No one will disagree to the fact that kids have unlimited imagination capacity. We all know that children are creative and have great imagination power and if guided, they can do wonders.
But sometimes, as children grow, they lose their creative desire. Therefore, since beginning we should start engaging them into creative and innovative activities. Embracing the Maker Movement is one of such activity.
Maker Movement has different meaning to different people but fundamentally it refers to ability to create useful products from scratch. Earlier, making advanced products required access and knowledge, and those things were only available to professionals, and not for experiment purpose but that is not the case today. Experimentation and maker movement has become popular among schools and kids with the ease of access and availability of such resources.
Maker Movement and Education Industry
Maker Movement is a creative learning revolution that uses technology. Today, it has vast and exciting implication in the education world, and it is becoming famous among students.
Why is the Maker Movement Important for Academics?
Learning is strongly personal: Learning is always personal and the Maker Movement gives intensely personal learning to every learner, offers endless choice and possibilities about what one may find interesting and love to do. It gives learner chance to learn and do whatever they love to do.
Growth: Crafting from simple to complicated products, learners can know what skills they have developed exactly or what new things they have learnt after each project. Learners may start making something based on pre-made plans that they may have found over the web. But when they develop basic skills and their creativity grows; you will see they can find best solution for difficult problems.
Sense of Belonging: Maker Movements develop sense of belongingness among the students as they work in group and help each other. They feel accepted by their pals and engaged in those activities that interest them as well as their peers a lot.
Self-Efficacy: Educators can build confidence in their students by assigning small and achievable projects. When students see that they can quickly accomplish the projects and make something useful, they start believing in their abilities and hence become self-efficient. Once they fully-develop certain skill, they themselves push beyond their limit to develop new skills.
Relevance: Students understands the relevance of developing certain set of skills, when they see that how educational concepts relate to the real world problems. When they will learn why, they will more likely to embrace learning.
How Higher Education Students involve in Maker Movement is asset to Universities?
- Mostly students leave universities without developing the ability of showcasing what they have learnt. Due to this, sometimes, this leaves a big question mark on the value of the University. If students join Maker Movement and learn how to use their skills with tool and display what they have learnt then it will help both students and college.
- Students involving in Maker Movement take control of their own learning and learn from their own mistakes. Analyzing their own mistakes will help them to become more confident, strong as well as develop practical skills to be successful. Such students are assets for universities.
Popular Maker Movements Tools
There are a number of technology and tools that are involved in this activity.
- Electronics
- 3D printing
- Robotics
- Conductive paint
- Wearable computers
- E-textiles
- Programming
- Raspberry Pi
- Sensors
- Fablabs and makerspaces
- Arduino
Some of the Well-known Student ‘Makers’
George P. Nissen: George Nissen built first trampoline by widening canvas over a steel structure.
Philo Farnsworth: He is the inventor of the television, for which he perceived the basic idea when he was 15. He later (after six year) made a working prototype.
Maker Education Resources
Here is a great list of platforms to learn about maker education.
Make: Major hub for initiating Maker Movement in the classroom.
Maker Faire: An annual festival organised in various locations across the globe bringing tech enthusiast, engineers, scientists and many people into one platform.
Instructables: It’s a place where people can explore, learn and share different projects.
NMC Academy: In this course, educators learn about the importance of Maker Movement as well as its benefit in digital and non-digital world.
Makey Makey: Makey Makey offers kit that enables teachers and students to develop infinite projects.
Minecraft.print: Print minecraft worlds utilising 3D printers.
