Maker 2.0 - Now What?

Purpose & objective

Making and makerspaces are initiatives in education that are responding to societal pressure to provide children with relevant and rigorous educational opportunities that go beyond lectures and tests. When administrators lead with this vision, and create a shared vision with their stakeholders, they must consider going beyond the space and tools, to creating a culture that supports this transformation.

One of the biggest questions in today's world is how to do project-based and hand-on learning at a distance. This session will showcase some of the current best practices from around the world.

Making in education is more than a space, it is a process that must be clearly defined and supported by all stakeholders. While it may be seen as an exciting way to approach the future, wise leaders know that a future that builds on the past, especially past successes, are the most valuable. This requires an ongoing process that does not end when a space is built, or cool new technology is purchased. It requires commitment to purposeful change in multiple areas at once. This is even more important with today's challenges.

To achieve a systemic improvement, one that goes beyond the headlines and hype, leaders must concentrate on multiple areas at once. This session will cover four important systemic issues that must be considered when schools are initiating a change to include “making” in the curriculum. These aspects are: space, culture, process, and pedagogy.

None of these are easy to tackle, yet this is what visionary leadership entails. Supporting that process through effective communication, data gathering to support the change process, and establishing both strategic and tactical goals are key elements.

Finally, leading this change means creating and promoting 21st century culture, where dynamic learning is the norm and “because we’ve always done it this way” is not an acceptable excuse. Building a space for children to learn with their head, heart, and hands is not just about walls and the stuff inside the room, it’s participating in a global revolution in design and a reconceptualization of what it means to be literate in the 21st century.

This session will help educators, both teachers and administrators, build a roadmap for their own making and makerspaces programs that will succeed now and in the future.

Outline

5 min – intro
5 min – making and makerspaces – what’s new?
10 min – unpacking vocabulary and creating a culture
25 min – examples and best practices from schools around the world
10 min – closing, questions

Supporting research

Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom (book) http://inventtolearn.com

COSN Driving K-12 Innovation Report (previously called the NMC Horizon Report): 2019 K-12 Edition
https://cosn.org/VisionToAction

School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It by Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker

Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullan

Makeology: Makerspaces as Learning Environments (Volume 1) by Kylie Peppler (Editor), Erica Halverson (Editor), Yasmin B. Kafai

Free to Make: How the Maker Movement is Changing Our Schools, Our Jobs, and Our Minds by Dale Dougherty (Author), Tim O'Reilly (Foreword), Ariane Conrad (Contributor)

Agency by Design – Harvard Graduate School of Education project investigating the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning http://www.agencybydesign.org