Making as Learning

Education
Making as Learning

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If you didn’t catch today’s live hangout on air with Dale Dougherty and AnnMarie Thomas you missed a good one. The conversation was about “making as learning” and how educators, parents, and communities can cultivate making and the educational opportunities it offers for young makers. Dale and AnnMarie (executive director of the Maker Education Initiative) were joined by Pittsburg (Calif.) High School computer and robotics teacher Andreas Kaiser and inspiring teachers and mentors from the Da Vinci Center in Stockton, Calif.

One the more interesting parts of the conversation focused on the value of “failure.” In the classroom, failure is a bad grade or a sign of, well, failure. But to a maker, failure is part of learning and is to be welcomed for the insights it offers.

“Part of making is creating this narrative about yourself and what you are able to do,” Dale said.  “Making is really giving (students) opportunities to develop and do things often when the traditional school system has told them they’re losers and can’t do things. They (can) connect and are able to understand their own capabilities and skills.”

Have a look. It’s an inspiring 40-mintue conversation about reinventing (or rediscovering) education.

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Stett Holbrook is editor of the Bohemian, an alternative weekly in Santa Rosa, California. He is a former senior editor at Maker Media.

He is also the co-creator of Food Forward, a documentary TV series for PBS about the innovators and pioneers changing our food system.

View more articles by Stett Holbrook
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