Active Learning

Come See @drchuck and Me at the Chicago Public Library on Saturday!

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

My colleague and mentor Chuck Severance and I pop in and out of each others’ offices all the time. He’s a programming and learning prof; I focus on learning and libraries. We wrote a book for kids together. We did a Booklist webinar together. But we’ve never given a talk together.

Until now … (insert theme music)

Chuck and I are excited to be hitting the road this weekend as a vaudeville duo (errr, two university folks) at the Chicago Public Library.

On Saturday, December 7, from 10am-noon at the Harold Washington Library (home of YouMedia and MakerLab) and from 2:30 – 4:30pm at the Oriole Park branch, we’ll talking about the maker movement and why it matters beyond today’s fad.

We’re planning a light-hearted conversation that, like our office chats, begins with two of us and often ends up roping in others who pass by.

We hope you’ll join us! Click the screenshots below to access the details on the Chicago Public Library site.

Can’t wait …

Maker Spaces and the Maker Movement – Events and Programs – Chicago Public Library via kwout

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Maker Spaces and the Maker Movement – Events and Programs – Chicago Public Library via kwout

Posted in Makerspaces/Hackerspaces, Presentations | Comments Off

Big Data, Accountability, and Schools

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Alberto G.

From Valerie Strauss’s The Answer Sheet comes the blog post “Six principles for using data to hold people accountable” by guest bloggers and researchers Andy Hargreaves and Henry Braun. An excerpt:

[Data-driven Improvement and Accountability, or DDIA] is, in itself, neither good nor bad. It all depends on how the data are defined and used. When DDIA is done thoughtfully, with due respect to the strengths and limitations of the data, it provides educators with valuable feedback on their students’ progress and difficulties that can inform decision-making and even lead to changes in practice. It can also give parents and the public meaningful information about student learning and the quality of the education that students are receiving.

In high-performing educational systems, businesses and sports teams, DDIA systems are based on data that are valid, balanced, usable, stable and shared. But in the United States, up until now, these are not the typical characteristics of DDIA, with the result that DDIA has generally impeded improvement and undermined accountability.

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Be the drivers, not the driven, so that statistical and other kinds of formal evidence complement and inform educators’ knowledge and wisdom concerning their students and their own professional practice, rather than undermining or replacing them. Post-Moneyball, we are learning that coaches’ intuition and judgment still matter alongside the numerical data. This is surely true for teachers as well.

Keep in mind that not all data is quantitative and that data without human analysis lacks meaning … so … who out there feels ready to tackle PD on data interpretation?

Jaron Lanier on Digital Passivity {a cautionary tale on tablets, privacy, agency}

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Alan Cleaver

Jaron Lanier writes (and I’ve bolded my favorite phrases):

I fear that 2013 will be remembered as a tragic and dark year in the digital universe … It was the year in which tablets became ubiquitous and advanced gadgets like 3-D printers and wearable interfaces emerged as pop phenomena; all great fun …

But 2013 was also the year in which we became aware of the corner we’ve backed ourselves into. We learned … how much our gadgets and our digital networks are being used to spy on us by ultra-powerful, remote organizations. We are being dissected more than we dissect…

Back at the dawn of personal computing, the idealistic notion that drove most of us was that computers were tools for leveraging human intelligence to ever-greater achievement and fulfillment…

But tablets do something unforeseen: They enforce a new power structure. Unlike a personal computer, a tablet runs only programs and applications approved by a central commercial authority. You control the data you enter into a PC, while data entered into a tablet is often managed by someone else…

I am not sure who is to blame for our digital passivity. Did we give up on ourselves too easily? …

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One can argue that network technology enhances democracy because it makes it possible, for example, to tweet your protests. But complaining is not yet success.Social media didn’t create jobs for young people in Cairo during the Arab Spring…

When you carry around a smartphone with a GPS and camera and constantly pipe data to a computer owned by a corporation paid by advertisers to manipulate you, you are less free…

The rise of this consumer-surveillance economy is the uncomfortable and ironic backdrop to the outrage about the N.S.A. snooping. We feel violated. We don’t know who has been reading our most tender emails. But why then were we pouring all our personal information into remote corporations to begin with? …

Citizens in the information age have to learn to be more than just consumers; they have to learn to be a match for their own inventions.

Read the complete essay here and ponder what the implications are for schools betting big money on tablet-based computing. What are we training students to do when it comes to privacy and agency? What are our plans for avoiding the commoditization of students?

