For the past several years, many of us in the maker education community have been working on developing a new LogoTurtle Robot (with Josh Burker and Erik Nauman leading the way) to honor Seymour Papert. “Logo Turtle with Seymour Papert Lego MiniFig” kindness of Christopher Sweeney A frustrating issue with coding in a classroom or… Read more »
Category: Cohort 2 Fellows
A makerspace for next to nothing
“How should I start makereducation?” That is a question MakerEducators hear often. As did my co-Fablearn fellow Josh Ajima. He answers the question on his site: THE MAKERSPACE STARTER KIT. While I was writing this blogpost Autodesk’s website www.makingstartshere.com was published. A website which – as you might probably guess – answers the posed question… Read more »
Papert’s Eight Big Ideas translation to portuguese (Oito Grandes Ideias)
Recently, Sylvia Martinez (our FabLearn mentor) invited us Fellows to translate Seymour Papert’s Eight Big Ideas Behind the Constructionist Learning Laboratory to other languages. As Sylvia describes in her blog: “In 1999, Seymour Papert, the father of educational technology, embarked on his last ambitious institutional research project when he created the constructionist, technology-rich, project-based, multi-aged… Read more »
Decolonizing STEMM: Reclaiming Indigenous Scientific, Technological, Engineering, Math, and Maker Knowledge, Practices, and Inventions
Since January 20, 2017 I’ve been trying to hold on for dear life to that elated sense of progress and hope that swept me off my feet during President Barack Obama’s first inauguration 1. I had just started my first full-time 4th grade teaching gig on 98th and Bancroft in East Oakland, a community highly impacted… Read more »
8 Big Ideas of the Constructionist Learning Lab
One of the challenges that many FabLearn Fellows face is explaining the concept of constructionism to other educators, volunteers, administrators, parents, and even students! Luckily, we have Seymour Papert to the rescue as he faced this exact situation. In 1999, Seymour Papert, the father of educational technology, embarked on his last ambitious institutional research project when… Read more »
“That’s Mad Work Mister”: A Reflection on How to Scaffold Self-Directed Learning
“That’s mad work mister” is a phrase that I hear a lot at the beginning of the school year. At first, I thought that it’s good to challenge my students, even if it leads to frustration, failure and setbacks. I was afraid to do projects that would be perceived as too “babyish”. But when I… Read more »
Cheikh Anta Diop Fablab Academy
Cheikh Anta Diop is one of the most well-known and most brilliant African of the scientific world. He greatly contributed to knowledge on ancient African societies and has long worked for the emergence of science in the educational sector among others. Inspired by his deep commitment, our Fablab Defkoakniep (Do It with everybody), decided to… Read more »
Classroom Teacher Engagement
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for me, as a STEAM specialist, has been the keeping making alive when my students leave the lab. I make a very intentional effort to collaborate with teachers, to learn what students are doing in their regular elementary classrooms and integrate this into lessons and projects in the lab…. Read more »
Arduino training with Master Degree students from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar
As everybody knows, Arduino , the ‘’magic’’ microcontroller board, is one of the most used in the world. With Arduino, it is very practical and easy to introduce prototyping to people without background in electronic and programming. Arduino allows them to learn and prototype their projects right away. In Senegal, some engineering schools have started… Read more »
How do You Feel Working in a Team?
Working in a team makes me feel like I am working at my best because I use to have feelings that I am surrounded by great people (teammates) who can lend me a hand when things get harder and harder, learn new things from them, and share our best practices. Great thanks to Angela who… Read more »