solvers who don’t need to be told what to do next. This stance can be a crucial change for children who are used to getting explicit directions every minute of every day. It can also illuminate for teachers how authentic assessment can really work in the classroom.
The learning-by-doing approach also has precedents in education: project-based learning, Jean Piaget’s constructivism and Seymour Papert’s constructionism. These theories explain the remarkable accomplishments of young makers and remind educators that every classroom needs to be a place where, as Piaget taught, “knowledge is a consequence of experience.”
Constructionism. Papert’s theory of learning provides the theoretical basis for making, which is a stance toward learning that is predicated on the active construction of a shareable artifact. Making asks teachers to create settings where students are, for example, mathematicians rather than passive receivers of math instruction.
Papert also introduced the metaphor of “computer as material,” part of a continuum of materials used to make tangible artifacts and ideas. This continuum spans everything from common arts-and-craft supplies to cutting-edge technology. Indeed, teachers in our Invent to Learn workshops often begin the day working with cardboard construction to house microcontrollers they’ll program later in the day.
Project-based learning. Some of the time-honored practices that were common in classrooms a generation ago — art, music, drama, woodshop, sewing, cooking, playing with and using real tools and craft materials — need to return to the daily experience of children trapped in schools with no time for anything but test prep. For too long, schools have undervalued learning with one’s hands. Schools must stop sorting kids into academic or vocational tracks because such distinctions no longer make sense. Many of the same technologies, process skills and conceptual understandings are found in the physics lab, art studio and auto shop.
The key to making is using authentic tools to create meaningful projects. It is a natural fit for the STEM subjects or the arts, but historical research, producing documentaries and writing for an audience are also forms of making. Computers are not required, but they supercharge project development by expanding the breadth, depth and sophistication of what’s possible.
for an audience are also forms of making. Computers are not required, but they supercharge project development by expanding the breadth, depth and sophistication of what’s possible.
For the first time, students can use their own powerful ideas to create real things, not just make-believe models. Kids can solve real problems with their own inventions. And we can focus technology instruction on providing authentic interdisciplinary experiences rather than isolated tech skills.
Game-changing technologies
Our book, Invent to Learn — Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom, identifies three technological game changers that are transforming learning and everyday life in the digital age. These tools allow students to solve real-world problems and should be on every educator’s radar.
Personal fabrication. Until recently, the only things you could make with a computer resided on the screen or paper. Today, additive (3D printers) and subtractive (laser cutters, vinyl cutters, computer-controlled mills and lathes) technologies allow users to design an object on the computer and “print” it out in a variety of materials. Websites such as thingiverse.com are teeming with STL files that are compatible with most 3D printers and allow users to “remix” physical objects. 3D scanners can also turn existing objects into computer files that you can then modify and print out into new objects. Kids can print replacement parts for their bikes, limbs for their dolls or that Lego piece they wish existed. You can already print many of the parts to build a 3D printer on a 3D printer. And soon you will be able to print circuitry with conductive ink that you can turn into objects with embedded microcontrollers.
The most significant development in personal fabrication may be 3D design software. Once
By Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager
The maker movement: A learning revolution
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