Posted in Big Data, Data | Comments Off

Kinematic: 4D Modeling with Free App

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

Via Design Milk:

Kinematics from Nervous System on Vimeo.

The video above shows experiments using hinged units in various sizes and configurations that permit large items (like a dress — I can just hear my mother saying, “You need a slip”) to be printed in the small space of a 3D printer’s build plate. Looks like some of the more elaborate designs are available for purchase only, but I can’t wait for the end of the term so I have a few more minutes to play with the free app to modify a bracelet.

As someone who comes to making from (among other things) a lifelong background in sewing and costuming, I’m very interested in playing with 3D-printed jewelry designs as something some of our middle-grade makers would see as a personally-resonant reason for needing to 3D print (one can only print so many cute animal figurines). I’m very curious to know more about print time and whether or not this is a viable option for Michigan Makers.
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Kinematics web site

Kinematics browser-based “app” with free .stl download (bracelet design only)

Anybody tried this yet?

Posted in 3D Printing, Makerspaces/Hackerspaces | Comments Off

Holiday Gifts for Maker Kids

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

Cross-posted from the MakerBridge blog …

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Kenny Louie

Ah, ’tis the season for Black Friday, when shoppers invade big box stores looking for gifts. But what should you buy for the maker kids on your list? That’s a question we’ve fielded a few times recently. Here are some of my favorites:

Free

Coupon Books – create a set of coupons that kids can “redeem” for trips to the library’s how-to section, the recycling center for discarded building materials, or their local makerspace. Free.

Under $10

Dollar Tree’s LED collection – We’re big fans of LED lights at Michigan Makers; in fact, our post-Thanksgiving Project Runway-inspired challenge asks students to refashion an item of upcycled clothing and toss in a $1 strand of battery-operated LED lights. For us, this is a cost-effective way of starting kids down the path of e-textiles. A simple strand of lights means no soldering, and we’ve learned they look great around a hoodie, along cuffs, in a hat, or on a skirt. At the same time, this low-cost approach also introduces some less-than-ideal constraints, like having one’s design constricted to ten bulbs and a bulky battery pack gives students the chance to think through alternatives and to be motivated to explore e-textile tools like EL wire, LilyPad Arduino, etc. So take a look at the light strands at Dollar Tree, as well as batteries, LED flashlights, night lights, and other toys you can mod for a quick holiday activity. Order online or visit a store. Dollar Tree, $1 each.

Origami Paper – We often start our maker year with origami. It gets makers sitting around the table instead of staring at screens, and kids are always eager to hear about it. Dick Blick, $2.69.

Helping Hands with Magnifier – When kids are soldering or doing other intricate work, it can be hard (or even unsafe) for them to hold an object with one hand and a tool in the other. Helping Hands’ alligator clips hold the project for the kid, freeing up both hands to work safely. Adafruit, $6.

My Create stop-motion animation app – Explore time-lapse photography and stop-motion animation with the support of this iOS app. Includes “onion-skinning,” which lets you see a faint shadow of your previous photo so you can smoothly transition to your next shot. Take a look at some of our starter animations! iTunes, $4.99.

IKEA DEKA curtain wire with hooks – Hang up your sketches and creations! IKEA, $6.99.

Craftsman Tool Bag – Because makers need to be organized when it comes to their tools! Sears, reg. $9.99, sale $4.99.

Chalkboard paint – Convert a wall into a maker’s invention board. Home Depot, $9.67.

Thrift Shop Gift Certificates – Some kids just like making stuff out of junk — or taking it apart. For $10 or so, your maker kid can pick up an old VCR to take apart, a lamp to rewire, a wooden box to ModPodge, or secondhand clothes to refashion. Merely browsing the aisles will fire up their imagination!

Other under-$10 items – Screwdrivers (all sizes, all kinds, including those with weird tips for taking apart dead electronics), pliers, measuring tapes, colored pencils, paint, paintbrushes, knitting/crochet needles, embroidery floss, LED bulbs, coin batteries and holders, hand-sewing needles, scrap fabric and felt, yarn, fleece scraps, ribbons, buttons, cardstock paper, scissors with specialty blades, sketch books or composition notebooks for drawing ideas and capturing learning, conductive thread to stich onto glove fingers

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Under $20

Cherry Lake Publishing’s Makers as Innovators series – Short, 32-page, kid-friendly introductions to Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Game Design, Digital Badges, e-Textiles, Makerspaces, Maker Faire, and 3D Printing. (I’m biased, as I wrote for and edited this series, but we wrote it precisely because we had a hard time finding kid-friendly materials ourselves.) Click on a specific title and “read excerpt” to preview them. Cherry Lake Publishing, $9.95 paperback / $19.95 library binding.

