Takeaways from 2020 - A Conversation with Maker Educators

Challenges of the past yearClassroom teachers struggled with the logistics of distance learning:

• Adapting to changing schedule and environment - online, hybrid, in-person, quarantine and not really knowing what was best
• Competing with students’ cell phones for attention, and having students who kept their cameras off
• Navigating video conferencing, chats, and file sharing all at once
• Managing the social and emotional part for students who lost their bio clocks or faced COVID hardship at home  
• Creating new lessons because the activities that relied on social interactions of students did not work well in the virtual space
• Not having time to collaborate with other overworked teachers.
• Losing specials, like technology classes, and having specialists become tech support
• Forgoing the field trips, and in-school guests, even if they were teaching in person
• Struggling to find time to do it all!

Positives from the past year - despite the constraints, Maker educators mentioned more pluses than minuses from this unforgettable school year.  Many turned the challenges into positives!

• Using new tools to create new content that can be integrated into school next  year
• Collaborating with peers in breakout rooms
• Being amazed by students that were able to do individual and group work remotely and thrive despite the challenges
• Getting to work one-on-one with the "difficult" kids who wouldn't normally have time for makerspace
• Seeing colleagues embrace technology and become more open-minded
• Bringing the world into the classroom with virtual events: field trips, speakers from industry, even a Zoom play with a theater company
• Using extra funds from services rendered unnecessary by COVID  (vinyl cutters, 3D printers, laser cutters micro:bits, Raspberry Pis, etc) to make equipment purchases that will serve them in the coming years
• Had opportunities to work with "tough" kids that came in while other students were remote
• Finding a wealth of free/cheap online transcription and translation tools that facilitate remote learning
• Reaching students in diverse localities who were uncomfortable in school
• Experimenting with many different things to see how students will respond, without fear of failure (for example, teaching younger kids Engineering and the Design Process with Minecraft)
• Taking advantage of “Pandemic Pauses” and learning new skills for themself
• Seeing students experiment with technologies at home, that they would not have as much time with in school (for example, 3rd graders loved playing with micro:bit kits at home)

New tools, practices, and self-knowledge that teachers gained‍Online creative tools for students:

• Cospaces cospaces.io/edu/ “create anything in 3D, animate and code your creations, explore in VR & AR"
• Autodraw www.autodraw.com/  “AutoDraw pairs machine learning with drawings from talented artists to help you draw stuff fast.”
• Vectr vectr.com - free, browser-based graphics editor that creates .SVG image files, suitable for vinyl cutter and laser cutter as well as general graphics
• Gravit Designer www.designer.io/ free graphics editor (online or download) with a lot of functionality. Creates .SVG, .PDF. .JPG, .PNG

‍Online video and communication tools for teachers and students

• Loom www.loom.com video messaging tool for including yourself in presentations, recording video emails, updates etc.
• ScreenCastify www.screencastify.com - record, edit, and share videos from your computer or webcam, Chrome extension
• WeVideo www.wevideo.com/education  Video journals and portfolios "Students love using video documentation to share their learning!"
• Google Slides - use for interactive activities as well as presentations and videos that can be used live or published to the web.  See out tutorials and samples on out Virtual projects page k12maker.mit.edu/virtual  

‍Online tools for interactive lessons

• Padlet padlet.com - digital wall for instant posting and sharing
• PearDeck www.peardeck.com/googleslides - put formative assessments in your google slides
• Nearpod nearpod.com - make slides and video interactive with activities and formative assessments
• EdPuzzle Edpuzzle.com - create interactive video lessons using existing videos or your own. Set pauses in video and add comprehension checks​

What educators want Fall 2021 to look like:‍When schools return to in-person classes, Maker educators are looking to address students’ needs for physical contact with people and objects, and their desire to be creative and expressive. They also want to include the technologies many of us learned and adopted during remote learning.
​Educators are looking for:

• In-person learning!
• Hands-on, with no screen as possible
• Lots of small group work, working and discussing with others
• Project-based learning and problem-based learning
• Maker pedagogy in the regular day not only as a "special" or "extra curricular".
• Hands-on learning strands that span the grades, building excitement and anticipation for subsequent studies
• Social emotional learning, through Making
• Easier access to the new educational materials and resources even when returning to in-person
• Travel to cities, museums, and science centers etc.
• Including parents, community members, and students in the development of curriculum with teachers

What educators need to make it happenThe needs of Maker educators are straightforward and realizable - time, collaboration, and technical resources

• Community and mentorship - I need “someone to bounce ideas off of and to inspire/challenge me with things I wouldn't have thought about”
• Collaboration with school colleagues - “I'd love to generate projects and units that integrate curricular content more explicitly. I need: Collaboration with core teachers to show them how powerful the STEAM experience is in bringing kids further into the understanding and engagement of content.”  I need to “get teachers to want to try a project in their curriculum”​
• Technical skills such as 2D graphic design, 3D modeling, safe use of hand tools, electronics
• A functional Makerspace, with a variety of equipment, that is set up for classes of 20+ students