A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a one day workshop here in Hong Kong called “Learning in the Making”. The workshop was run by Brian Smith (ICT Facilitator) and Wendy Smith (STEM Specialist) and hosted at Hong Kong International School where they work. A couple friends of mine who also work at the school had been raving on to me about the amazing projects they have been doing in their classes and forwarded me the intro to the workshop:
Immerse yourself in a day of intense learning as you play, tinker, design, and invent using modern creative technologies. During hands-on sessions you will use MaKey MaKey and Hummingbird robotics as well as interactive programming to create interactive toys, games, stories, music and art using craft materials. No prior experience of robotics or interactive programming is required to participate in this exciting workshop where learning comes alive in your hands! Using the design process you’ll learn to think creatively and computationally, construct your own understanding of interdisciplinary concepts, and realize that the process is just as important as the product.
Pumped by that intro and the Maker Movement in general, I signed up. And man, am I ever happy I went. It was a fantastic day of hands on learning that really got me fired up about tech integration, my job, the year ahead and how cool my COETAIL Course 5 project could have been if this workshop had been held earlier in the year!!
For those of you who are new to the term, the Maker Movement is a technological and creative learning revolution taking place around the globe in K12 education and beyond. It is being driven by new tools and technologies – such as 3D printing, robotics, wearable computing, e-textiles, ‘smart’ materials etc – which are now affordable and easily accessible to educators. The Educational Maker Movement is about utilising these inventions to create an innovative, interdisciplinary, collaborative classroom environment – a classroom in which “making” is happening is one where students are learning through building things.
Or as Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager state in their book, Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom,
3D printers, robotics, programming, wearable computing, and Arduino capture the imaginations of today’s student. When exciting new technologies combine with hands-on traditions, your classroom becomes a maker-space where learning soars.
Using technology to make, repair, or customize the things we need democratizes engineering, design, and computer science. Fortunately for educators, this maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. Making, tinkering, and engineering are how people learn and work in the 21st century.
HKIS is a pretty posh school to be honest. They have all of the fittings one would expect from a top billing international school here in Asia. As it was my first time at the Repulse Bay campus, I found it to be pretty eye-opening. Just walking around the campus and seeing all of the devices, consumables and products they have on hand for students and staff to use was incredible. I must say I was pretty envious of their setup. Classrooms are large and spacious and have lots of open spaces for learning beyond the classroom walls. It’s a great place for Year 3-6 students to extend their learning. And just to top it off, their library has a play slide, swinging chairs and a book nook with bubble windows just for kicks! It was one of those days when I wished I was 8 years old all over again haha.
Here are some (72 slides worth!) of photos from that amazing day…and a great resource for anyone looking for ideas, books, equipment that is out there. Many of the tools we tried out that day I had never heard of before attending…
Throughout the Maker Workshop we explored how students and teachers can create innovative and unique products in their K12 classroom using a mix of readily available technology tools combined with other materials such as cardboard, fabric, buttons, bananas, straws, etc. It was an intensive day of tinkering, making, learning and innovating. It was awesome.
I tried my best to use as many of the devices/tools/equipment that I could get my hands on to get a better feel for what we may spend our IT budget on going forward at ICHK HLY. The Hummingbird / Arduino Duo sounds like a good bet, as do the Little Bits. They were pretty interesting and not too expensive from what I heard. Need to do more research and planning though. One of the best tools I used, if not the best, especially when thinking of the Y3-Y6 students, were the Makey Makeys. Lots of great projects came to mind when using them. Here is a short video that I made to show a couple quick projects that we worked on that day…
Outside of the fantastic learning, the sharing of ideas, the meeting of new people (Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Vietnam, etc) and the growing of my PLN…so many things haha… I enjoyed the DIY activities most because they brought back nostalgic feelings of when I was a boy growing up in Canada. I remember spending time in the garage or out front of the house just tinkering for hours, taking things apart and seeing how ‘stuff’ worked. My dad has always been great with tools and I learned a lot from him over the years about fixing and repairing things at home. I miss those days. Especially now, living in the shoebox of an apartment I call home in HK.
Although we are limited for space at my school, I truly believe in the Maker Movement and bringing that DIY attitude back into my school. Luckily my Principal does as well. One of the items we have planned is to create a ‘Maker Space’ where students can come in, tinker, hack, play and just create new things. I plan to have that up and going by the time the new school year begins. Future plans also include Maker Nights for students and parents once a month to get them working together and seeing the benefits of project-based learning. I would also like to host our own Maker Faire, like an exhibition. What I witnessed going on at HKIS was beyond where I thought other schools were. I was blown away. But also excited for what lies ahead. Of course all of this will take lots of thought, planning and structure. Oh, and MONEY! It will take time to build these activities into curriculum. But I have faith that in a year from now we can get it all sorted out and have a wonderful place for students to extend their learning….like I did on this one day.
I walked out of there a happy camper.
Just last week I bought a 3D printer. The ‘Maker in Me’ is coming out!