Design, Make, Remix, Hack, Create, Build, Program, Cook, Craft, ETC. 

Welcome to the Thinkering Studio. Thinkering Studio is a collaborative space/class/studio for students to: 

• explore questions, challenges, topics or technologies of interest, at their own pace, and in directions of their choosing

• collaborate informally and formally, in person and electronically, synchronously and asynchronously

• plan and reflect on their creations, processes, successes, difficulties, and learning through a multimodal journal and portfolio

• create footsteps, examples, resources, or other shareable artifacts for themselves & others who might follow

• integrate technology as appropriate

• (think 3M, Bell Labs, Google's 20% time, Apple's Blue Sky program, etc.) 

"The word technology comes from the Greek. It is comprised of two parts: "techne," meaning an art or skill, and "logia" meaning the systematic study of an idea (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). Thus the word technology originally meant the systematic study of an art or skill." Shoffner, Jones, and Harmon

Want to know more? The best way to learn more is to stop by for a visit, or better yet, to volunteer. If you can't stop by, check out some of the influences behind the class:

Resources

• Thinkering Studio (teacher page)

• BCS

  • Thinkering Studio: Supporting Self-Directed Learning

  • Design Thinking: Prioritizing Process Skills

  • Developing Independent Learners: Guiding Students to Be More Resourceful

• Thinkering Studio Is (slideshow)

• Thinkering Studio - Consumption to Creation Production

• Transfer as the goal of education

• John Seely Brown

  • John Seely Brown: Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production

  • John Seely Brown Lecture on Learning in the Digital Age

• Mitch Resnick

  • http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Learning-Leading-final.pdf

• MakerEd

  • Maker Ed: Maker Education as a Learning Approach: Empowerment, Access, Process, Community

  • Maker Ed: The Impact of Maker Education: Create, Explore, Imagine, Tinker, Share, Question, Connect, Make ...

• Tinkering School

• Other Thinkerers

  • Vygotsky: More Knowledgeable Other (PLN), Scaffolding & Zone of Proximal Development (Jumpstarts, recipe projects, etc.), Cooperative/Collaborative dialogue (partners, critique groups, PLNs)

  • Dewey: learning by doing, hands-on learning, learning as social and interactive processes, student & teacher constructed "curriculum," too child centered could be equally detrimental to the learning process

  • Papert: constructivism, learning by doing, technology as building material, hard fun, learning to learn (reflection journals, critique groups & conferencing), taking time, you can’t get it right without getting it wrong, do unto ourselves what we do unto our students, we are entering a digital world

• William Kamkwamba, Kelvin Doe, Today's Learners, Change the World in 5 Minutes - Everyday at School, Caine's Arcade, Richard Turere,

• Making Makers & Every Child a Maker at World Maker Faire 2012 by AnnMarie Thomas

  • http://www.makingmakersbook.com/

• Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff by Curt Gabrielson

• Making the Case for Making in Schools

  • Invent To Learn by Martinez & Stager

• Let Learning Happen - Sugata Mitra at European Zeitgeist 2011

• Creating Innovators

• Making Their Way: Creating a Generation of ‘Thinkerers’

• It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q.

• Makerspace Playbook & Makerspace Playbook School Edition

• The School Cliff: Student Engagement Drops With Each School Year

• Teaching Self-Efficacy with Personal Projects

  • Self-efficacy in schools: Why Makerspaces are Changing the World

• Which "learning landscape" best describes a Thinkering Studio?

• If students designed their own schools ...

  • If students designed their own class ...?

  • If students designed their own project ...?

• Exhibitions - Read chapter 8 The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business

• Learning by Making: American kids should be building rockets and robots, not taking standardized tests by Dale Dougherty

  • We Are Makers - Dale Dougherty at TED@MotorCity (11 min)

  • The Maker Mindset

• Autodidacticism

• Peeragogy & http://peeragogy.net

• The Maker Movement and the Rebirth of Constructionism

• The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything Fast

• Hard Fun

• We Are Makers

• MIT Welcomes Makers with New Maker Portfolio

• Social networking (JSB?) Social Knowledge Building

• Tool Flexibility

• Maker Education - Edutopia

• Zero to Maker by David Lang

• Can DIY Movement Fix a Crisis in U.S. Science Education?

• Tinkering and Thinking with Maker Kylie Peppler

• 'Maker Space' Allows Kids To Innovate, Learn In The Hospital (NPR)

• The #MakerEd Manifesto

• How Minecraft and Duct Tape Wallets Prepare Our Kids for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet

• Preparing Our Kids for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet

• Making and Tinkering: A Review of the Literature

• A few more ...