The Maker Movement

{The Maker Movement and Education}

Reflection:

The Maker Movement is something that is really truly amazing. It encourages creativity and innovation in everyone. The thing about the Maker Movement is that it is so diverse that it can be applied any which way. You can use creation and student creativity to create projects that are more interesting and encourage more learning than traditional projects. It also lets the students work to their own strengths.

I grew up in what I might call a maker environment, so while I've never outright had a class in school that encouraged a maker setting, I was certainly getting that support at home. I went to camps that encouraged it. I spent time in programs outside of school that encouraged it. Some of my best childhood memories with my dad involved taking computers apart or rewiring the house to get internet in another room without the wires showing or programming in C++. Build something. Fix something. Think of new ways to do things and create something. Those were learning experiences that I remember.

If we can create those learning experiences in the classroom, our students will remember the lessons we taught them. They will be active and engaged in the experience. School isn't memorizing things to be forgotten later. And I think making and creating will help with that.

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