MakerSpace: Fad or Future? This is the title of the course I just completed. This was also the question posed to us on the first day of class.
As a teacher who is still early into my career, I have heard the grumblings of older staff talking about, "another fad". It seems that education is good at throwing the latest and greatest at teachers. The problem is, when the latest and greatest quickly becomes yesterday's news and the next best thing is here to stay.
I don't blame the grumblers. Anyone can see how frustrating that would be. A constant reminder that what you are doing is just not quite good enough, not quite current, not quite the best thing for our kids.
So maybe it is the young, optimistic teacher in me talking (I won't know for another 10-20 years) but I don't think all new, current, shiny things are bad. But that doesn't necessarily mean the old, tried and true is bad either.
The reality is, our world is changing, our kids are changing. The future our kids are heading into looks very different than the world I entered into, and even more different than the world many of my co-workers entered into. The point of education has not changed --> to prepare children to be citizens of our world. But our world has changed. Therefore, we need to be adapting and changing education to fit the world our students are entering into.
Sir Ken Robinson says it well.
So are MakerSpaces fads or the future? On the first day of class, John Evans told us this. A MakerSpace is a fad, as long as it is tied to a specific location. As long as we see it as a specific classroom or library where making happens, it will be a fad. Those classrooms and library's will eventually become the next best thing. But if it is a Maker Mindset, it is here to stay. Having kids making things is not a fad. Our classrooms become MakerSpaces every single day. Don't let the word scare you. It just so happens to be the buzz word these days, which means it can get you a lot of money (so use it!). But give it a few years and the word will fade. But making, giving students choice and voice, that is not a fad and will stay for years to come.