Super Scratch Programming Adventure! – Scratch, MIT’s puzzle-piece oriented game and animation software, is a great way to introduce kids to object-oriented programming. Some kids just like to delve in and putter; for those kids, you don’t need a Scratch manual. But some kids prefer to work systematically through exercises. For those kids, Super Scratch is great. With a library of pre-made graphics, kids can focus on what they’re doing, not how they’re making it. This new version focuses on the web-based version of the tool. Amazon, $18.13.

Digital Photo Frame – Document what your family is making and show it off with a digital photo frame. Best Buy, regularly $59.99, sale $19.99.

Builder’s Paper / Butcher Paper – Cover work tables, make big brainstorming posters, do oversized origami, or paint a mural with large rolls of paper. It is often cheaper to buy this at a hardware store ( where it may be known as “builder’s paper”) than at an office supply store (where it is more likely to be called butcher or Kraft paper). Home Depot, $10.97.

Other under-$20 items: a bunch of PVC pipe and a PVC pipe cutter for quick assembly, a box of bottle caps, leftover playing cards, plastic animals, etc., for designing board games or other toys, surge protectors, a white board for sketching inventions, batteries in bulk, photo paper

Under $50

MintyBoost USB Cell Phone Charger – A beginner’s introduction to the Arduino microcontroller, this device will recharge your cell phone. MakerShed.com, $26.24

ELENCO Snap Circuits Snaptricity – Our makers (grades 4 – 8) like to experiment with electricty, and these are a safe way to get them started. Snap Circuits components snap together with no exposed wires or risk. And for students who like structure, their kits come with books of ideas for configuring them. (Those kids who like free-form play can just ignore the manual, but we see both types of kids in our maker sites.) Prices vary widely depending on the size and complexity of kits, but this one is budget-friendly. Target, $27.99.

Python for Kids: A Playful Approach to Programming – one of our maker mentors raves about this book’s approachable introduction to the Python programming language. Nicola’s Books, $34.95.

Raspberry Pi – At $35, this is a low-cost, fully functioning computer. If you buy one, keep in mind you’ll also need a monitor or TV, keyboard, mouse, cords and cables, and an SD card, which will raise the total price. Newark.com, $35.

Other under-$50 items: extension cords, a coupon that can be exchanged for admission to an upcoming Maker Faire, multimeter, LEGO kits

Splurge Purchases

WeMo Home Automation components – Control your house’s lights and power up your appliances via your iPhone! Belkin, $49.99+.

Little Bits/Korg Synthesizer Kit – This limited edition kit lets your kids assemble their own electronic instruments. Check out the video! LittleBits.cc, $159.

Makey Makey – Ever wanted to turn play dough into a game controller? A banana into a piano? Makey Makey gives kids the interface to turn household objects into controllers. ThinkGeek, $59.99

Other splurge items: tool chest, storage cabinet, makerspace membership, classes, summer maker camp fees, easel, sewing machine, digital camera

What’s on your makers’ list?

– Kristin

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AASL 2013: Confronting the Data Dragon

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Ron Mader

Good morning, AASL! Debbie Abilock and I are presenting this morning on the Big Data movement and its opportunities and implications for librarians.

You can download the slides here to follow along.

Abstract from the AASL Conference Schedule:

Confronting the Data Dragon: Helping Students Become Data Savvy (S1-R17)

The digital world gives scientists, politicians, educators, policy makers, citizens, and students unprecedented access to raw data. But access is not knowledge, and display is not understanding. Making sense of data requires multiple literacies—but many school librarians are novices at evaluating and using data. As a group, attendees will engage in ways to process, mashup, chunk, and visualize data, taming the dragon!

Presenter(s):
Kristin Fontichiaro, Clinical Assistant Professor
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Strand:
Teaching & Learning – Information Literacy

Target Audience:
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Grade Level(s):
Middle/Junior; High

Check out Venn Librarian’s summary of the talk here.

Posted in Big Data, Presentations, Research | 1 Comment

Quotable: Neil Gaiman on imagination and mistakes

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

From CNN.com:

“The imagination – it’s a muscle,” [Neil Gaiman] told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday. “It’s a really important thing. If you want to build the future, if you want to create a literate generation, if you want to create a generation that is not criminal.”

