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What is Making or Creating?
Making refers to a set of activities that can be designed with a variety of learning goals in mind. Making can happen in a variety of places that may be labeled “maker-spaces” as well as in classrooms, museums, libraries, studios, homes, or garages. This approach is the closest to other constructivist- and constructionist-based design work that focuses on engaging participants in learning content and process (Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, 2014, p. 501) The maker movement refers broadly to the growing number of people who are engaged in the creative production of artifacts in their daily lives and who find physical and digital forums to share their processes and products with others. Moreover, this movement has emerged over the past decade due to a surge in cultural do-it-yourself (DIY) mind- sets, growth in online and offline (Maker Faire) community connectedness, and increasingly affordable technology. In schools, the Maker Movement is a natural fit, as integration is already the norm—the convergence of subject areas and the blending of skills and concepts results in the construction of knowledge through personally meaningful experiences (Wendy Smith et al., 2016, p.31). The word “Maker,” describes each one of us, no matter how we live our lives or what our goals might be. We all are makers: as cooks preparing food for our families, as gardeners, as knitters. Although this view may not be part of mainstream thought, there once was a time when most Americans commonly thought of themselves as tinkerers. Tinkering used to be a basic skill, and you could get a little bit more out of life than the average person if you had good tinkering skills—if you could fix your own car, for example, or improve your home or make your own clothes. The maker movement has come about in part because of people’s need to engage passionately with objects in ways that make them more than just consumers. But other influences are in play as well, many of which closely align the maker movement with new technologies and digital tools. Makers at their core are enthusiasts, such as those engaged in the early days of the computer industry in Silicon Valley. Today’s makers enjoy a level of interconnectedness that has helped to build a movement out of what in the past would have been simply a series of micro-communities defined by a particular hobby or activity. People take a little bit from here and a little bit from there, and the resulting mash up leads to some pretty exciting creations (Dale Dougherty, 2012). |
Importance of promoting Making at school.
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The best way to activate your classroom is for your students to make something. This might an amazing high-tech invention or it might take the form of costumes for a historical reenactment, homemade math manipulative, a new curtain for the local auditorium, toys, a pet habitat, a messy science experiment, or a zillion other things. But, for too long, schools have undervalued learning with one's hands. Modernity, as exemplified by the maker movement requires us to value learning with the head, heart, and hands equally. The maker movement allows students to do just that and more.
If you can't yet get your head around the idea of designing a bicycle in the shape of a Matisse nude and e-mailing it to your holiday destination to be 3D printed and ridden upon arrival, consider the most important implications of the maker movement on education: Making dissolves the distinctions between domains such as arts, humanities, engineering, and science. More important, it obliterates the destructive cleavage between vocational and academic education. When the very same tools, techniques, and process skills are found and required in the physics lab, art studio, and auto shop, schools can and must stop sorting kids into winners and losers.
The maker movement allows students to strengthen humanistic values through projects and experiences that require the use of their heads, hearts, and hands. Students are introduced to creative technologies that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Through whimsical projects, students take an interest in the concepts and ideas that might normally be offered through a textbook or work- sheet. The Maker Movement also emphasizes the necessity of problem-finding, problem-solving, and the power of social learning through sharing and collaborative work to solve issues small and large (Wendy Smith et al, 2016, p. 32)
Maker education harnesses the power of making to create an engaging and motivating learning experience. It is an interactive, open-ended approach that is learner-driven and allows for the time and space needed to develop diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking.
If you can't yet get your head around the idea of designing a bicycle in the shape of a Matisse nude and e-mailing it to your holiday destination to be 3D printed and ridden upon arrival, consider the most important implications of the maker movement on education: Making dissolves the distinctions between domains such as arts, humanities, engineering, and science. More important, it obliterates the destructive cleavage between vocational and academic education. When the very same tools, techniques, and process skills are found and required in the physics lab, art studio, and auto shop, schools can and must stop sorting kids into winners and losers.
The maker movement allows students to strengthen humanistic values through projects and experiences that require the use of their heads, hearts, and hands. Students are introduced to creative technologies that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Through whimsical projects, students take an interest in the concepts and ideas that might normally be offered through a textbook or work- sheet. The Maker Movement also emphasizes the necessity of problem-finding, problem-solving, and the power of social learning through sharing and collaborative work to solve issues small and large (Wendy Smith et al, 2016, p. 32)
Maker education harnesses the power of making to create an engaging and motivating learning experience. It is an interactive, open-ended approach that is learner-driven and allows for the time and space needed to develop diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking.
- Empowerment: Maker education focuses on the learner’s capability to voice their unique thoughts, choices, and ideas.
- Access: It provides a spectrum of entry points for learners of any culture, background, or ability to take part.
- Process: Maker education includes and emphasizes exploring, designing, reiterating, reflecting, and sharing as part of the universal process of learning and development.
- Community: It welcomes and values every learner, as they are encouraged to share, collaborate, and engage with one another.
- Maker education allows us to move towards a more comprehensive educational approach that better reflects and incorporates the diverse, complex, and ever-changing nature of our world. Through maker education, youth develop new perspectives, a belief in their own abilities, and a passion for learning.
- Maker Classrooms foster creativity in children.
- Maker Movement engages community and invites cross-generational learning.
- Fosters independence and autonomy in children
- Maker eduction fosters inter-disciplinary reflection of real life.
- Maker education promote higher student engagement.
- Such learning offers authentic learning, often connected to the read world.