iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

"When Jean Kaneko started volunteering at her son’s kindergarten class in Santa Monica, Calif., she was surprised by how hesitant the children were to play with toys they didn’t recognize, to make a mess and, well, to be kids.

“‘I can’t do that. I’m not good at that,’” she remembered them saying. Even at 4 or 5 years old, there was already a ‘be perfect, don’t fail’ attitude, she said.

So she started bringing in blocks, strange clay creations, crafts, and handing them to the students with no instructions. They warmed to it. The craft supply grew, the activities changed and soon teachers were asking her to go into classrooms and even host after-school programs and camps.

Ms. Kaneko describes herself as a maker, and she brings maker spaces to schools all over her area. Now, those include 3-D printers and virtual reality technology."

When I first started creating a makerspace in my library in 2014, I was figuring things out as I went along. Sure, I knew how to sew and knit and played with LEGOs a ton as a kid. But science wasn’t my favorite subject growing up, so things like circuits and coding were pretty new to me. So I became a maker alongside my students and we learned together.

Now that we have more ways for students to get into making, we also need to explore the potential outcomes for those who become makers. We’re hosting our first-ever Industry, Career and College Day in partnership with Cornell University College of Engineering and San Mateo College. The speakers on the program will talk about preparing for the future of work. It will also be an opportunity for young people to meet representatives from startups, companies, colleges and universities, to explore career paths, and evaluate new possibilities for their education and future.

Emily Pilloton, Founder of Studio H, a design/build class at REALM Charter School and Girls Garage both in Berkeley, California, describes how she “knew there were things about architecture and design that could have a deep impact in the classroom.”

People are teaming up to fix stuff instead of throwing it away