Reading Takeaways

Image credit: Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash

Regalla, L. (2016). Developing a maker mindset. In K. Peppler, E. R. Halverson, & Y. B. Kafai (Eds.), Makeology: Makerspaces as learning environments (Volume 1) (pp. 257–272, Chapter 17). Routledge
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Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital fabrication and “making” in education: The democratization of invention. FabLabs: Of Machines, Makers and Inventors, 1–2.

These readings exemplify how the maker-mindset and Makerspaces/Digital Fabrication Labs offer a more natural approach to learning through play and exploration, and a different approach to teaching through facilitation of self-directed learning. While reading, I was reminded of a class I took during my first semester at TC, called A&H 5195: Experience, Education, and Histories, taught by Professor Thomas James. Our first assignment was to write about a foundational learning experience we had at or before age 7. What I wrote about is distinctly similar to the making processes described in both readings. Below is an excerpt from that assignment:

“Before the age of seven and after, one of my favorite things to do was play with my Polly Pockets. But I didn’t play with them the same way as my other dolls… My Polly Pockets were more like crash test dummies. As soon as I figured out how to tie knots (around four years old) and got my hands on string and tape, I was creating webs of polly pocket ziplines, hammocks, and falling nets. No wall or piece of furniture was safe from my stash of Scotch tape, and my parents often found it impossible to walk through our basement. Eventually, my materials spanned out to include Dixie cups, fabric, plastic, paper, paperclips, kites, rubber bands, helium balloons, water, electric circuitry kits, and my brother’s Hot Wheels tracks and Legos. Ziplines were only step one; I was making swings, trampolines, hot air balloons, parachutes, hang gliders, slides, and jigging my electric circuitry kits to extra batteries to try and get the fan attachment to fly in the air with a poor Polly Pocket taped to its top (I ended up playing doll hospital after some of these experiments).

Initially, a lot of my string, zipline, hammock type creations were to enrich the setting and plots of the stories I was making up, inspired by the animated Barbie movies of the early 2000s. I was obsessed with fairies as a kid and wanted to be one so badly. I would often dream of flying and felt disappointed every time I woke up and realized it was a dream. If I couldn’t fly, I was determined to get my Polly Pockets to. Eventually, my interests evolved into understanding how different objects and forces interact to create movement and how little changes could affect the outcome of one of my experiments. I enjoyed discovering how many paperclips to add to a paper parachute so it would float properly and figuring out how long it would take before different designs would fail at different heights by trying things over and over.

My self led learning was a stark difference to my formal learning experience...”

Like the learners described in the readings, the door to my experimentation was opened by my interests: fairies and Barbie movies. As I kept experimenting, I became more engaged in how things worked, solving problems, and combining materials. And, my seven-year-old self’s natural constructivist way of learning was very different from the type of learning encouraged at school, which led me to struggle. As teachers, how can we work within the systems in place to provide our students with the benefits of Makerspaces and maker mindsets? How should we structure our lessons to meet the requirements while still benefiting students? How do we become facilitators?

Citation:

Bashaw, G. (2024). Experience, Education, and Histories [Unpublished essay]. Department of Arts & Humanities, Teachers College, Columbia University.