Integrating coding and MakerSpaces into education has become increasingly necessary in today’s quickly changing technology landscape. These novel methodologies not only provide students with valuable technical expertise but also cultivate creativity, analytical reasoning, cooperation, and problem-solving proficiencies. Now, let’s explore the importance of coding and MakerSpaces in education, as well as the misunderstandings that exist around these subjects. I am going to address the questions from our weekly plan – 
The advantages for students
Introducing coding and MakerSpaces to students provides a wide range of advantages. First and foremost, it fosters computational thinking, allowing students to analyze intricate problems by breaking them down into smaller components and devising systematic solutions. This talent is valuable in a wide range of fields and practical situations.
Moreover, participating in coding and MakerSpaces fosters creativity by offering a forum for students to investigate and articulate their ideas through practical projects. It promotes experimentation, creativity, and the cultivation of a growth mentality, where setbacks are seen as chances for learning and progress.
Furthermore, these programmes foster teamwork and enhance communication skills as students collaborate in teams, exchanging ideas, resolving obstacles, and collaboratively completing their projects. This cooperative setting replicates real-life situations, equipping students for future vocational pursuits.
Ensuring inclusivity and accessibility
While engaging in coding and utilizing MakerSpaces can provide a multitude of advantages, it is crucial to priorities inclusion and accessibility for all students. Although the majority of students might greatly gain from these experiences, a subset may encounter difficulties as a result of circumstances such as learning disabilities, inadequate prior exposure, or restricted access to resources.
In order to tackle these difficulties, educators can implement differentiated instruction strategies, which involve offering a range of approaches and support systems that are specifically designed to meet the unique needs of each student. Moreover, cultivating a nurturing and all-encompassing educational setting promotes students’ willingness to confront difficulties, seek help when necessary, and commemorate one another’s accomplishments.
Overcoming Challenges
Although coding and MakerSpaces offer evident advantages, certain educators may encounter challenges when integrating them into their educational environments. Typical obstacles encompass insufficient financing for tools and equipment, inadequate professional development opportunities for teachers, and curricular limitations.
In order to surmount these challenges, educational institutions can actively pursue external financing opportunities, establish partnerships with community organizations, and offer continuous professional development for teachers. Incorporating coding and MakerSpaces into current curricula and utilizing interdisciplinary links can optimize learning results while also resolving time limitations and curriculum objectives.
The idea that coding and MakerSpaces should exclusively be taught by individuals with technical expertise is a widely held misunderstanding. Proficiency in technology is advantageous, but proficient teaching in these fields necessitates a varied range of abilities, such as pedagogical experience, creative thinking, flexibility, and an enthusiasm for motivating student learning.
Teaching by “Techies”
Teachers from diverse fields can participate in professional development, work together with technology specialists, and utilize existing resources to successfully incorporate coding and MakerSpaces into their teaching methods. Prioritizing interdisciplinary collaboration and recognizing the importance of varied viewpoints enhances the educational experience and guarantees inclusivity for every student.
Ultimately, coding and MakerSpaces are crucial components of contemporary education, granting students with vital abilities and cultivating a climate of originality, cooperation, and creativity. Through early resolution of obstacles, the active promotion of inclusiveness, and the use of a wide range of specialized knowledge, educators may fully harness the power of coding and MakerSpaces to equip students with the necessary skills for triumph in a constantly evolving world.
So, I will get right to it… as my title suggests, I am currently not using coding or makerspaces in my classroom and here are some reasons why…
First off, I do not consider my self a very “tech savvy” person. I know I have said this before, and I will say it again. I have always struggled to understand certain aspects of technology, and it has always stressed me out to feel almost ‘pressured’ to learn about coding, how to code, how to do it in my classroom, etc. I teach primary (currently Pre-K), so coding and using tech in my classroom is not on the very top of my list, as my students are currently learning how to independently take off their winter gear, zip up jackets, share and play with others, etc. But, even when I was teaching first and second graders, I felt like coding was not a priority for my classroom. I was always feeling overwhelmed and focused on reading scores, writing, and creating hands-on lessons for my students.
However, after saying all this, I will also say that I am not against coding/makerspaces and I do think that this technology could be very beneficial for learners! As the presenters suggested, coding/tech can build students’ problem-solving skills. It allows for student’s to be creative and build on their confidence. In the future, understanding coding/makerspaces could allow for better job opportunities…the list goes on and on about the benefits! However, in my person opinion, I think that coding would not benefit my class. I think that it would be more beneficial to the older grades. I understand that there are age- appropriate coding activities for younger students (like the one we participated in during the presentation), but I still do not see how it would truly benefit my kiddos. I also think that if teachers, like myself, had more time on their hands to actually learn about coding/makerspaces and attend different PD sessions, that more of us would be inclined and encouraged to bring our knowledge into the classroom. I feel as though I do not know enough about this technology to then teach it to my students and I feel that it would be time consuming to learn. I would be open to learning more if I had the opportunity…and time.
