Bring back the Makers

Fabrication Lab at Stanford

This past week I spent two days learning about digital fabrication and the maker subculture.  The conference was held at Stanford University and was called FabLearn.  According to Wikipedia "digital fabrication is a process that joins architecture with the construction industry through the use of 3D modeling software and CNC machines."  The maker subculture is defined as "the technology-based  extension of the DIY culture." (again according to wikipedia).  For two days I spent time on Stanford's campus discussing FabLearn, how to bring these two ideas into education.  How these two ideas are part of the movement in education where students need to be come creators and makers, not just memorizers.  For two days I looked at how creating projects from the design up can help students become better learners.  Many projects were interdisciplinary and teachers spent time teaching other disciplines as well math, art, history, science were all pretty interwoven.  The time spent was giving me flashbacks to my middle school shop classes: woodworking, metal welding, and print making and my home economics classes.  These are the low tech versions of what I spent the time learning about.  These have also seemed to slowly begin to disappear from the education setting.

I sat in a class that was similarly designed like those Middle School classrooms with huge workspace tables where four or five could spread out metal drawers underneath us where tools were stored, and open space.  The difference was that around the edges were 3-d printers, laser cutters, ventilation systems and more than one computer.   We spent some time in processing computer language using pre-existing libraries to design a lamp made from paper (you could make it from other materials but paper is low cost for workshops).

Laser Cutting out the Lamp 

Computer Program (photo by Phyllis Wright)

Our presenter was the creator of the software and a student working on her masters degree at MIT.  We created a "codeable object" as she called it.  I must admit it was a lot of fun.  I was able to manipulate the code using mathematics to build various designs that then using the laser cutter I cut out on paper and built the lamp.  The whole process took about two hours.  There is a downfall that it took a very long time for all of use to use the laser cutter.  Depending upon the design details it took about 10-15 minutes to print, plus the top and the tissue paper that was about 30 minutes per person.  I did not time it but it was a lot of down time, that everyone in the class noticed.  Since it is also a laser, you can not leave it unattended, there must be someone there at all times.  We talked about how some schools have open times where students can come and print, others stager the projects so multiple items are happening at once (this is not as hectic as it seems), others just live with the down time.

I could see having the students multi-task with other assignments for the class they are in.  They could be working on multiple items in the class at once so that during down time they have something else to do as they wait.  Classrooms become chaos but a controlled chaos since you need to plan for this. I could also see use in showing how math, science and art are all intertwined.  Even in history, I saw some amazing 3-D models of historic times such as Rosa Parks on the bus.  All complete in proportion to the space they had.  Could it have been done without the digital aspect? Probably. Did that help add another discipline and learning experience   I tend to think so.

Putting together the lamp (photo by Phyllis Wright)

I loved how math created such a beautiful lamp and with out the science there isn't any electricity.  I saw how we could begin to build interesting engineering and design courses that could give students an idea of how to discover and make their own items.  Find an need and create.  I think that is so important as we have this shift in education, students need to learn how to be creative, they have so many tools at there fingertips it is time we allow them to utilize everything to learn about the world around them and invent the future.

Me and My Lamp (photo by Phyllis Wright)

Technology Integration...

It has been crazy back to school.  We have only been back a week and it feels like we never left.  My plan to become more organized is starting to materialize.  I have created and appointment calendar for teachers to "sign out" the integrators to work with us either one on one or with a class.  (Thanks to google again).

Today, I worked with the Honors French and Honors Spanish begin their trimester long project of creating a magazine.  The project is going to be done in iBooks Author so they can add videos, pictures, text, etc and then publish them for their classmates to read on their iPads.  Today they played with iBooks Author and just tried to get a feel with the program, adding, deleting editing and searching for tutorials.  The girls and educators are both excited about this adventure.  I am going to check in on the class in a few weeks to see how it is going.  By November they should have the magazines finished!  I can't wait!

GOOGLE!!!

I love google.  As I start a new school year, I spent the afternoon showing off google.  I realized that I no longer keep an paper planner.  In fact I haven't kept one for a few years now.  I use a google calendar for each of my classes.  When I first came to my current school, the google calendar was an easy way to follow our 7 day rotating schedule of rotating periods.  It's a crazy hectic schedule and with the classes color coded it was great to see everything. I would add events to the calendar and as I planned wrote the topics in the details. See an example:

The following year, I started sharing the calendar with students and parents by embedding it to my teacher website.  Now that the students have iPads they can add my calendar to their calendar apps and not miss the topics that are going to be covered for the day! Plus with appointments, teachers and students can easily schedule times with me, that I know will work for me.  The set up has taken time but it does work smoothly.  An added plus is I can easily review pacing of the course by flipping back through the years on the information.

