday objects with colorful knit and crochet works. These warm, fuzzy "yarn bombs" started small, with stop sign poles and fire hydrants in Sayeg's hometown, but soon people found a connection to the craft and spread it across the world. "We all live in this fast-paced, digital world, but we still crave and desire something that's relatable," Sayeg says. "Hidden power can be found in the most unassuming places, and we all possess skills that are just waiting to be discovered."
To get content containing either thought or leadership enter:
To get content containing both thought and leadership enter:
To get content containing the expression thought leadership enter:
You can enter several keywords and you can refine them whenever you want. Our suggestion engine uses more signals but entering a few keywords here will rapidly give you great content to curate.
Your new post is loading...
