By Sean Wheeler
Why I believe in Maker Culture
willowbl00 — Thu, 02/04/2010 - 16:11
"All the things I do in life (which, admittedly, is a lot) are about Doing. I'm up to my eyeballs in Stuff to Do and up to my elbows in What I'm Doing because I love it, and because I so adamantly believe that Maker Culture is a healthy response to an unhealthy pop culture. Here's a glimpse at why I feel this way.
"When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Which is to say, you use the tools you have to solve the problems at hand. Tools and technology do, of course, range everywhere from a wrench to language to roads to electricity. And when your tool is the mindset of a maker, any system at hand looks like something to be tinkered with and improved upon.
I believe in maker culture because, at its core, it is interactive. Intrinsically, it has the desire to take a closer look at how something (anything) is made, to understand that, and to use that knowledge when interacting with other things. It's a bird's eye view, but with a passion for applicability and adaptability.
This is why I believe in maker culture. Because once you've noticed the belts on your local space's MakerBot work an awful lot like the belts on your sewing machine, and maybe even your car, it's difficult to not start to see how your other local systems work - your local school, your market - and see how to actively improve them. Because it's not about sitting around bitching. It's about doing things. As Jake tells me, "I don't want to just be a hammer, I want to be a big ole jobsite tool box filled with badass power tools."
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
It's the end of summer and I'm thinking...
Just got back from a summer in the woods and on the dunes of western Michigan. Here's hoping that this year's blogging will be a bit more frequent and useful.
Big thoughts heading into this year:
Assessment, Assessment, Assessment
- We've gotta find a system that provides valuable feedback to students and parents. Grades just aren't very accurate or descriptive of learning as a process. Thinking through how to provide regular feedback that doesn't takeover our lives.
- Self-evident assessment --> I want to design learning projects that, when completed, are successful in obvious ways. I want the products to speak for themselves and to readily show the learning that went into the process. If my learning goal is to learn how to design and make a shirt, the evidence of my learning is a well-made shirt. If the goal is to learn the mechanics of storytelling, the final product should be a story that has obviously dealt with those mechanics in some authentic way (a real book?).
- The assessments that are most typical tend to be the easiest for both students and teachers, without much consideration of actual meaningful learning. We've all crammed for tests, cheated on essays, and faked our way through reading novels for class (or at least I did!). I want fake-proof assessment, and I want it adopted broadly.
Good Teaching vs. Shiny Toys
- I spent the last few years talking up technology. Mainly, I did this so that we could get the technology I felt we needed. Now, a year or two in, I'd like to ease up on the focus on technology and talk way more about good teaching assisted by technology. This is, to some, a finite difference. To me, it's the key to everything that our team has been doing. I'm fortunate to work with teachers who really care about teaching and learning to a pretty high degree. But sometimes our message gets lost because people see us as techies more so than they see us as teachers. I'd like to work this year to change that.
- That being said, to do what we want to do we need the technology. Our school district should be pushing for a complete overhaul of what we consider to be the necessary tools for good teaching. If our students can't access the Internet readily, we're doing it wrong.
- Sometimes I feel like we're alone on the cutting edge. But this summer has had me thinking that most of the concepts that we're discussing in our LHS 2.0 group aren't all that cutting edge or new. For example, collaboration, authentic audience, creativity, valid assessment, and project-based learning were all very much en vogue in the 1970s. The difference this time around is that we have better tools to make all of those concepts a reality in our modern classrooms. I'm going to try my best to learn from what happened the last time these concepts were around and to draw in the people who drove those changes in the past. They were right, and would be even more right now if they could be brought into the conversation. (We're lucky to have Foyn McDevitt in our group. He's been doing this stuff for years and really lends valuable insights into our work.)
Macro Structure
- Our school operates on a 9-period schedule with 40 minute classes. This isn't the best way to do it and we need to change. This year I'd like to be a voice in the conversation aimed at changing to a 90 minute block schedule at the least.
- The physical structure of our school has far too few work spaces and far too many classrooms. As we consider finally building the 2nd half of our school construction, I hope to advocate for break-out spaces and large group lab spaces. The classrooms we have now are far too isolated from one another and can't hold large groups working on large projects.
- Students are too heavily restricted in their freedom of movement in the school. In a classroom focused on doing and making, we need the ability to connect with people during school. I'd like my students to be able to meet in conference rooms with community leaders and partners. I'd like them to be able to be out and about working on projects that don't have them glued to a desk.
Micro Structure
- Last year I ditched the teacher's desk. This year I'll do the same. I encourage everyone to do it.
- I want to have a class blog that is accessible to parents, students, and colleagues.
