Sustaining Maker Culture: Mindset or Money?

What does it take for maker culture to work in the classroom? Is it just a matter of changing your mindset? Or is project funding a requirement? The answer is: "It depends on the project."

Lisa Yokana makes the point in her article "Capture the Learning: Crafting the Maker Mindset" that some creative maker projects don't require expensive materials, maybe just paper and crayons. On the other hand some projects do require extra funding. For example, I funded a classroom hydroponics project on Donorschoose.org last year that I would not have been able to do otherwise.

This was a good experience for me under the circumstances and I would do it again given specific project needs. But I am also interested in designing maker projects that are more integrated in to my curriculum. This year I will focus on projects that can be completed with minimal funding using existing resources and virtual tools.

In his article on EdSurge.com, Aaron Vanderwerff categorizes maker projects in three ways: open-ended student-driven projects, integrating making in to curriculum, and making-focused curriculum. I would like to focus on integrating making in to more of my curriculum because I think it will be more sustainable in the long term and it will help me add more creativity in to my lesson planning.

One idea in this article is to integrate LOGO programming in to the Geometry curriculum. I will use this in my Geometry class next Fall as a way to start the year with maker culture. I enjoy introducing students to programming and have had success with self-paced tutorial like Codehs.org and Khan Academy's animation series.

While I believe in open-ended student-driven projects I have found that many of my students just need more structure to be successful. I also think a maker-focused curriculum  could be feasible in an elective class at our school, but it will require time and working with the administration to plan a course solely around maker culture. For now I am going to hold off on the big ticket projects and work on integrating making.

Social Media: Friend or Foe? (Blog 1 AKTVLC)

To a certain extent new technologies create chaos and panic in society. This has been well documented in such works as Hamlet's Blackberry, by William Powers, where the author goes back to early technologies like the written word, and the printing press to examine the potential positive uses of technology in a time of overwhelm. In my opinion technology is neither friend nor foe, but requires adaptations in our thinking and behavior that are not always easy.

The article from Education World cites a study that stresses the benefits of using social media to engage students in collaborative learning: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/study-suggests-social-media-has-place-in-classrooms.shtml. I agree that student interaction is a primary value in student academic success. Certainly social media offers many fantastic ways to engage students to collaborate in new ways. The article emphasizes the need to implement the new techniques with specific measurable goals that tie in to the curriculum, and then to update acceptable use policies in the school.

It is important, especially with younger students, to create an open structure with definite ground rules and boundaries. Social media in the classroom has often been demonized due to the outrageous acts of a few students while most students are willing to use it responsibly as a learning tool given the opportunity and proper instruction.

I am very interested in Dr. Lee Graham's experience with using Minecraft as a Virtual Learning community for classrooms all over the country and I will follow her with an eye toward the possibility of participating with some of my students in the Fall. I can see that in this type of a controlled environment I might engage my students to work together.

I am quite interested in using Twitter and Facebook as virtual learning tools, but our district is not yet open to that so I will use those media for my own research and connection, both professionally and personally. One area where social media such as blogs or online forums is of great interest to me for my older students is as a space to allow for more reflection on learning. In my experience students first tend want to do the minimum requirement and forget it. Having a forum for student reflection and comments is a fairly safe and friendly way to engage social media.

Conference Reflection 2016

This year I attended the STEM and Distance Learning thread of the conference which was presented by Dr. Lee Graham. Last year I attended the World Bridge Project and had intended to continue with that, but switched when the thread was cancelled. I was pleasantly surprised by the diverse topics we discussed and practiced: Arduino, Minecraft and even a little paper circuitry.

On the continuum of Virtual Learning I still consider myself a relative beginner. I do not teach classes at a distance, but I use a lot of input from the virtual world in my classes. I have connected my classes to other classrooms around the world by going on virtual field trips with AKTeach, for example. And I like to engage students online using Webquests and video presentations among other things. I have also used online tools to teach some programming (CodeHS, Khanacademy & Codeacademy) and robotics. I feel the continuum of Virtual Learning is constantly in flux, so I may be advanced in some areas and beginner or even unaware of some other areas of potential Virtual Learning.

Dr. Graham's presentation offered a fertile ground for contemplation of how to shift aspects of my teaching for the benefit of my students. Teaching in rural Alaska I work with students who are very insulated from the rest of the world. They enjoy social media and I feel it is my responsibility as a teacher to introduce them to its use as a learning tool, but that can be problematic. A few students' misuse shades the district policies around Facebook and Google so that I am only really able to use google docs and email with them. Students in our school are not allowed to use their phones during the day, perhaps and outdated policy, but it remains in response to problems with text bullying from the past. So Twitter is not an option unless I devise a method to use it with student laptops.

I know my site administrator is open to a more tolerant policy, but there is some resistance to change from senior staff. The question of managing the student outliers who behave inappropriately on social media came up during the demo of Minecraft by Dr. Graham. She noted that there are definite personality types that come out in this game and I believe it is the same for social media. There are aggressive types who may tend to be destructive with out proper guidance or outlets, there are collaborative types who may get distracted with chat, and there are individuals who just want to wander off by themselves. So there is room for a great deal of differentiated instruction even in Virtual Learning communities.

All in all I feel is was good for me to attend the conference because the questions of what to teach of social media and how to use Virtual Learning in the classroom are ongoing and increasingly potent subjects. This is especially true for secondary teachers like myself. Most of my students are going to use some form of social media. Many already use it daily, so finding ways to integrate and maximize its potential are critical.