“The most important educational resource is the student,” he says.

Flickr:Janet Dancer

For Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Faire — the personification of the do-it-yourself movement — the future school day combines learning with doing.

Dougherty has spent at least the last decade preaching the invaluable benefits of making things by hand. The reason is simple: you’ll learn more about it — whatever it is — if you make it yourself. Through the Maker Faire events, where thousands of people congregate to celebrate the DIY movement, Make Magazine and Craft website (full disclosure — I worked as the editor of the print version of Craft Magazine a few years ago), Dougherty is drawing out the natural tinkerers and makers in all of us.

His theory applied to education, whether it’s formal or informal, is premised on the same ethos.

“That confidence to learn anything is what education ought to be about,” he says.

So what’s the first step in creating the idea school day of the future?

First, build the learning space, of course.

Here’s the entire interview.

http://www.vimeo.com/19398221

Read more about the School Day of the Future series.