Gaiman says that libraries … are a critical wellspring for imagination…

Of course, imagination is not just about finding new books at the local library…

“[Reading aloud] tells children that they can go into these books, into these forests of words,” Gaiman said. “They can take these 26 symbols and a handful of punctuation marks and build them into stories themselves.” …

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For too many young artists he meets, he told Amanpour, the fear of mistakes is paralyzing.

“They’re sure it has to be perfect; and that terror of trying to be perfect stops them doing anything.”

“What I try and tell people is use your mistakes,” Gaiman said. “Treasure your mistakes.”

Gorgeous advice about what “mistakes demonstrate” and good advice for our makers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Maker Movement Manifesto, The Power of Crochet, and Makerspace as Project Runway

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

maker movement manifesto book cover by mark hatch

ISBN-13 978-0071821124

I’m reading The Maker Movement Manifesto by Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, to get more insight and ideas about how we can best leverage our two pop-up school-based makerspaces. (You can read the entire first chapter here.) Early in those first pages, he identifies his manifesto in short form:

Make.

Share.

Give.

Learn.

Tool Up.

Play.

Participate.

Support.

Each of these ideas is supported by a paragraph of explanation (again, see the link above), and then the book goes on to discuss each in greater depth.

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I mention the manifesto because thinking about one’s makerspace beliefs is really important work. Many people know that I get impatient when people ask, “What should we buy?” That’s a natural question, but I’m not sure it’s the right question as one is envisioning a makerspace, especially one attached to a school or library.

I believe the better first questions for aspiring makerspaces/makers are, “Why are we doing this? Who do we want to reach? What do we want them to get out of this? How much money do we have up front? How much money can we spend on ongoing kits/supplies/expenses?” and then ask, “What should we buy?” Hatch’s manifesto gives you a chance to think beyond “tools” (but not to overlook them) by inviting you to mod his vision. He grants permission for you to use it, change it, and “make it your own.”

So one of the things I’m realizing this year about my own makerspace manifesto is the idea of makerspace activities as windows, mirrors, and welcome mats. Here’s an example of why that matters: last week, at our middle school site, we retired crochet as one of our learning stations (we swapped it out for a beginning sewing activity, which can lead us to sewing machines/engineering and/or conductive thread/science).

Today, we had two middle school boys demanding to have it back. You read that right: middle school boys sulking because they could not crochet.

Now did they come to Michigan Makers expecting to like crochet? Nope – the interest was ignited when they got here. And the interest came directly from a mentor who happens to love crochet. Other mentors love taking stuff apart, connecting kids to Creative Commons communities, editing photos, coding, or building stuff. Mentors are windows, mirrors, and welcome mats, too.

Oh, and did we bring back crochet for the kids? Well, it just so happened that Mollie, our crochet mentor, was going to do an activity with kids and our brand-new Silhouette Cameo cutter. (This was a recommended purchase as a way to think about 2D printing and paper engineering — and a lot cheaper than a 3D printer, which we’ll bring onsite as soon as we have a travel case for it). We take a broad view of engineering — we don’t privilege LEGO engineering over fabric or paper engineering. All of these media encourage 3D thinking (though the paper usually starts 2D and ends up 3D!).

But the Cameo had a stuck part (and we’re getting a free replacement – hooray for Silhouette’s warranty and customer service!), so suddenly Mollie was available. And it just so happened that Mollie had brought a couple of hooks and a skein of yarn … just … in … case.

Just goes to show that you just never know when a window will become a mirror … or for whom. And that having a back-up project stashed away is always a good idea.

So yeah. Crochet is back.

In the meantime, we mentors have given ourselves a challenge. As we move through the challenge, we’ll experience being makers instead of coaching them for a bit. And if we like how it turns out, then we’ll bring it on for kids. It was super-fun to watch people’s imaginations get to work on this. We’re especially curious about one “before” garment which could end up as a lion costume? sling backpack? Time will tell …

Posted in Makerspaces/Hackerspaces | Comments Off

NYTimes on 3-D printing your dinner (when I can’t seem to print an octopus)

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

A few weeks ago, The New York Times ran an opinion essay about 3-D printing your dinner. “Dinner is Served,” by A.J. Jacobs, follows the author’s quest:

I settled on the idea of creating a 3-D-printed meal. I’d make 3-D-printed plates, forks, place mats, napkin rings, candlesticks — and, of course, 3-D-printed food. Yes, cuisine can be 3-D printed, too. And, in fact, Mr. Lipson thinks food might be this technology’s killer app …

I wanted to serve the meal to my wife as the ultimate high-tech romantic dinner date …

As it turned out, the dinner was perhaps the most labor-intensive meal in history. But it did give me a taste of the future, in both its utopian and dystopian aspects.

