What is Making? Who are Makers? What might Making transform education? by Pamela Van Halsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning Many perspectives about the value and purpose of Making-You are invited to add to our Padlet board other perspectives on Making and Maker Education. Just click on the PLUS sign to get started! en-us 2017-03-16 07:54:59 UTC 2017-03-20 16:21:03 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Lightdecrease.png Who are Makers? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160444509 Makers are people who want to change the world around them, big or small, and who can see solutions to gaps in their lives. Makers want to create or challenge themselves creatively.Necessity is the mother of invention, and makers are the ones who take that call to action and make those ideas reality.

-Mike Warren, Designer, Instructables and Autodesk

]]> 2017-03-16 08:19:00 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160444509 How is Making transforming education? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160446205 Intelligence takes many forms, but far too often evaluation in schools does not recognize this diversity. In a largely standardized educational system, countless young people who learn more easily through manipulating tools than through quiet and obedient listening may be not be recognized for their brilliance. The incorporation of hands-on making in classrooms has the ability to highlight the incredible potential of those students who may otherwise be ignored. Making is not an ideal way of learning for everyone, but neither is reading or taking a test. 

-Coby Unger, Maker/Designer, Prakti Design Lab]]> 2017-03-16 08:28:25 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160446205 How is Making transforming education? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160447448 Project-based, hands-on, play-based learning is a fantastic way to learn. This is what goes on in hackerspaces around the world. This is why they are such fantastic educational environments. When someone is exploring and doing what they love, they will find projects they love. People are become highly motivated by this, and very quickly. And when they inevitably find limitations in their knowledge that impedes the progress of their project, they are then highly motivated to learn what they need to know. I think it is very exciting that many schools and libraries and museums are transforming their curricula by making use of this. (This is proving that schools do not need to be centered around standardized tests.

-Mitch Altman, CEO of Cornfield Electronics]]> 2017-03-16 08:35:09 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160447448 What is an exciting example of Making and why? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160448114 Making is exciting when it leads to collaborating. At the start of our program, 10-yr-old DIY Girl Wendy was very dependent on our instruction. Every session, we reminded her of the importance of DIY, “doing it yourself”. We emphasized that you learn by doing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do things alone. One day, after learning how to sew a simple circuit, Wendy came in with an LED stocking she had made with her mom. She went on to tell us that she taught her mom about “all the electrical stuff” and her mom taught her how to sew. Together, they made something useful and meaningful. I find this example particularly powerful because it shows us that making can happen across generations. It can bring us closer to the ones we love and empower us to keep going. 
-Sylvia Aguinaga, Director of Curriculum, DIY Girls]]> 2017-03-16 08:38:22 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160448114 What is Making? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160449962 Making is simply a democratic extension of the DIY movement. It encompasses all individuals who create for themselves or others. Here are some areas in which making is prevalent, but by no means are limited to: Arts, crafts, object design, software design which could result in objects (like 3D prints), jewelry, fashion, but also craft beers or other commodities to simply name a few.

Who are Makers?
All types of individuals. Generally people who enjoy using their hands, while improving upon or creating a new, stand-alone or part of a larger system, object. 
-Markus Vogl, Assistant Professor , Myers School of Art at the University of Akron]]> 2017-03-16 08:48:52 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160449962 Who are Makers? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160450735 Makers are people with a curiosity about how things work, whether its chemistry or mechanics or wood-working or any other topic. The kind of people who take things apart, who modify things, who void warranties and see themselves not just as consumers but also producers. Folks who have the belief inside of them that they can figure it out, that by trial and error they can take an idea from something in their mind through to something in their hands.
-Ian Charnas
Manager, think[box], Institute for Collaboration and Innovation
]]> 2017-03-16 08:52:49 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160450735 The Benefits of Making? pvanhalsema https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160456987 “ ... the most important benefits of maker-centered learning are
neither STEM skills nor technical preparation for the next industrial
revolution. Though these benefits may accrue along the way,
the most salient benefits of maker-centered learning for young
people have to do with developing a sense of self and a sense
of community that empower them to engage with and shape the
designed dimension of their worlds” 

from the Youth Makerspace Playbook, published by MakerEd (2015)]]> 2017-03-16 09:21:13 UTC https://padlet.com/pvanhalsema/makingmeaning/wish/160456987