Purposeful Making by Lara Heisser
(written by Lara for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Purposeful making allows for students to learn by doing. Teachers create safe and enjoyable spaces for students to learn, integrate and apply skills in a collaborative process, Students are able to ask questions, grapple with problems, create, experiment, receive feedback and design solutions to bigger, meanwhile they are taking ownership of their learning process. Prior to the DPME workshop, I have had no knowledge or experience with maker spaces, but I am so excited to learn more so that I can create more meaningful experiences for my students. I used my time in the DPME workshop to absorb as much information as possible and learn from all of the experienced minds in the room. I just completed my third year teaching high school geometry, where I executed the more traditional approach of teaching isolated skills from a textbook because the standards told me to do so. However, a question that constantly haunts me as an educator is “are my students’ learning experiences valuable?” I cannot answer this question affirmatively because the definition of valuable…or purposeful… is so ambiguous in the eyes of students, teachers, and the school. I have been tasked with the challenge to navigate between meeting the common core state standards and creating spaces for students to make meaning of the skills they’re learning. The DMPE workshop encouraged me to design a geometry unit that integrates computer programming with the course standards congruence and rigid transformations.
Purposeful Making in American History Class by Heather Pang
(written by Heather for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
In my history class a purposeful making experience needs to combine a purpose for the making with a purpose for the historical understanding. Both parts need to be significant, and the combination of the two purposes should be greater than either one together. Historical understanding enhances the making experience, making enhances the historical understanding.
Purposeful Making by Hadiyah Shabazz / As-is :) #TryingIt
(written by Hadiyah for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Purposeful making: this idea is still uncovering itself. currently I am experiencing it as: growth-mindset, keeping it real and honest (checking-in and checking yourself!), how are you building in checking and balancing strategizes and against what standard(s)?, how does it connect, and to what (especially if it is obvious, Call. It. Out.)?, focusing on meaning overall and by various participants (org, team, individual, facilitator), coming back again (reference values/standards often throughout development)
Project: Collectively craft team social media space More
Purposeful Making by Gary Hall
(written by Gary for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Behold! The parents experience maker-centered learning for themselves!
After leading a monthly creativity workshop with the parents of Lighthouse, I saw firsthand how much fun and learning occurred based on all the positive feedback received. Comments from parents such as, “this was really fun”, and “i didn’t think i could do it when i started”, and “now i can relate more with what my kids are experiencing”, and my favorite, “thank you for the boot camp…i found out that i have muscles i didn’t know that i had”.
Purposeful Making by Erin Head
(written by Erin for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
I believe that all making is purposeful. Individuals will rarely take up a making project without there being a need for them to create something or to experience the process of making it. The notion of purposefulness, for me, becomes more muddled as the maker experience moves into a formal school setting. The question then becomes, “Whose purpose?” A project may fulfill the needs of a teacher or the school system, but not the student. Conversely, it may provide a great experience for the student and be purposeful to them, but not be seen as having purpose from the school’s perspective, depending on its values and mission.
Purposeful Making by Dominic Parker
(written by Dominic for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Purposeful making, to me, is making that meets the needs and/or wants of not only myself, or my students, or my school, or our community, but seeks to bring these categories together so that they can become more aware of their interconnectedness. Making can be meaningful to oneself personally, but it can become more meaningful when it helps the person to feel they can exist and contribute within the society around them in a capable and even unique way. This is why building a prototype for one’s own enjoyment can be just as meaningful as working in a team that is doing community outreach. Where the latter may be more explicitly focused outward, the former implicitly may be meaningful in that it allows a person to be present with one’s self, while also honing the skills or ideas that may positively impact one’s relationship with others.
Purposeful Making by Bryan Alvarez
(written by Bryan for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Meaning and purpose are forms of making. Meaning and purpose are created; they are not absolute. Meaningful making to me means “making something that does good in the world,” because that’s how I understand it to be used most often. But the act of making anything, even the act of interpreting something as “being made” assumes a meaning.
This makes sense to me because I have witnessed myself making meaning. I’ve spent time contemplating the act of making meaning and interpreting as it is imposed on my perceptions. That “marker” is a marker to me. I experience my perception of an object and notice myself say “marker” in my head. There’s a distinction there. That’s not a marker. It’s just a marker to me. I’m making the meaning up as I go.
Purposeful Making by Tina Hernandez
(written by Tina for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Statement – What is purposeful or meaningful making? Start with a statement.
Purposeful making drive some deeper understanding toward a stated educational goal.
Journey – How did you arrive at this statement/understanding? What experiences have you had that supported you to get there (at school, in life, etc.)?
If MAKING can be inextricably connected to driving deeper learning, then it will become the cornerstone of academia, because It calls upon us to inspire a love of learning with a set of instructional tools that are easily adopted and applied. If we can point to all of the ways that Making encourages the heart AND cultivates the mind, the path from MAKING as an option to Making as central to learning is clearly charted. More
Purposeful Making by Ed Crandall
(written by Ed for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Statement – What is purposeful or meaningful making? Start with a statement.
Purposeful Making leads students to understanding the design process. They learn to take an idea or problem, find a workable solution and make it real through prototyping, testing, giving and receiving critique from their peers, and improving through several iterations to arrive at a useful item that exists in the real world. They also learn many skills along the way, work with their hands, direct their own learning to a large degree, persist through difficulties and build a community in their class that they trust and help. In many ways this parallels the skills the students will need to be successful when they leave school and enter the workforce in any job requiring collaboration (pretty much anything these days). More
Purposeful Making by Adam Singer
(written by Adam for Designing Purposeful Making Experiences, Jun 2017)
Children inherently love to build and create.. And when students have a their own meaningful connection to their work, feel their ideas are valued and that they are part of a collaborative and trusting class community, students can leverage that joyful love of making for the benefit of affecting positive change, bringing purpose to the deep struggles which come with problem solving.