dominated by debates over privacy, intellectual property, polling and investment in the computer-based modeling that’s central to scientific inquiry.
Advocacy events like the Hour of Code represent progress, but the truth is, an hour of anything is insufficient. Programming is a skill developed over long periods of time. It is like learning to write, paint or dance. You become a better programmer by programming, and access to a teacher with expertise doesn’t hurt.
A maker option for school computing
The ed tech community is engaged in a seemingly endless battle over what device provides the most bang for your district’s buck — laptops, iPads or Chromebooks. Yet there is now another option: microcomputers.
Eben Upton was a computer science professor at Cambridge when he grew concerned that computer science majors had little experience making things with computers. He imagined producing a computer so inexpensive that universities could give it away to potential students and ask them to show what they made with it when they visited campus for the interview. This idea gave birth to the Raspberry Pi, a baseball-card-sized $35 Linux computer with USB, composite video, Ethernet and HDMI ports.
Unlike a microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi is a complete computer. You can use it to program microcontrollers or interface with them. Connect an old keyboard, mouse and display, and you’re all set to run OpenOffice, Scratch and other software. You can use it to power your home entertainment system, or you can ask a fifth grader to build a Minecraft server with it. New hardware, like the Arduino Yún and Intel Galileo, combine both computer and microcontroller in the same small package.
Makerspaces for all
Classrooms should embrace the joyful approach of Maker Faires by creating space for kids to engage in complex, personally meaningful projects. But some schools seem
more willing to spend a lot of money building
special maker spaces or fablabs (fabrication labs) to house professional-grade hardware than they are to change classroom practice. The lessons from three decades of computer labs should dissuade us from building a special bunker that kids visit once a week. This is not to say that you should not have a killer makerspace filled with state-of-the-art technology, proper ventilation and comfy working conditions. But you should keep in mind that every classroom can be a makerspace where kids have the materials, time, flexibility and support to learn by doing. Educators need to create space for making in their heads as well as in their classrooms.
They also need to drop any preconceived biases about who can be a maker. The range of potential projects and constructions available to makers supports a diversity of activities, genders and learning styles. When presented with multiple activity centers featuring a variety of materials, boys may gravitate to Arduino and girls to wearable computing/e-textiles. Both activities require engineering, circuitry, microcontroller programming and debugging, and although there may be surface differences in the product, the process is the same. For example, the Flora wearable microcontroller system includes a sewable GPS element that lets your clothing determine your location. Designing a shirt or necklace that warns you of an approaching friend or arrival at your favorite classroom may include more complex engineering and computing challenges than your standard robotics competition, and it may appeal to children who would otherwise miss out on such learning opportunities.
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The maker movement: A learning revolution
Classrooms should embrace the joyful approach of Maker Faires by creating space for kids to engage in complex, personally meaningful projects.