Once I started diving into this topic it wasn’t as scary as I thought. It is honestly a lot of what I already know and have tried a bit in my own way with in the restrictions of our curriculum, time, money and space. My prior knowledge among coding was minimal; I always thought coding was extremely complex process which gave instructions for a program, apps, or computer to process. I also thought it was only for people who had training or schooling due to its complexity.
It turns out like many aspects of learning new things there are simpler easier ways to start coding. It does not need to start or look like the image above. The program we were shown in class was Scratch Jr and I can see the benefits of teaching coding. Students could create stories or timelines on many topics. It lets students create, problem solve, and infer. This would help them with attention to detail, and particularity by having to break things down into steps. It is all very high levels of thinking according to Bloom’s taxonomy which is very beneficial for our students. It definitely falls under the high level of the cognitive learning theory and fits the constructivist learning theory as well.
I just did a project in science where they had to analyze history of atomic theory by creating a timeline of models and changes throughout history. Coding could be a great way to order and differentiate between scientists findings through creating a story of some sort. This hits the outcome at an even higher level for enhancing student learning.
When I saw the word Makerspaces, I was even more in the dark, I had never heard of this. What I have learned is it is a place where people come together to solve a problem. In an educational setting it would be giving a group of students materials, time and space necessary to create something, or come up with ideas to solve a problem.
Makerspaces also fall under the constructivist theory and has many benefits. It gives students freedoms and choice with in the outcome. It supports in collaboration, problem solving and perseverance. The really important one is that attitude of making mistakes is valuable, and when things don’t go right to try again in a new way. This is a wonderful life skill as nothing will go great the first time. It fosters life long learning and resilience.
These skills I have been talking about is extremely important when it come to complex topics in the world of math and science. According to Let’s talk science students are losing interest in the science and math. Over half don’t graduate with a senior level math or science. Also only 12% of graduating students take physics.
Hence, students need to be inspired in these courses. We need to be given the time and money to get tools and tech to allow students to problem solve in interesting ways. Especially in math, it has been pencil and paper and drill and practice for so long. Our math courses are so jam packed not only do we have barely enough time to just traditionally teach the outcome, let alone get them explore it and play. The other problem is when trying to do the outcome at a higher level, kids need basic skills and they are not coming to high school with those solid skills. There is a lot of reteaching to get the basics hence we don’t have enough time for creation and innovation a lot of the time. There needs to be some change in our curricula for this to happen.
Sometimes the issue with doing something that is a higher order of thinking than the outcome is asking for, is students are working so hard to create that sometimes they completely miss the mark in the analyzation of the content that was asked for. I have seen this many times when I try something cool that my weaker students get left behind. Is it great for those students to try these things, yes, but sometimes it can be very overwhelming and they aren’t successful. This is when differentiating the assessment would be and encouraging your excelling students to try these innovative projects. On the contrary, when students realize one way will be more “work” than others assessments it is hard to inspire them to dive in. Maybe maker spaces should be more for non-curricular clubs to avoid this problem. But then the government needs to give more funding to education. Hard enough to get funding for curricular items, I can’t imagine trying to get more money for makerspaces!
Even though there are issues around materials, money, motivation and time in some areas, I think education is moving towards finding ways to help our students be innovative and solve problems. Central Collegiate in Moose Jaw where I work is doing some great things! We have innovation club at our school which work with drones, the 3D printer and create computer games and much more that I don’t even know about. We have coding and drafting classes which all involve collaboration and creation. In science we are giving students materials and building anything from houses to protect objects, terrariums to roller coasters. It is happening but we just need to push for more time, and more money to give our students the best education possible.
Coding can be a difficult concept for some to adapt to. There is a growing narrative that if you want to have a job in the future you will need to know how to code. This is a narrative that has been pushed for a couple years now and has aided in the growth of coding as a whole. No society has progressed a lot, technologically, over the past few years and there are a variety of jobs where coding is one of the main functions of the job. However, to say that the only jobs you can get are in coding is just using buzz words to get people to pay attention. This then brings up the conversation of, “well is the purpose of school job training” and that is another whole can of worms.
When it comes to coding and well anything we teach in school, I enjoy the idea of it for the process and the problem solving skills that it helps bring on. Coding is essentially putting things in a specific order, or following a process, to accomplish something. When it comes to more primary grades learning a process or a system of doing things is similar to students learning the process of mathematics or writing a sentence. There is a certain order of doing things, and if one thing goes wrong, the whole thing goes wrong. This is also a very behaviorist method of teaching, but when it comes to the more primary grades understanding the process is great because when they are more developed, cognitively, in the future, they can begin to utilize these processes they have learned to be able to share, create, and explore in their own ways. They just need the foundations first.