- Our LHS 2.0 classrooms should be open to whoever would like to come in and see. So much of our work is best experienced. I'm done telling, I want to show. The sooner I can get colleagues and community members in, the better it will be in forming relationships and opportunities for extended learning.
Personally
- I want to bike to work as much as possible.
- I need to be more helpful and less ready for a fight. I did better last year, but need to invite rather than alienate people.
- I've always found joy in the classroom working with the students. I need to extend that towards other aspects of my professional life.
- This blog was helpful as a way to get ideas out of my head and into some coherent form. I'd like to do a better job of regularly posting to this blog.
- Community conversations, though small, were hugely helpful in working through ideas and finding teaching partners where I live. I'd like to expand these meetings and really use them to solidify a community that believes so strongly in great teaching and learning.
I guess that's enough to keep me busy for awhile. It's good to be back ;-)
Big thoughts heading into this year:
Assessment, Assessment, Assessment
- We've gotta find a system that provides valuable feedback to students and parents. Grades just aren't very accurate or descriptive of learning as a process. Thinking through how to provide regular feedback that doesn't takeover our lives.
- Self-evident assessment --> I want to design learning projects that, when completed, are successful in obvious ways. I want the products to speak for themselves and to readily show the learning that went into the process. If my learning goal is to learn how to design and make a shirt, the evidence of my learning is a well-made shirt. If the goal is to learn the mechanics of storytelling, the final product should be a story that has obviously dealt with those mechanics in some authentic way (a real book?).
- The assessments that are most typical tend to be the easiest for both students and teachers, without much consideration of actual meaningful learning. We've all crammed for tests, cheated on essays, and faked our way through reading novels for class (or at least I did!). I want fake-proof assessment, and I want it adopted broadly.
Good Teaching vs. Shiny Toys
- I spent the last few years talking up technology. Mainly, I did this so that we could get the technology I felt we needed. Now, a year or two in, I'd like to ease up on the focus on technology and talk way more about good teaching assisted by technology. This is, to some, a finite difference. To me, it's the key to everything that our team has been doing. I'm fortunate to work with teachers who really care about teaching and learning to a pretty high degree. But sometimes our message gets lost because people see us as techies more so than they see us as teachers. I'd like to work this year to change that.
- That being said, to do what we want to do we need the technology. Our school district should be pushing for a complete overhaul of what we consider to be the necessary tools for good teaching. If our students can't access the Internet readily, we're doing it wrong.
- Sometimes I feel like we're alone on the cutting edge. But this summer has had me thinking that most of the concepts that we're discussing in our LHS 2.0 group aren't all that cutting edge or new. For example, collaboration, authentic audience, creativity, valid assessment, and project-based learning were all very much en vogue in the 1970s. The difference this time around is that we have better tools to make all of those concepts a reality in our modern classrooms. I'm going to try my best to learn from what happened the last time these concepts were around and to draw in the people who drove those changes in the past. They were right, and would be even more right now if they could be brought into the conversation. (We're lucky to have Foyn McDevitt in our group. He's been doing this stuff for years and really lends valuable insights into our work.)
Macro Structure
- Our school operates on a 9-period schedule with 40 minute classes. This isn't the best way to do it and we need to change. This year I'd like to be a voice in the conversation aimed at changing to a 90 minute block schedule at the least.
- The physical structure of our school has far too few work spaces and far too many classrooms. As we consider finally building the 2nd half of our school construction, I hope to advocate for break-out spaces and large group lab spaces. The classrooms we have now are far too isolated from one another and can't hold large groups working on large projects.
- Students are too heavily restricted in their freedom of movement in the school. In a classroom focused on doing and making, we need the ability to connect with people during school. I'd like my students to be able to meet in conference rooms with community leaders and partners. I'd like them to be able to be out and about working on projects that don't have them glued to a desk.
Micro Structure
- Last year I ditched the teacher's desk. This year I'll do the same. I encourage everyone to do it.
- I want to have a class blog that is accessible to parents, students, and colleagues.
- Our LHS 2.0 classrooms should be open to whoever would like to come in and see. So much of our work is best experienced. I'm done telling, I want to show. The sooner I can get colleagues and community members in, the better it will be in forming relationships and opportunities for extended learning.
Personally
- I want to bike to work as much as possible.
- I need to be more helpful and less ready for a fight. I did better last year, but need to invite rather than alienate people.
- I've always found joy in the classroom working with the students. I need to extend that towards other aspects of my professional life.
- This blog was helpful as a way to get ideas out of my head and into some coherent form. I'd like to do a better job of regularly posting to this blog.
- Community conversations, though small, were hugely helpful in working through ideas and finding teaching partners where I live. I'd like to expand these meetings and really use them to solidify a community that believes so strongly in great teaching and learning.
I guess that's enough to keep me busy for awhile. It's good to be back ;-)
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