Thanks all for a great discussion last night at Collab Lab 6 (actually, a bunch of great discussions). To recap, we framed the conversation around three questions:

• What can your makerspace/FabLab offer teachers?
• What problems does this solve for them?
• What keeps them from taking advantage of it/how might those issues be addressed?

Here’s what we noted:

What can your makerspace/FabLab offer teachers?

Group 1

• “Blood in the mouth” how do you get teachers really excited about the possibilities?
• Take content & make it physical
• Get students to go beyond their textbook
• Learning to play → playing to learn
• Relevance, rigor, application
• Practicing Failure
• Space designed to fit needs
• Can become epicenter – pivotal point
• Authentic, relevant problems to solve
• Bring content back to experiment

Group 2

• Additional capacities to help kids express ideas
• Expands the pallet of tools & opportunities for teachers
• Limited understanding of what it is
  • Ideas → ideas II → ideas III
• Safe place
• Capture & share stories of success
• Show different ways of learning
• Develop and share culture of makerspace
• Set up to enable students pursuing passion → no mandatory activities

Group 3

• Tools for:
  • artists to make art;
  • business classes to make a product
  • community service projects to make something useful
• Hands on professional development for PBL
• Support for elementary school
  • South Milwaukee: elementary school students working on symmetry design snowflakes.  Students are then paired with high schooler who helps them 3D print their designs.
• Ad hoc opportunities to put something together
• Attractive for students
• It acts as a “send kids here to do that” space/ a place that allows groups of students to take on work that isn’t done easily inside a classroom
• Provides crafting opportunities for teachers (who are then better able to generate ideas for how they could leverage the space for student projects)
• Real world relevance
• Provides a platform to do different (from traditional lessons) things
• Provides a chance for students and teachers to bump into something new/exposure
• Helps produce a change in mindset/change of pace
• Provides a way to engage kids in a different way
• Provides opportunities for kids to interact with students that would interact with elsewhere in the school
• Provides application/support to teachers
• Is able to draw funding and resources to the school
• Provides flexible space
• Becomes the place to address 21st century skills development
• Makerspace lead handles prep for projects (so teachers do not)
• The equipment is maintained and ready to go
• It a fun space
• It produces engaged kids

What problems does that solve for them?

Group 1

• Amature meets expert
  • Promotes mentorship
• Redefines learning process
  • Who are the learning for?
  • Learning how to learn

Group 2

• A way to develop empathy
• Instill a mentality/culture
  • Ideation
  • inquiry
• Invest in professional development
  • Teachers are professionals
  • Lifelong learning
• Incrementalism

Group 3

• A way to meet requirements for PBL/development of 21st century skills
• A new point of entry/cheap way to start with PBL
• Allows teachers to break out of silos
• Can attract outside funding which reduces pressure from budget constraints
• Costs of space can be shared across multiple departments
• Remove overhead from teachers (makerspace lead puts together projects and materials)
• Teachers aren’t sure what they could do, makerspace lead can help frame projects
• Shows teachers a path into PBL
• The teacher does not need to know everything– they can rely on tech staff/students to help with equipment
• It’s a way into learning (as opposed to educating)
• Test scores improve among kids engaged in problem solving
• Produces engaged students
• Provides a change of pace
• Provides an opportunity to model creative thinking/problem solving
• Provides both teachers and students a safe place to fail
• Teaches teachers 21st skills
• Having a tech lead that can set up projects reduces stress/risk for teachers that want to take on PBL

What keeps them from taking advantage of it?

Group 1

• Must provide learning outcomes/goals/assessment
• Needs continued reward
• Broken 3D printers
• Who started it???
• Incorrect definition of “maker”
  • Creative Space
  • Genius Bar
• Not knowing what can be done
• Fear
• Needs a facilitator
• Permission from administration
• Parents

What would help address these issues?

• After school volunteer club for teachers
• Customer discovery
• Sleeper agents → referrals
• Having an Idea person that helps connect teachers (Librarian)

Group 2

• Competing priorities
• Lack of culture to stimulate risk taking
  • What is “risk” taking
• Lack of technical skills
• Early vs late adopters
• Lack of development of “grit”
• System promotes end-point learning
• Focus on experiences, not on “things”
• If you can see it you will want to use it
• Absence of design drivers (shared)
  • Visitation later in the design experience.

Group 3

• Teachers need hands on professional development
• Feels risky
• Lack of control
• Funding
• ROI on time
• Teachers aren’t sure what they can give up to fit something new into schedule
• Change is seen as a threat
• Change is seen as “We’ve seen new ideas before, this too will go just like the rest of them”
• Focus on equipment
• Mentors don’t know how to work with kids — kids have kid issues
• Focus on learning to use the equipment (technical skills) rather than an opportunity to learn in a different way
• Self selection to participate is missing from school makerspaces, which makes it more difficult for the space to become self regulating
• I already have my lesson plans set and they work for me.  Why would I want to give that up to try something new.

What would help address these issues?

• Visibility of student work
• Visible credit given to donors of equipment (so it is not viewed as cutting into the school budget)
• Shift resources from equipment acquisition to developing the mindset of teachers
• Staffing — endowed mentor/tech position
• Mentors — Lead off with small doses so they have time to figure how to work with kids
• Figure out how to allow users of the space to come and go on an ad hoc basis (after school?)
• Shift the mindset of funders from equipment to professional development