The Maker Movement...what exactly is it?
To put it simply, 'The Maker Movement' is a do-it-yourself culture that welcomes creativity, innovation and experimentation. Traditionally speaking, people have spent decades of buying things off the shelves - the consumer culture of the past. Contending to this, 'The Maker Movement' embraces the idea of creating something for oneself instead - becoming more than just consumers (Papavlasopoulou et al., 2017). This movement has spread through society like wildfire, inviting individuals to create a community of interconnectedness, sharing their creations through events like the Maker Faire.
How does this benefit students?
The Maker Movement correlates precisely with what we call 'Constructionism' - building new things and constructing their own knowledge. Some of the key pursuits which spark interest in maker culture includes electronics, robotics, 3D printing, and computer numerical control tools, and even the more traditional sewing, or arts and craft (Dougherty, 2012). Due to the collaborative nature of this culture, students worldwide benefit from these learning environments as they deal with creative tasks first-hand and go through trial and error - individually or together with others.
A digital tool which enables the maker culture is Tinkercad Circuits as it allows students to create their own circuits with ready-made tools, and can further click the 'start simulation' button to turn their creations into reality. It is essentially a free web app that allows a variety of 3D design and printing, electronics, circuit making and coding. Have a look at the video below to have a gist of what this app can do.
Original video - building a light circuit cc: Angelina Cho
For those who voice unfamiliarity to technology and need further guidance, Tinkercad circuits provides a list of resources which offers tutorials on different types of circuits that can be made (refer to Fig.1).
Figure 1: Tinkercad learning centre (cc: Angelina Cho - original image)
How can I implement the use of this tool into my classroom?
Tinkercad allows teachers to create a classroom where students can join a class and create their projects which will be visible to their peers. In this way, students can gain ideas or insights from others, build together, and learn from each other. Additionally, Tinkercad circuits can be implemented in various classroom lessons and tasks. For example, in Science, students can create a plethora of circuits depending on the topic of interest, like my example of the light bulb circuit (see original video). However, a pro-tip to teachers would be to plan out lessons carefully and learn the circuit-making thoroughly prior, to avoid confusion and distraction to the class.
Now that you have an idea of how digital tools like Tinkercad Circuits can involve itself in the maker culture, grab your toolkits and start planning!
References
Browder, R. E., Aldrich, H. E., & Bradley, S. W. (2019). The Emergence of the Maker Movement: Implications for Entrepreneurship Research, 34(3), 459–4776.
Dougherty, D. (n.d.). The Maker Movement, 7(3). Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/6/article/499244/summary.
Papavlasopoulou, S., Giannakos, M. N., & Jaccheri, L. (2017). Empirical Studies on the Maker Movement, a Promising Approach to Learning: A Literature Review, 18, 57–78. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952116300301? casa_token=3-NhIU80KssAAAAA:9PwakJVoxqGhMtCmfjJCCeLNpDjDsAJ3hjC- 19SJJvY01qUFArKkf7nVOP-XRLuEsPzFNbqi.
Valente, J. A., & Blikstein, P. (n.d.). Maker Education: Where Is the Knowledge Construction?
,14(3), 252–262. Retrieved from https://constructivist.info/14/3/252.
Comments