Feel free to download a full-sized version of this poster for use in your school.
Maker Education: A Quick Introduction
Journey from a Makerspace to a Maker District
Building the Future: Tinkering and Playful Learning
The Maker Movement in K-12 Education: A Guide to Emerging Research
Invent to LearnThe Maker Movement in K-12 Education: A Guide to Emerging Research
This week we’re investigating maker education, tinkering, and coding in our educational technology courses. Translating all the hands-on experiences from our face-to-face class meetings into the online learning environment has been a fun challenge. Thankfully, we actually began preparing this module for the online environment in Summer 2019, so it has been a work in progress. A special thanks to colleague and EdTech Team member, Melissa Marshall, for helping develop the module.
I thought I’d share some of the resources that I put together. Perhaps these will give families ideas to spice up their days of quarantine. Please share your ideas and recommended resources in the comments, so that our preservice and in-service teachers can learn from you, too.
Browse through this slideshow to view examples that might spark inspiration for your next maker or tinkering project.
Feel free to bookmark, save, or print the following document.
This virtual makerspace gives students opportunities to engage in creative and critical thinking. They learn how to develop, problem-solve, revise, and persevere through the process of creation. They can even 3D print and see their designs come to life.
Something that makes Vectary stand out from similar tools is its special effects. For example, drawn objects can be texturized to look like photographs; you can even add lighting and shadows. Surfaces can be made reflective, so that as you tilt the object, it shows the reflection of other objects.
Vectary can also be a great collaborative tool. Students are able to work synchronously with one another in the same file and work as a team to produce designs.
The free version of Vectary is quite limited. Users may only have three projects at a time and their only sharing/exporting option is to create an embedded link. However, Vectory is offering free premium accounts to schools! Click here and scroll waaaay down to the bottom to request an account.
This video from Vectary is a great place to start:
Click here for their online gallery.
5 STEM Education Plans and Activities for Vectary
Vectary Tutorial Page
Teacher-Made Vectary Tutorials
Guest Blogger
Raina Burditt
This virtual makerspace gives students opportunities to engage in creative and critical thinking. They learn how to develop, problem-solve, revise, and persevere through the process of creation. Students can even use 3D printers to bring their designs to life.
Tinkercad’s electronics platform allows students to virtually place and wire components to create a virtual circuit and then see how the components would respond in real life. Students could use this as a blueprint to make a real-life circuit, or they can add-in 3D design and print it with Tinkercad’s Circuit Assemblies.
Tinkercad is about to launch a new coding platform that uses drag-and-drop code blocks. Students order the blocks to define their design and then run the code to watch their design come to life. They can use this to create a GIF or export and print their completed design.
Using a unique invitation code, teachers can invite students to Tinkercad and moderate their accounts. Tinkercad is also a great collaborative tool. Students are able to work synchronously with one another in the same file and work as a team to produce designs.
Click Here to explore their online gallery. Note that you can actually copy any existing design and then tinker with it yourself.
Guest Blogger
Raina Burditt
Guest Blogger
Raina Burditt
DIY.org is a platform for students to learn new skills and share what they make and do with a global community. Educators can use DIY.org to explore skill-based learning and introduce collaboration into their classrooms. Teachers can blend the DIY.org Skills platform into their core curriculum, or let their students explore new subjects while practicing skills.
Each skill links to challenges that users can complete to earn a badge. The badge is virtual, but a real woven patch can also be purchased. After completing a challenge, users can post photos and/or video of their project to inspire others and to solicit feedback. Click here to see the skills students can earn patches for. Additionally, users are able to build an online portfolio of their work on the platform.
Check out this video overview from Marvin Puspoki:
How to make a DIY.org club
ReMaking Education: Designing Classroom Makerspaces for Transformative Learning
Makers in the Classroom: A How-To Guide
About the Author
Raina Burditt is currently a technology teacher at Memphis University School in Memphis, TN. She trains both students and teachers in technology integration. She has presented at Tennessee Teach Meet, the TAIS Biennial Conference, the TAIS Technology Conference, the Lausanne Learning Institute, the Mid-South Technology Conference, and the AMLE Conference for Middle Level Educators.
