Maker Faire

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Students Will Build Their Own Future School

January 31, 2011 | 3:14 PM | By

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.

FILED UNDER: Teaching Strategies, Dale Dougherty, Maker Faire, School Day of the Future

Innovation, Education, and Makers

October 4, 2010 | 4:42 PM | By

Flickr:SparkFunElectronics

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of working for O’Reilly Media as the editor-in-chief of Craft Magazine. Even before I’d started working there, I attended the first two Maker Faire events, and was amazed by what I saw: part county fair, part science fair, part craft fair, a huge gathering of folks who were brought together with the simple connection of their love of making things. As a part of the staff, I got to work on two Maker Faires and saw first-hand the incredible amount of thought, energy, and hard work that goes into putting on such a large-scale event.

Last week, the event debuted in New York as World Maker Faire. It was always the vision of Dale Dougherty, who founded Maker Media and the Maker Faire, to incorporate education into the world of science, technology, and innovation. In conjunction with that, Dougherty published the following talk given by Thomas Kalil, the Deputy Director for Policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Among other points he makes, Kalil talks about the importance of communication between makers, innovators, and tinkerers, and the STEM education communities.

What are the projects and initiatives that the Maker and STEM communities should be co-designing and co-creating? What are the big ideas, compelling goals and concrete “next steps” that would inspire individuals, companies, foundations, educators, museums, non-profits, and government agencies to work together?

Innovation, Education and Makers
Thomas Kalil: What would education look like after a Maker make-over?

by Dale Dougherty

On the Monday following Maker Faire New York, the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored a workshop titled “Innovation, Education and the Maker Movement.” It was organized by Margaret Honey of the New York Hall of Science, Thomas Kalil of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and myself. I asked Tom if we could publish his talk, which opened the workshop. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Maker Faire, O'Reilly, STEM