A similar article in this month’s SXSWorld discusses the potential of a 3-D printer to construct food onsite to ameliorate world hunger and distribution concerns.

So far, the general consensus is that tech-awesomeness trumps taste, but in a way, who cares? It’s still cool. And this, to me, is the awesomely-bubbly optimism that comes along with new technologies. It’s an awesome feeling to look at an emerging technology and extrapolate into the future. It may take decades to accomplish. For example, think about videoconferencing and how we would all end up with expensive videoconferencing suites. I remember reading grants that budgeted $75,000 for videoconferencing. Then came Skype. For free. On equipment and networks you already had. So who knows how 3-D printing will zig and zag in the coming years.

As we don’t yet have a travel case for our new MakerBot Replicator 2 3-D printer, and as we’re waiting for the, ummm, exuberance of one of our sites to simmer just enough so we’re certain no one will launch a Snap Circuits propeller into the MakerBot’s print space, it’s currently living in my office. (To clarify: learning how to make the propeller launch across the room is awesome, particularly if you are 10. It is also a bit of a schadenfreude moment for me when it — oh, gosh — launches behind the library bookshelves. ‘Tis a pity.)

So far, I’m just printing a handful of things from Thingiverse.com. At first, I thought this was the ultimate in bubble-gum machine non-constructivism. Talk about “put another dime in the jukebox, baby” — you say you want to print something, you upload the file in your computer, you click “Make,” and the machine starts whirring. Nothing constructivist at all … or is it?

Because what I’m learning is that not every 3D print comes out of the printer like a shiny vending-machine product. Case in point: the octopus.

“Cute Octopus Says Hello” by MakerBot on Thingiverse. CC-BY. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27053

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This is the second try at the octopus, and as you can see, something went a bit awry in the final moments.

The first time we tried to print this, I accidentally unplugged my laptop and learned that the MakerBot doesn’t hold your design in its memory: it relies on your computer. OK, good to know that even if it’s 99% done printing, it’s not done-done. That octopus got nicknamed “Alfalfa” because it had a little extra resin bead at the top (and a bit of a flat head to boot). We also learned that if we included a raft — a kind of “base” of loosely-set-down resin that helps the figure adhere — it took strong-arming and a pair of pliers to get it off. Not cute.

Yet when we didn’t do the raft in the version above, we expected that some of the tentacles would sag, as they sit just off the “floor” and we imagined that the printer trying to print in mid-air would fail. Nope. Worked just fine. But why the Medusa hair? I don’t have an explanation yet, just some more resin and a chance to see if the third time is the proverbial charm.

All of this is reminding me that even when I’m just playing around with someone else’s design, I’m learning important stuff that I can take into my own design work. I’m forming questions and trying to use my past experiences (and the power of Google) to figure out what to try next.

So now my trick is to balance a big room of kids, a short pop-up makerspace timeframe, the thrill that comes even though you didn’t make it yourself, and the long-term goal of using the 3D printer to develop original design.

For more on the challenges of 3D printing and middle-graders, check out this recent post by Andrew Carle on the “Tie and Jeans” blog. In his case, he ponders about kids who are 3D printing looms … yeah, the looms are making something … is it enough for him?

UPDATE: Success!

Posted in 3D Printing, Makerspaces/Hackerspaces | Comments Off

Squishy Circuits

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Kristin Fontichiaro

I’m a huge fan of Squishy Circuits (above) as an early-in-the-year middle-grade makerspace activity. The dough feels good in your hands, it’s cool when the LED bulb lights up, and it’s a way of keeping makers social and facing one another instead of pushing them directly into screen-based activities.

We like it so much we built activities around it at East Middle School in 2012, YCS Middle School in 2013, and Mitchell Elementary in 2013. (We made the challenge a bit less complex for the Mitchell kids, but otherwise, the playfulness stays the same as we explore parallel and series circuits without the safety hazards of soldering irons or the complexities of resistors.)
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Check out this cool video of a Squishy Circuits sculpture of co-founder AnnMarie Thomas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wb-bD7ahQU

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