I recently came across a book published in 1968 entitled “How to Build a Working Digital Computer” by Edward Alcosser, James P. Phillips, and Allen M. Wolk. Believers in the “learn by doing” philosophy, they show how to construct such a computer using “simple inexpensive components usually found around the house or in a neighborhood…
The CARDIAC Instructable presented here is not a computer, it’s a device to help you understand how a computer works. You the user will: decode instructions by sliding panels up and down, move the program counter “lady bug” from one memory location to the next, perform the duties of an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), read…
Attend a Maker Faire is part 10 of 13 Ways Teachers Can Hack Their Learning. Last year we were in Detroit for a family vacation. One of our planned stops was the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. As we were driving to the museum, we noticed how busy it was which seemed odd. And then,…
When the visual and performing arts, the musical and recording arts, and the theatrical and graphical arts are seen as mere luxuries or add-ons within the walls of a school, powerful forces are thereby prevented from transforming routine schooling into a renaissance of learning.But who has the time or the funding to allow that to…
Excitement about school makerspaces has been in the air, but many educators eager to create hands-on learning spaces in their schools still aren’t sure how to get started or why it’s worth the effort. New Canaan High School librarian Michelle Luhtala recently jumped headfirst into creating a makerspace in her library and documented what she…
ⓔ Use Google Photos for managing your classroom photos How Google Photos can be used in your classroom. Teen’s Snapchat school bathroom prank is criminal behavior, court rules A warning for not just Snapchat users, but for anyone who posts things publically. Cardboard Challenges: No Tech/Low Cost Maker Education | User Generated Education Great low…
I believe in the importance of participating in ongoing and continuous reflective practice as an educator. This is my reflection on my Cardboard Challenges Maker Education Camp that was taught to twelve 5 to 10 year old learners for five days, 2.5 hours each morning. My Cardboard Challenges webpage of ideas can be found at http://www.makereducation.com/cardboard-challenge.html….
Media specialist Samantha Edwards wants noise in her library—and she hears it.Last fall, Edwards, the librarian at Fogelsville Elementary School in Parkland School District in Pennsylvania, opened a modest self-publishing center in the library outfitted with an iMac, a printer and a machine to bind books. She noticed how excited her students were to create…
At the heart of making is the idea that all students are creators, and hands-on learning plays a key role in maker education. Source: Why Making Is Essential to Learning It’s funny to me the popularity of the maker movement. I grew up on a farm, and as such, have always experienced the maker movement.
Despite all the press makerspaces receive, not all are successful. Oftentimes when schools create makerspaces, excitement builds for the first few weeks as students create and explore. But as time passes, students lose interest, and the makerspaces languish silently, gathering dust. The tools that filled those makerspaces — big and small, expensive and reused, high-tech…