This year I also plan on using google forms often in my classes, from surveys, and rubrics to attendance.  Google added a grid to the forms, this allows me to keep track of attendance with each student being a row.  Since it automatically timestamps for me I don't need to enter the date only the period.  I can also add any notes to the day that I want.  If  I need to go back and change someone's absence to be excused, I can edit it later.  This form has become a link on my home page of my iPad.

I am not the most organized person but maintaining the calendars and now the form has given me a chance to be somewhat organized during the day.  So thank you Google for the organization that you have begun to instill in me over the past 6 years.

Notability

I am not sure when I downloaded this app.  But for the past two months I have extensively used it as my note taking app and have fallen in love with it.  Notablity is an iPad only app.  Truly designed for those who use the iPad as the main note taking device.  I think the designers had education in mind when developing it.  In imports pdf's from web, dropbox, etc with ease.

It has all the features that I want for teaching math.  Graph paper, ability to free- write and type, insert pictures from camera and from web, and draw figures!! The basic drawing shapes are available and you can place the figure on the paper anywhere.  Here is a basic geometry diagram that I put together in a few seconds.

I love that I can create a drawing and then be able to write over it, with various different colors and highlighters.  This is something my previous note taking app would not do.


I don't like to type my notes.  I like to be able to write them.  Previously it was difficult to stay in the lines.  However with Notability's zoom feature it is easy.  In the draw mode (the pencil), if you tap the magnify glass you can zoom in on the bottom of the screen to where the white box is.  I can then write, as you get to the green section the white box will move over it's full length.  Then as you hit the end of the screen the app will return you to the next line!  It is great to take notes quickly during conferences, and students can manage it in class too!  I also like the added feature that you can move the box to anywhere on the screen by dragging it or using the icons on top of the zoomed part.

Organization of my notes is a breeze as well I can create folders (called categories) and then subfolders (called subjects).  Subjects do not need to be in folders if you don't want.  They can be color coded, searching is easy, I can sort by date and alphabetically.  


I can access items from dropbox, send various ways email, dropbox and autosnyc to dropbox.  This feature is great.  Often students forget to back up the data and only back up the apps, with the autosnycing there is no loss of data!  It is currently 99¢.  Check it out their web page.

All Girl education and Technology...

Yesterday I got a chance to be on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC.  One of the teams and I talked about the programming challenge and all girl education. I was extremely nervous going on the air and I had no idea what he was going to ask. But when asked if the all girl education made a difference my response was yes, and something came to the top of my head about how democratic girls are in the classroom compared to boys. I wanted to take the time to explain more of my perspective.


I have taught co-ed (9 years) and now all girls (5 years), and there are a few things I have noticed. One is girls like to talk, and they make sure everyone gets heard even students who tend to be on the quite side. I have seen girls make sure everyone has a chance to speak (even encourage those who haven't spoken) before moving on, where I didn't notice that in the co-ed setting.  Did it happen, and I wasn't paying attention  Probably, but it is more prominent in the all girl setting. 


Studies have shown, girls might doubt their abilities, if they feel they have struggled with the concepts. They need to learn about how these struggles are what makes them good at certain subjects. They need to feel comfortable to take the risks, they need the encouragement and reassurance to keep going. They need to learn that the mistakes are great for learning and making us a success.  I have become a different teacher teaching all girls. I have learned to celebrate more of the mistakes and explain how to learn from them. Teaching them about having a growth mind set than a fixed one. 

I have also noticed that the relationships are important with teaching all girls. It is important for them to feel a connection to the lessons especially in the STEM related fields. While this is also true for boys, if they don't see the connection most will still try the problems, where most girls become disinterested.  This is why the PBS strand was so important to me. It gave them a connection to younger girls. They were building a game to help others learn math programs that they knew. They discussed about what the girls in our Lower School could benefit from.

Technology classes tend to be male dominated and we need more girls taking and exploring these courses. When I taught co-ed, many of my elective classes were male dominated, in fact some were all boys. Girls in those classes sometimes felt out of place even with a female teacher. I did try to make sure they could work together to help ease the awkwardness (and it is awkward, think about a time when you felt out numbered and out of place).  I like the fact that I get to teach these same technology classes in an all girl setting.  Most of my classes still have the same amount of students in them. In fact, when I moved to an all girl school 5 years ago, I taught the same number of students in each of the classes.  The class that has struggled is AP Computer Science, I am hoping with the changes we have been making to 8th grade Computer class that more students think about taking this course.  They perceive it as a "Hard" class, and they have to do things similar to the 8th grade course that they really didn't understand.  With this project now as the way of teaching in the 8th grade, I am hoping that more  begin to understand that it is challenging but rewarding and fun at the same time.


Again these are only my thoughts, based upon my experience, reading studies and professional development.  They are not perfect, but if recognizing the differences might make me a better teacher and help the under representation of females in the STEM fields then I am all for it!


If you want to learn some more about an all girls' education check out the National Coalition of Girls' Schools