Featured Session MTR: Learning through Making: Opportunities and Challenges for a Maker Culture
MAKE Magazine. Maker Faires. Maker Spaces. Maker Clubs. In the past few years, we
have seen the emergence (or resurgence?) of a Maker culture, in which people explore new
ways to build, create, personalize, and customize things in the world around them – and
share their ideas and creations with one another. Maker culture aligns with Seymour
Papert’s Constructionist approach to learning, supporting project-based, design-oriented,
personally-meaningful learning experiences.
This panel brings together four leaders of the Maker movement, including the founder of
MAKE magazine and Maker Faire (Dale Dougherty), creators of the Tinkering Studio at the
Exploratorium (Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich), and director of the High-Low Tech
research group at the MIT Media Lab (Leah Buechley).
Among the questions that the panelists will explore:
• What are the defining characteristics of Maker Culture?
• How does Maker Culture relate to Participatory Culture?
• What technologies and social structures are needed to support Maker Culture?
• What are the learning trajectories for a Young Maker?
• How can the immersion of making be balanced with analysis and reflection?
Organizer(s):
Mitchel Resnick
Participants:
Dale Dougherty
Mike Petrich
Karen Wilkinson
Leah Buechley
Mitchel Resnick, Moderator