Thursday, October 22, 2015

The MIndLab - Session 15 - The Maker Movement and Flexible Learning Spaces

The first part of the session was facilitated by Josh and focussed on 'the maker movement' 


Attributes of the Maker Movement

- usually informal
- collaborative shared learning, shared spaces - sharing resources and sharing ideas and sharing technical knowledge 
- encourages the crossover of ideas that have not always gone together 
- community focus 

BUT - enabling technologies have 

- the internet has created the change 
- free open sourced software - available to all
- open source hardware
- inexpensive tools and components - buy and build something relatovely inexpensively - errors not costly


Communities of Makers 

- Felt and Etsy - online communities of makers 
- Blender - 3D modelling and printing and movie making such as Big Buck Bunny  - these are decentralised design teams only linked by the internet 
- Adafruit - wearable electronics 
- Makerbots - freely downloadable models - print your phone case; light shades etc 

3D Printers 

- undermines economy of scale - to people 
- rapid prototyping and increased speed of conceptual development 
- Fused Definition Modelling (another name for the process) 
- beware of the aroma created by 3D printers
- community of people printing their own printers (rip/rap)
' 3D printers are non negotiable in a technology classroom' 

I'm not a hundred percent sure about the application of these in the senior English class - protoyping seems to be the main usage and I'm guessing as Tam Yuill Proctor discussed at the CETA day, designing settings would be a use, but time consuming....

Learning Spaces - Fortuitously this week we are looking at learning space design.  


Blended Learning Spaces - using a taskboard -

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/CquG2tqV7jgKrg/learning-spaces




Task 5 -

Campfires in Cyberspace - Campfire, Cave, Watering Holes - these look different in cyberspace - for example on Facebook - posts would be the campfire; posts woild be the watering hole; private conversations the cave???
Possible plans???




Task 2 - Rototuna JHS


https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/CquG2tqV7jgKrg/learning-spaces - our groups PMI chart so far ....




Task 8 Provocative statements


'The learning space isn't what's important, it's the pedagogy'
But good spaces do make it easier and better.
Poor spaces are a barrier to good pedagogy.
The learning space enhances the pedagogy.
If you do learning space with no pedagogy = disaster!
Modern learning environments are in our heads
PD and support network essential - don’t dump teachers in a learning space unprepared.
Makeshift MLE is the reality for a lot of schools

What if the pedagogy is great and the space does meet it needs.....


Task 9 and 10 - Design Thinking - discussion notes 

- What do we do with the high achievers? the introverts? the ADHD etc?


- OPTIONS!!!! Need to be flexible, able to adjust to suit needs of different groups of students (across years / time of day)


- Particularly high achievers - more time to devote entirely to these students while others monitor those that need more support, keep


- Safe spaces

- Let’s ask the students and be flexible


The rest of my group/team  are Primary - and this is the design for a Primary space.

We had a long conversation about portable stations - that looked like this - 




What comes first, the pedagogy or the environments?

The cheapest and easiest thing to change is the mindset and the practice. 
Community needs to be aware of what is happening - educating the Community? 
The environment is a catalyst for change - look at the numbers who are applying for jobs in the 'new build' schools. 

It's up to the SLT to design the change management plan for the process - each school has different constraints. The design of the building is perhaps the easiest part of the process - it's the teachers

The change management process begins and ends with what effective learning looks like. Your space becomes an embodiment of the learning theory that you relate to. 

What change management process is in place in order for them to function in a new environment?

Tonight's session was very much focussed us on working as a group on a series of collaborative tasks. Enjoyed working with the Thursday night group.






No comments:

Post a Comment