This article shares the story of Albermarle County Schools’ experience integrating maker education throughout all the schools in the district. In particular, snapshots of Agnor Hurt Elementary and Albermarle High School are spotlighted. I recommend diving into this article and considering how Albermarle’s experience and ideas can impact your classroom, school, and district. Here are just two nuggets I gleaned from reading this.
“Making shouldn’t be isolated. We want to get away from that idea. Makerspaces and classrooms are one and the same.” — Andrew Craft, Elementary Teacher
“When people make, they get back to the basics of who they are as humans. Making puts the learner at the center of the work — and when that happens with our kids, the content makes sense to them.” — Pam Moran, Superintendent
Source: EdSurge.com
“A Maker is an individual who communicates, collaborates, tinkers, fixes, breaks, rebuilds, and constructs projects for the world around him or her. A Maker, re-cast into a classroom, has a name that we all love: a learner. A Maker, just like a true learner, values the process of making as much as the product.
“Making holds a number of opportunities and challenges for a teacher. Making, especially to educators and administrators unfamiliar with it, can seem to lack the academic rigor needed for a full-fledged place in an educational ecosystem. However, project-based learning has already created a framework for Making in the classroom. Let’s see how Making could work when placed inside a PBL curriculum unit.” — Patrick Waters
Source: Edutopia.org
The following is an excerpt from an article in The Journal by Mike McGalliard and Anne Wintroub. It’s too good not to share. I encourage educators and parents to read and consider the ideas and recommendations presented in the full article.
“Educators and business leaders have more in common than it may seem. Teachers want to prepare students for a successful future. Technology companies…have a vested interest in developing a workforce with the STEM skills needed to grow the company and advance the industry. How can they work together to achieve these goals? Play may [be] the answer.
“We’ve assumed that focusing on STEM skills, like robotics or coding, are important, but the reality is that STEM skills are enhanced and more relevant when combined with traditional, hands-on creative activities. This combination is proving to be the best way to prepare today’s children to be the makers and builders of tomorrow. That is why technology companies are partnering with educators to bring back good, old fashion play.
“In fact many experts argue that the most important 21st century skills aren’t related to specific technologies or subject matter, but to creativity; skills like imagination, problem-finding and problem-solving, teamwork, optimism, patience and the ability to experiment and take risks. These are skills acquired when kids tinker. ” — The Journal
Guest Blogger
Kaylah Holland
Edutopia defines Marker Education as “a unique combination of artistry, circuitry, and old-fashioned craftsmanship” (source). This type of making is not a new idea but, until a few years ago, has not been in education and has been growing in implementation ever since.
Several terms are involved with Maker Education such as tinker, hack, create, modify, build, and invent (source). This basic concept involves changing the traditional lecture style of education to a more engaging hands-on environment where students are learning through active projects. This style of learning does not have traditional assessments but uses the finished product as the assessment; thus, completely flipping the traditional style of learning.
The following four mindsets show the benefits of implementing Maker Education into the classroom.
Implementing Maker Education within your classroom does not have to be difficult. Start with one project and allow students to build or create something tangible. You can use Pinterest or Instructables to find handy DIY projects for the classroom simply be searching. You will soon become hooked on the idea and will begin to modify your own lesson plans to include more making.
The following websites are great resources.
Kaylah Holland is currently a Middle School Instructional Technology Facilitator at Charlotte Christian School in Charlotte, NC. In addition to teaching coding, app development, and robotics; she has a vital role of assisting teachers with the integration of technology into the classroom through ample research, lesson planning, and training. She is currently completing her doctoral degree in the field of Instructional Design and Technology and is in the process of becoming a Google Certified Trainer. She is passionate about building an innovative culture for learning.
