AND I WAS PROUD!

Source: Image by Syazwi Shahif. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Accessed from http://syazwishahif.deviantart.com/art/Think-Outside-The-Box-164883807

It all started when a colleague of mine sent me a link to an article by Laura Fleming (2014), "Literacy in the Making: Showing how the maker movement has a place in all disciplines" saying that it was well worth a read because the article contains 'ideas for offering opportunities to students to develop literacy understandings by making things.' 

You're probably wondering 'what all started?' Well after reading Fleming's article, I began to look further into the ideas behind the concept of the maker movement and making to learn. Laura Fleming states that it is an approach to project based learning that encompasses experimenting, building and playing with different concepts. Her article more specifically looks at the idea of using literature as the springboard for students to create, imagine and build their own stories using a wide variety of media. The students are using a combination of traditional methods (print; illustration; cartooning) AND new technologies (film; online software to design comics and video games; web 2.0 tools; electronic equipment ) to shape narrative. 
Remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series? Fleming talks about using that style of narrative to engage students to create different 'episodes' whilst using a variety of digital and non-digital media. She recommends Black and White by David Macaulay as a good book to use with younger students as a stimulus for creativity. She also refers to the books Inanimate Alice by Kate Pullinger and Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman as worthwhile resources to use with older students. Fleming set up a space within her library with access to digital and non-digital creation tools to invite students to come and make and create.

The Maker Movement and Youth Popular Culture

Laura Fleming's article inspired me to delve a little more deeply into makerspaces and the maker movement. Eventually I came upon Caine's Arcade. The video that follows is inspiring. It reinforces the importance of making learning real and relevant for our students. It endorses the importance of strategically allowing our students to learn actively, follow their interests, tap into their creativity, problem solve and invent. I could see that the maker movement is one way that teachers could incorporate the interests of students, meaningfully into the classroom.
Make sure that you view all the way to the end because it is the last four words of this video that will provide the validation for connecting with students in this way . . . 

What a difference it made to Caine's life when someone took him seriously and engaged with him where his interests were. Even Caine, as a nine year old boy commented that these were real people, real life, really playing his games! When he first saw people lined up to play at his arcade he wondered whether it was real or if he was dreaming.
If we can be truly proud of our work and our achievements and receive the accolades and positive reinforcement from others, we have achieved success and fulfilment. 

Vicki Davis (2014), in her post on Edutopia.org, claims that classrooms that are following the maker movement emphasise making, inventing and creativity. It's not new to propose that we learn best by doing and making but with the advances in technology we are now experiencing a new wave of digital  and multimedia makers. Davis (2014) cites the work of Martinez and Stager when she describes what maker classrooms really look like:

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 (2014).

What a wonderful way to embrace the connections between formal learning and youth popular culture!

If this interests you too, I'll be continuing this thread in the following post.


References

Davis, V. (2014) How the Maker Movement is Moving into Classrooms. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/maker-movement-moving-into-classrooms-vicki-davis

Fleming, L. (2014) Literacy in the Making: Showng how the maker movement has a place in all disciplines. Available online at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzBaUTEHJBk0bkNtWlE2SVhWR1U/edit

Mullick, N. (2012) Caine's Arcade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U