If you have been teaching in a makerbased setting you probably know that it is a good learning experience. You would also know that there are a variety of challenges that both the teacher and the students meet, when they begin their journey into making. If you haven´t – then I strongly urge you to take on the journey!

This blogpost is about why we should consider these kinds of activities in our classroom, and what outcome you could expect from it. I will focus on the following statements

1. Maker education allows the students to have a deeper learning experience.
2. Maker education allows the teacher to learn along with their students.

First off, it is important to look at your own role as a teacher. On one hand you will be instructing some of the software, tools and machines that are used in a makerspace. This role is familiar to teachers. On the other hand, the students will follow their own ideas and bring them to life, which makes it a meaningful project to the student, but challenges teachers because they are not in control of the outcome. The role is more one of facilitating and guiding the student through their learning experience.

You could give them assignments for projects that are more limited in the possible outcome, thereby controlling that they would need to learn in order to succeed. Let´s say you have a project where you need to apply Pythagoras theorem to solve it. But this is far less engaging and motivating than following an idea or project that is of your own making. On the way from idea to object there are a lot of challenges you will meet, especially when you have not got much experience. If it is a narrow project that you are assigned to do it often ends in a feeling of “this is too difficult for me”. If it is your own project or you have a high degree og influence on what your project will end up with, it is more often a feeling of “I need to get this to work”. And here the students have a way of surprising your and to exceed your expectations.

This does in some way answer the “why should you change your role as teacher”. You will give your students a deeper learning experience, and you learn something along the way as well.

Here are some thoughts and observations I have made along the way. Not a complete list, but bullets for reflection of your own practice and a few tips.

Observations of students

1. Students are used to get assignment that have a correct answer. Making open assignments that are more complex and does not have one correct answer is way more interesting, but also frustrates students because they can not rely on the teacher having solution cut out for them. The world is not based on a text book, and in that sense it prepares the student to be a part of the world outside of school.
   – When you do projects about “the real world” it automatically gets complex.
   – Building something from scratch will give you a lot of challenges along the way.
   – Prompts that are ambiguous will let the student be creative with their solution.
2. Students will not be learning the exact same thing. Every project has its own challenges that calls for different knowledge from a variety of traditional school subjects. It could be mathematical tools that helps them in their work, knowledge about the materials they have chosen, rules from physics they apply, challenges in coding a microcontroller etc. The list could go on. I have met a lot of teachers that believe they should all learn the same things, in order to pass their tests. I believe that the knowledge acquired or constructed through a personal meaningful project is more internalized, and sticks to the memory. And I also think that students in the end of their school life will be able to fill in the gaps they might have. But that is my assertion.
3. I have seen students that don´t do well in a traditional class flourish. In my line of work I have been doing workshops or one day events with groups of students unknown to me. Usually their regular teacher informs me beforehand that one or more students might not behave well or do much work. Those students actually do the opposite, and surprise the teacher in a positive sense. They are the do´ers – they get things done, and they often have the most funny or creative ideas.

Reflections from my own practice

1. In a makerspace you will need to instruct in the use of the machines or learn how to use CAD-software to build something. My experience is, that minimal instruction, show-don´t-tell, combined with student peer-to-peer learning is a good approach. Let us take the vinylcutter as an example.
   I start by having it cut a sticker, weed it, add applikation foil and put the sticker on something in the lab. This can be done in under one minute. And now they known what the output and proces of the machines is. I have seldom met anyone that understood it before they have seen it done. Just telling what it does, does not help.
   Next step is to draw something in the CAD-software (Inkscape is great opensource tool) that will become a sticker. Students work in different tempi, and as soon as a few are finished with a design, I show them how to set up the machine and cut. When the next little group is ready to do their design I will point to the group before them, letting them show their fellow student how to do it. In this way you consolidate their knowledge by teaching it to their peers.
2. Time is one of the main challenges in working with projects in a makerspace. It simply takes a lot of time, and should be allowed to take time.
3. Prior to making larger projects I usually let the students do some narrow projects, to learn the basics of coding, CAD-design or using the machines (CAM). It often gives birth to new and more personal ideas that the student wants to make, which could turn into a bigger and more complex project. This is where you loosen the control and let the class go in different directions alone or in small groups. If they have sufficient experience they can use what they have learned to follow their own ideas. To take control of your own learning process is a powerful lesson that will benefit the student in numerous ways.
4. Whether it is students or adults I teach, I use faded guidance. In the sense that I try to provide only the necessary help, ideally just enough to keep the project in flow. Over time, the help provided by me is lessened according to their achieved knowledge. Important part of this to work is to establish a relation with the student. Knowing when to push and when to hug. Encouraging them to just try to do what they think is the right way, when they are uncertain – else they will tend to seek confirmation from you even though they are 90% sure of what to do. This may be an obvious approach but, I myself, still sometimes fall in the trap and help to much, especially if it is something I can fix in a second – But I am aware of it, and ongoing reflection of your own practice, will help towards becoming a better guide.

As said, this is not a complete list. It gives a few reasons to why you should implement maker education in your life as a teacher. On a closing note I would like to point out some reason I don´t think should be your focus.

Maker education is not meant to evolve every student into a startup company or put out a kickstarter. Fine if they do, but I don´t see it as our goal as a school. My mission is one of enlightenment or Bildung. Understanding the technology that surrounds us and being creative with it. It is also a way of learning about the world, learn about STEM subjects in a hands-on way, practicing the art of wondering and asking questions.