Education Principles
Of Lessons and Librarians
The librarian is not simply a keeper of information. Rather he or she is a teacher as well, serving as a bridge for the community to allow them to reach the knowledge, skills, and goals they desire. Often this comes in the form of teaching technological proficiency, but with the rise of the maker space this has begun to expand greatly as the maker space is precisely a space for learning no matter one's age. It is a place where one can get creative and explore in a tangible way rather than simply listening to PowerPoints and staring at screens.
Having worked alongside the TRC and SELF Design Studio maker space I found myself observing many of the staff’s lessons and experiments and attempted to construct my own experiment to serve as a lesson plan to aid others. Through this I was able to realize that what seems quite easy at first requires more than a little consideration. One has to account for a number of variables. For example, the audience: in a public library setting one is not going to just get this or that age of kids. Instead, one will have kids who are just toddling around with their parents in tow, young teens who wandered in, and everything in between. Of course, one can set a program to be open to a certain age range, but even then one is still dealing with not only a range of ages but a range of abilities and personalities. Not everyone is going to catch on quite as quickly. Some will need more help and guidance while others will balk at this and prefer to be left alone to create and explore on his or her own terms.
All of this does not even quite touch on the challenge of the lesson itself, making sure that it fits a certain timeframe while being educational and interesting enough. Too long or too short and things can become problematic.
It takes a bit of experimentation to really get things right, but I have watched this happen with our TRC and SELF Design Studio maker space. The chaos of hosting a sea of children in so small a space and helping them be not only entertained but educated was one of the first challenges outside of setting up the space itself. With a bit of trial and error and the development of a number of neat exhibits—such as an old wooden cable spool turned into a sort of wind tunnel for kite flying and experimentation—the TRC and SELF Design Studio team were able to create an environment where anyone could learn, grow, and be entertained. Major events included UNCG Science Day and the National Day of Making, along with a number of smaller classes, school visits, and open houses. Indeed, even professors and other adults have wandered into the TRC and SELF Design Studio, curious to see what was inside, intrigued by the sci-fi tones of our 3D printer and our employment of everything from Little Bits to old fashioned cloth, skeletons, and puppets.
Suffice it to say, I have learned a fair bit during my time at UNCG, designing lesson plans and working with the TRC and the SELF Design Studio. As my emerging technologies class was coming to a close, the SELF Design Studio received a test kit of a new creative item: Cubelets, magnetic cubes which each had a specific function which would interact with the other cubes attached to them, allowing for the creation of simple robotics. At the same time I had just been tasked in my Emerging Technologies class to come up with a lesson plan. Being curious to see how these could be employed, I decided to attempt to design a lesson plan around them. I never quite got a chance to test it personally, but the SELF Design Studio did set up a Cubelets racing event during Science Day and I was rather amused to watch it all play out.
Related: Cubelets Lesson Plan
The librarian is not simply a keeper of information. Rather he or she is a teacher as well, serving as a bridge for the community to allow them to reach the knowledge, skills, and goals they desire. Often this comes in the form of teaching technological proficiency, but with the rise of the maker space this has begun to expand greatly as the maker space is precisely a space for learning no matter one's age. It is a place where one can get creative and explore in a tangible way rather than simply listening to PowerPoints and staring at screens.
Having worked alongside the TRC and SELF Design Studio maker space I found myself observing many of the staff’s lessons and experiments and attempted to construct my own experiment to serve as a lesson plan to aid others. Through this I was able to realize that what seems quite easy at first requires more than a little consideration. One has to account for a number of variables. For example, the audience: in a public library setting one is not going to just get this or that age of kids. Instead, one will have kids who are just toddling around with their parents in tow, young teens who wandered in, and everything in between. Of course, one can set a program to be open to a certain age range, but even then one is still dealing with not only a range of ages but a range of abilities and personalities. Not everyone is going to catch on quite as quickly. Some will need more help and guidance while others will balk at this and prefer to be left alone to create and explore on his or her own terms.
All of this does not even quite touch on the challenge of the lesson itself, making sure that it fits a certain timeframe while being educational and interesting enough. Too long or too short and things can become problematic.
It takes a bit of experimentation to really get things right, but I have watched this happen with our TRC and SELF Design Studio maker space. The chaos of hosting a sea of children in so small a space and helping them be not only entertained but educated was one of the first challenges outside of setting up the space itself. With a bit of trial and error and the development of a number of neat exhibits—such as an old wooden cable spool turned into a sort of wind tunnel for kite flying and experimentation—the TRC and SELF Design Studio team were able to create an environment where anyone could learn, grow, and be entertained. Major events included UNCG Science Day and the National Day of Making, along with a number of smaller classes, school visits, and open houses. Indeed, even professors and other adults have wandered into the TRC and SELF Design Studio, curious to see what was inside, intrigued by the sci-fi tones of our 3D printer and our employment of everything from Little Bits to old fashioned cloth, skeletons, and puppets.
Suffice it to say, I have learned a fair bit during my time at UNCG, designing lesson plans and working with the TRC and the SELF Design Studio. As my emerging technologies class was coming to a close, the SELF Design Studio received a test kit of a new creative item: Cubelets, magnetic cubes which each had a specific function which would interact with the other cubes attached to them, allowing for the creation of simple robotics. At the same time I had just been tasked in my Emerging Technologies class to come up with a lesson plan. Being curious to see how these could be employed, I decided to attempt to design a lesson plan around them. I never quite got a chance to test it personally, but the SELF Design Studio did set up a Cubelets racing event during Science Day and I was rather amused to watch it all play out.
Related: Cubelets Lesson Plan