The document discusses the intersection of Moodle and the maker movement in STEM education. It provides background on the presenter and outlines the agenda which includes discussing technologies and communities, the maker movement, typical Fab Labs, STEM education approaches, opportunities, and threats. The maker movement is characterized as worldwide, loosely connected communities engaging in digital fabrication and open design. Fab Labs provide tools for designing, making, and learning. STEM education can take class-centered or maker-centered approaches. Opportunities include increased motivation and learning through making, while threats include the need for further development of goals, materials, and teacher expertise.

1. The use of Moodle
in STEM education,
maker spaces and
Fab Labs
Presentation at Moodlemoot
Edinburgh UK, April 2014
Pieter van der Hijden msc
(pvdh@sofos.nl)
Centre of Expertise in Education & ICTs Suriname
www.ecoisonline.org
www.sofos.nl
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2. Background
 Pieter van der Hijden
 Consultant e-learning, Fab Lab, gaming/simulation
 The Netherlands (Sofos) and Suriname (ECOIS)
 The use of Moodle in STEM education, maker spaces
and Fab Labs
 STE(A)M = Science, Technology, Engineering, (Arts),
Mathematics
 Moodle and maker movement have much in
common!
 How about their intersection / cross fertilization?
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Agenda

4. 1. Technologies,
communities and schools
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5. 1. Technologies, communities
and schools
Year Phenomenon Community Assumed impact
on education
1950 Radio /
electronics
Hobby club School events
1970 Personal
computers
Computer
club
Improved learning
thanks to ict
1990 Video games LANfest,
MORPG
Learning through
gaming/simulation
2010 Digital fabrication
tools
Maker
movement,
maker faire
Tinkering as social
constructivist
learning
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6. 2. Maker movement
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7. 2. Maker movement
Hype or trend?
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Gartner: Hype Cycle
for Emerging
Technologies, 2013

8. 2. Maker movement
Characteristics
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 Worldwide
 Loosely connected
 From layman to prof
 Mix of technologies
 Ict in design,
production and
products
 Making, sharing,
learning
 Open design, open
software, open
hardware
Number of Fab Labs
worldwide doubles every 1.5
years, now 250+;
http://bit.ly/1fXPQEm

9. 2. Maker movement
Concepts
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Fab Lab Maker Space TechShop
Origin MIT Center for Bits and
Atoms (Neil Gershenfeld)
Make magazine Commercial
initiative
Inventory Limited set of digital
production machines
Not defined Extended set of
machines & tools
Target
audience
Everybody Everybody Everybody
Legal Independent foundations
or embedded in institutes
Community based Holding with
subsidiaries
Set-up costs 50-100,000 USD 5-20,000 USD 1-2,000,000 USD
Entry fee Free (at some days of
week)
Free Subscription100
USD monthly
Number 250+ Unknown 5
Geographical Worldwide USA, Europe, Asia,
Egypt
USA, plans to go
Europe
Mission Learning, sharing Making (for the
maker faire)
Making/ earning

10. 3. A typical Fab Lab
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11. 3. A typical Fab Lab
What do you see?
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 3D scanner
 3D printer
 Laser cutter
 Milling machine(s)
 Vinyl cutter
 Electronics
 Computers
 Teleconference set
 Etc.
At the top a CNC milling machine
(behind safety glass), in the centre a
3D mobile scanner plus laptop, at
the bottom a laser cutter / engraver.
Source: Fab Lab Paramaribo

12. 3. A typical Fab Lab
What is happening?
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 One time visitors
 Regular visitors,
tinkerers, students
 Special project
teams
 Designing
 Making
Source: Fab Lab Paramaribo

13. 3. A typical Fab Lab
Which role for ICT?
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 Ict in design
 2D & 3D design
software
 Ict in production
 All machines are ict
driven
 Ict in products
 Intelligent products
 Internet of things
 Raspberry Pi
 Arduino
Source: Fab Lab Paramaribo

14. 4. STEM education
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15. 4. STEM education
class centered
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 Classes
 Labs with parallel
groups
 Moodle and science
teaching
 Reflection and
journal
 Math formulas
 Animated molecules
 Dynamic graphs
Packt Publishing: book
cover

16. 4. STEM education
maker centered
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 Outreach activity
 Curriculum activities
 Dedicated projects
 Free assignments
 Moodle
 Backbone for
learning and
knowledge
management
 Component in
intelligent systems!
Constructing modern knowledge
press: book cover

17. 5. Opportunities
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18. 5. Opportunities
for STEM education
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 Motivation
 Learning outcomes
 Social learning
 Learning by making
 Side effects
 Informed citizen
 Economy (more
STEM)
 Meet other disciplines
 Meet the world
 Lab for teachers

19. 5. Opportunities
for Moodle
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 Tradional
 Support learning
 Cheap, easy
 Integrated
 New
 Support designing
 Knowledge
management
 New target groups
 Hot
 Moodle as system
component!
 Datalogging, IO
Raspberry Pi

20. 6. Threats
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21. 6. Threats
for STEM education
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 Still under
development!
 Vision
 goals and outcomes
 Materials
 projects, lesson plans
 Expertise
 facilitating in design
and manufacture
 Infrastructure
 no plug and play
Instructables:
http://bit.ly/1nnX7nx

22. 6. Threats
for Moodle
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 Traditional
 Culture clash
 Hype sensitive
 Reinvent the wheel
 New
 Handicaps
 Mainly text oriented
 No designs
 No data
 Hot
 Competitor may find
the grail

23. 7. Welcome on board
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24. 7. Welcome on board
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 Observations?
 Questions?
 Opinions?

25. References
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26. References
 Digital Fabrication and ‘Making’ in Education: The Democratization of Invention; Paulo
Blikstein; in: In J. Walter-Herrmann & C. Büching (Eds.), FabLabs: Of Machines, Makers and
Inventors; Bielefeld: Transcript Publishers; 2013; http://stanford.io/1cMLRdL
 Fab Lab At School; website; https://tltl.stanford.edu/projects/fablabschool
 Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--from Personal Computers to Personal
Fabrication; Neil Gershenfeld; Basic Books, 2007; http://amzn.to/1fXMb9p
 Four in balance monitor 2013; Kennisnet, The Netherlands, 2013; http://bit.ly/1lLN9hc
 Gartner's 2013 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Maps Out Evolving Relationship
Between Humans and Machines; http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2575515
 Getting Started with Arduino; Massimo Banzi; Maker Media, 2011; http://bit.ly/1i1Bgkk
 Getting Started with Raspberry Pi; Matt Richardson; Maker Media, 2012; http://bit.ly/1i1BtUw
 Instructables; website; http://www.instructables.com
 International Fab Lab Association; website; http://www.fablabinternational.org
 Invent to learn; making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom; Sylvia L. Martinez, Gary
Stager; Constructing Modern Knowledge Press; 2013; http://www.inventtolearn.com/
 Maker space playbook; 2013; http://bit.ly/1lLMMTT
 Making, living, sharing; movie; a Fab Lab world documentary; Jens Dyvik;
http://bit.ly/MZ4Uup
 Science teaching with Moodle 2.0; Vincent L. Stocker; Packt Publishing, Birmingham UK,
2011; http://bit.ly/1lbQ8wm
 Science teaching with Moodle 2.0; Vincent Stocker; Packt Publishing, Birmingham, UK, 2011;
http://bit.ly/1lbQ8wm
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27. Thank you for your attention!
Pieter van der Hijden msc (pvdh@sofos.nl)
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2014 – Pieter van der Hijden (pvdh@sofos.nl) – 2014 - This work is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License.