ENG 5 Q4 WEEk 1 DAY 1 Restate sentences heard in one’s own words. Use appropr...
Hands-On Learning: The role of Maker Culture in Innovative Pedagogy
1. Hands-On Learning
The Role of Maker Culture in Innovative Pedagogy
Will Engle
Strategist, Open Education Initiatives
Centre for Teaching and Learning, UBC
Erin Fields
Liaison Librarian and Flexible Learning Coordinator
UBC Library
2. ed-tech, so one argument goes, will make education
more efficient, more scalable, more personalized. It
will liberate students from those terrible large lecture
halls… by videotaping the lectures and putting them
on the Internet….
The ed-tech that fuels maker [culture] does
something different. It recognizes that learning is
messy. It recognizes that small and local still
matters…[It] is personal learning.
Audrey Watters
“
5. Thinking is often regarded both in philosophic theory and in
educational practice as something cut off from experience, and
capable of being cultivated in isolation. In fact, the inherent
limitations of experience are often urged as the sufficient ground
for attention to thinking.
John Dewey
“
6. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to
facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the
present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the
practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal
critically and creatively with reality and discover how to
participate in the transformation of their world.
Paulo Freire
“
7. Construction that takes place "in the head" often
happens especially felicitously when it's supported
by construction of a more public sort "in the world" -
a sand castle or a cake, a Lego house or a
corporation, a computer program, a poem, or a
theory of the universe.
Seymour Papert
“
8. Research-engaged teaching involves more research and
research-like activities at the core of the undergraduate
curriculum.
….emphasises the role of the student as collaborators in the
production of knowledge. The capacity for Student as
Producer is grounded in the human attributes of creativity and
desire, so that students can recognise themselves in a world
of their own design.
Mike Neary
“
9. In the end, an essay or an exam is an instance of
busywork: usually written in haste; for one particular
reader, the professor; and thereafter discarded.
Jon Beasley-Murray“
10. Inputs:
•Learners work on problems that haven’t been fully solved or questions that
haven’t been fully answered.
•Learners share their work with others, not just their instructor.
•Learners are given a degree of autonomy in their work.
Derek Bruff
11. The teacher does not function as the primary source
of knowledge in the classroom. Instead, the professor
is viewed as a facilitator or ― coach who assists
students who are seen as the primary architects of
their learning.
Michael Moscolo
“
12. Teachers are a catalyst or helper to students who
establish and enforce their own rules … (they)
respond to student work through neutral feedback and
encourage students to provide alternative/additional
responses… (they) ask mostly divergent questions
and few recall questions.
Hancock, Bray and Nason (2003)
“
13. Inputs:
•Instructors facilitate learning through interaction with novice learner
•Instructors bridge the learning gap through scaffolding
•Instructors provide space for public dialogue and social interaction over the
learning that has occurred
14. Activity 1
What are the challenges/barriers to such an approach?
What impact do you think this shift has on learning outcomes?
15. UBC Case Studies
● Math students create a sharable, reusable
resource
● Educators create a DIY Media Community to
support creation of media rich learning
● Librarian students create Readers’ Advisory
Machine
● Physics students create learning resources for
the course curriculum
16. Activity 2
Write a summary of an academic article.
Write a 12 page paper using archival material on the BC Gold Rush.
1. What resources are needed?
2. How does this shift change the nature of the activity/assignment?
3. How do you assess the activity?
17. Educational practices that we know work well: small
group discussion, collaboration, participatory, project-
based, and peer-to-peer learning, experimentation,
inquiry, curiosity, play.
Audrey Watters
“
Hinweis der Redaktion
Maker culture encourages informal, shared social learning focused on the construction of artefacts ...It emphasises experimentation, innovation, and
the testing of theory through practical, self-directed tasks. It is characterised by playful learning and encourages both the acceptance of risk taking (learning by making mistakes) and rapid iterative development. Feedback is provided through immediate testing, personal reflection, and peer validation. Learning
s supported via informal mentoring and progression through a community of practice. --Open University 2013 Innovative Pedagogy Report
Maker culture encourages informal, shared social learning focused on the construction of artefacts ...It emphasises experimentation, innovation, and
the testing of theory through practical, self-directed tasks. It is characterised by playful learning and encourages both the acceptance of risk taking (learning by making mistakes) and rapid iterative development. Feedback is provided through immediate testing, personal reflection, and peer validation. Learning
s supported via informal mentoring and progression through a community of practice.
the idea of making does have support in educational theory
specifically experiential learning, critical pedagogy, constructivist theory and constructionism
We aren’t going to get into the complexities of these theoretical positions today and forgive me if I over simplify but I will very briefly outline these perspectives to situate our later discussion on student as producer and instructor as facilitator
Experiential learning, originating from John Dewey & Piaget, is the notion that education should is connected to real-world objects and experiences
And essentially that students will learn through direct experience, learning and experience cannot be separated or isolated
This approach is in direct opposition to the idea of learning through rote and focuses on the experience and relationship between the teacher and student and how teachers facilitate the process of learning through student exploration, action, and experimentation
Critical pedagogy, with theorists like Paulo Frerie, build off of this notion by expanding the idea that education should be meaningful but also that curriculum should connect to the local culture
Further to this is the idea that education should empower learners to move from what is real or known to what is possible (thinking outside of predefined answers - structure of scientific revolutions)
and to support the development of alternatives to a variety of “problems” and that these problems should be meaningful to the community itself
·
constructionism relies on constructivist educational theory but focuses more on method and practice
Constructivism, the cognitive theory, was invented by Jean Piaget
His idea was that knowledge is constructed by the learner
Again, against that idea of rote learning
Learner must consciously think about trying to derive meaning, and through that effort, meaning is constructed
Constructionism is a theory of Seymour Papert, student of Piaget
his notion is the learning appropriately occurs when constructing something that will be viewed and discussed publicly
believes that students will be more deeply involved in their learning if they are constructing something that others will see, critique, and perhaps use
Through that construction, students will face complex issues, and they will make the effort to problem-solve and learn because they are motivated by the construction itself
Student as Producer is a development of the University of Lincoln’s policy of research-informed teaching to research-engaged teaching. Research-engaged teaching involves more research and research-like activities at the core of the undergraduate curriculum… ….emphasises the role of the student as collaborators in the production of knowledge. The capacity for Student as Producer is grounded in the human attributes of creativity and desire, so that students can recognise themselves in a world of their own design.
in this way students become part of the academic project of the University and collaborators with academics in the production of knowledge and meaning.
Dean of Teaching and Learning, University of NebraskaLincoln
Neary) argues students should move from being the object of the educational process to its subject. Students should not be merely consumers of knowledge but producers, engaged in meaningful, generative work alongside the university’s faculty.
Wiley -
disposible assignments that add no value to the world – after a student spends three hours creating it, a teacher spends 30 minutes grading it, and then the student throws it away. Not only do these assignments add no value to the world, they actually suck value out of the world. What if we changed these “disposable assignments” into activities which actually added value to the world?