Maker Day/ Maker Movement
This week, we had the opportunity to attend Maker Day. This was a really great opportunity to learn more about some of the great initiatives that teachers are developing in their schools to better implement technology and interactive education into their classrooms. I think what the most valuable part of the day was getting to talk and ask questions to some of the developers of these technologies, while also learning about the technology in a hands-on way. I had never even heard about Google Cardboard before Maker Day, and it is something that I think will be really neat to have in my classroom one day. Coming from someone who had never experience Maker Day or the Maker Movement in any of their education before EDU 210, this experience was valuable in clicking everything together on why this course is so important to take. By walking through all of the booths and talking to the amazing educators and technology developers in attendance, I have thought of so many new ways of improving the quality of my teaching. For example, I had never thought of using 3D Doodler pens in my classroom, but since they are so easy to access and so easy to use, it would be a great way of allowing my students to make 3D models to assist in their learning, especially with regard to the sciences. I cannot wait to try these things out in the classroom!
To build on this point, I had the priviledge of talking to educators and technologists about fantastic ideas for all classrooms. For example, I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Ball from an Edmonton school about the implementation of BreakOut rooms in the classroom, such as in the forensics unit. The idea of creating a BreakOut room in the classroom is so innovative and applicable to my major subject, that it is something I would definitely like to include in my classroom one day. This experience has opened my eyes to how much flexibility and creativity we have in teaching and having our students learn. I think this is such a cool way of "spicing up" the material and testing student's knowledge of the material in a new, fun and interactive way. I think that this is what the Maker Movement is all about.
Below, I have included some images of the booths that I visted at Maker Day. I have also included my screencast explaining what the Maker movement is, and the top 2 technologies that I look forward to using in the classroom. I used Screen-Cast-O-Matic to make this video because I really liked the nice users interface. I found it really easy to use. I plan to use Screen-Cast-O-Matic in my classroom in the future in order to provide screencasts on the material content for my students to review at home. I encourage you to take a look.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me by clicking the page!
Little electronic bugs that follow drawn program sequences.
Mr. A. Ball's BreakOut Room materials
Makey Makey Machines
Telus World of Science DIY moving critters.
This week, we were also asked to reflect on the following question:
"In the book, Invent to Learn, S.L. Martinez and G. Stager (2013) write the following: Maker classrooms are active classrooms. In active classrooms one will find engaged students, often working on multiple projects simultaneously, and teachers unafraid of relinquishing their authoritarian role. The best way to activate your classroom is for your classroom to make something.How will you ensure that your classroom is an active one? What does it look like for a teacher who "relinquish[es] their authoritarian role?""
Here are my thoughts:
"I think the design of maker classrooms are very different then a regular classroom. It is designed to give flexibility to the classroom. As defined by the "Librarians Guide to Makerspace,” makerspace is "sometimes also referred to as hackerspaces, hackspaces, and fablabs are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. In libraries they often have 3D printers, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies and tools, and more" (Kroski, 2013). They provide a flexible space where people are able to create their own spaces.
First, I think it is important to establish what "giving up authoritarian control” means to me. This means not having the traditional classroom with the students sitting and the teacher lecturing. This does not mean giving one form of assessment. This means that students are leading their own learning and helping to structure their learning.
I think, from talking to the many different people at the Maker Day Fair, that in order to keep your classroom active and giving up your "authoritarian control” is to design activities that put your student in control. For example, when talking to one of the booths at Maker Day from St. Augustus School, Mr. Aaron Ball, he introduced breakout space in his schools. Breakout rooms are when students are given the prompt for figuring out a situation, and then "begin exploring the room, looking for clues and puzzles and solving challenges one-by-one, as you work towards your escape [or the solution]” (EscapeCity, 2016). He talked about it in an elementary science context, where he did a breakout space investigation of assessing his students' forensics unit. Instead of being a final test, this final assessment was like a game to the students (Ball, 2016).This project could be designed by the students and the teacher in order to work together to make a fantastic and interactive class! It was a creative way of designing what could have been a passive and unexciting unit, to being a unit that students look forward to.
When I begin teaching, or even when I do my practicum, I would love to try this out! I think that this is a great way of taking down the barriers in our learning (EDU 210, 2016), and really giving students the chance to actively apply their learning. You could do this in many different subjects, and I would definitely try this out with one of the units in a science/biology class in either junior high or high school. I think that there is plenty of room to change difficulty of the puzzles for the different grade levels. This could be applied to really any science class or unit, and by changing the difficulty of the puzzles and clues, it could be a great test and very interactive for everyone! I plan on implementing this in any science class that I teach because it is a really good way of seeing whether students actually understand the material, and are able to apply the material, that they are learning in class. I think this is the value of not being an authoritarian teacher. By being able to give students the freedom that they need to learn, and giving them room to be creative, it changes students views towards learning and it becomes a lot more useful and meaningful to them. The classroom becomes more dynamic, and it tends to cater to more learning styles this way.
I think that makerspace activities, such as the BreakOut rooms also teaches students a thing or two about failure. For a test, if students get a bad mark then they can just improve on the next one. For this kind of assessment, it is almost inevitable that at least one group of students will fail (Ball, 2016). I think that while it could be perceived as a bad thing, it could also be seen as being a good learning moment. This kind of activity not only requires students to understand the material that they are learning about, but also how to collaborate and work as a team. If they do not, then they are more prone to failure. I think that in this way, it teaches students how to gain teamwork experience, while also teaching them some important life-skills along the way.
In conclusion, I think that by giving students the freedom to learn, while also keeping classroom assessment and classes structured, students are more engaged with their learning. This moves us away from being an authoritarian teacher/classroom to being a reflective teacher. This can sometimes be hard for teachers to do, but I think that if teachers give up authoritarian and traditional classroom settings, we could be in for more flexible and engaging classrooms. This involves facilitating the use of technolgy. This does not mean that the classrooms have to be dominated by technology; it just means that technology can help facilitate our classrooms to give use more options to diversify our teaching. I think by giving student more freedom and creativity in their education, while maintaining structure, we will get more active classrooms. " --Neesha
References:
Ball, A. (2016). Maker Day Booth Presentation. Informal Presentation.
EDU 210. (2016). Module 7 Class Notes. University of Alberta. Powerpoint Notes.
EscapeCity (2016). BUT WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS INSIDE AN ESCAPE ROOM. Retrieved from: http://www.escapecity.ca/about-our-games/
Kroski, E. (2013). A Librarian's Guide to Makerspaces: 16 Resources. Open Education Database. Retrieved from: http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/a-librarians-guide-to-makerspaces/
Martinez, S. and Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn. Torrance, Calif.: Constructing Modern Knowledge Press.
NOTE: I DO NOT OWN THIS VIDEO! This video gives you a great overview of what a 3D Doodle Pen is able to do. I encourage you to take a look! 3D Doodler Pens are one of the technologies that I talk about in my Screencast above.
NOTE: I DO NOT OWN THIS VIDEO. This video gives you a great overview of how Google Cardboard works. Google Cardboard is one of the Maker technologies that U talk about in my Screencast above.