As a phys ed teacher, I can relate coding to the completion of a movement pattern. When I teach student how to “send” or “throw” an object I have a set number of smaller movements/cues for them to follow to be more successful. A simple throwing of a ball can be broken down into 5 mini steps. A beginning, transition, middle, transition, and an end. If one thing in the sequence is off, the whole thing can be thrown off. As discussed, coding is very similar. As students get more comfortable with throwing a ball, they can begin to utilize it in drills, games, etc. How I view coding is in a similar manner.
What I think could be a hinderance is that most children learn how to throw a ball when they’re very young, coding isn’t necessarily taught at young ages and trying to teach something like this at an older age could potentially be hard. Learning a skill or even a language at an older age is harder compared to a student that learned it at a younger age and has continuous practice. If my students have never learned anything about coding is it worth taking it up in the high school setting and focusing on all these basics, when other students their age could be miles ahead?
To be honest, I think so. Coding is something that many people pick up as they age into adolescents or even not until adulthood. It takes work of course, but there are a lot of external learning resources and even university classes dedicated to the topic. Many people steer away because they think it is too late for some to learn. As coding becomes more and more mainstream, maybe this will happen though. With students beginning to learn it earlier and earlier a knowledge/skill gap could potentially begin to form and now it isn’t as manageable to learn it later in life if you are “competing” against people that have been doing it their whole lives. I use “competing” because, again, is that the only reason we teach stuff? Do get people jobs? As a phys ed teacher I know what I’m teaching will not make students be able to get a job. What it can allow for is students to be confident and competent, be healthy, and maybe find something they enjoy doing or are passionate about. I think coding could be a similar thing. It could be good to know how to do it, what it could lead to, and who knows maybe somebody does really enjoy it, but just as a hobby in their spare time. I feel like that is still a major win.
Of course I have to mention the drawbacks to this. Not everyone has access to technology in their school divisions, or if they do, there aren’t enough to go around. Many teachers don’t know anything about it and are too scared to learn as they don’t want to seem clueless in front of their students. Many just also feel that they can accomplish the outcomes of the curriculum in an easier manner, and who doesn’t love it when things are easier? What I think is really holding teachers back is the extra effort and resources that it could take for this to be accomplished. Teachers are already busy and don’t always have the prep time or professional development opportunities for them to learn it. Asking them to learn on their own time is also a little unfeasible when they already have so much going on. If there was easier access or school division based training opportunities, well then maybe I could see more teachers getting onboard.
https://images.app.goo.gl/LZX8A2rCsvfUb1437
Based on the Lakehead University coding is about giving instructions and crafting sets of rules that can be programmed into a digital device to perform.
My first encounter with coding was a few years ago with first and second grade students. My main reason for incorporating coding in my teaching was to better engage students in reading activities and letter recognition. The activity that I used was called Robot Mouse. Using a robot mouse, a mat, coding cards, reading cards, and remote-control students followed the instructions on the coding cards to move the robot mouse to the corresponding cards and to read aloud the associated word or letter. I have included a YouTube video below for those who would like to become familiar with this activity. The only difference is that instead of robot mouse, it is used a ladybug.
Whenever students used the robot mouse for reading activities, they showed happiness and high levels of engagement. In one of the articles that Kelsey and Kanwal had for their presentation, was mentioned how beneficial coding can be for students. One of these benefits can be the problem solving and critical thinking that students would have to learn. And I couldn’t agree more with that. When my students wanted to send the robot mouse in a certain word, they would have to think how many movements the mouse would go forward, left, or right to reach the destination they wanted. Engaging students with coding activities allowed them to break down the steps of a big problem into more manageable and smaller steps and to create a sequence of actions of how to solve the problem. It also allowed them to strengthen their critical thinking and to expand their creativity.
When I incorporated coding in my teaching practices, I was able to see firsthand its benefits but some challenges at the same time. For the major part, most of the students grasped the concept of coding with no extra effort; however, for some other students coding ended up being daunting and challenging. Programing the robot mouse to follow the steps shown on the coding card was not easy which resulted in students being frustrated and resisting to not engage with coding and this particular activity.
When I was trying to explore what are some other benefits for coding, I encountered the below information in the Regina Catholic School Division (RCSD) website, and I was surprised to see how beneficial coding can be in various areas such as in:
Academics:
In math – it helps students apply math to “real-world situations” turning math into a fun activity for students.
In writing – it helps kids improve their writing skills by understanding the value of “concision and planning”.
In creativity – it allows students to use their creativity to find the solution for their problem, and it builds students’ confidence “as they learn to problem-solve through coding”
Another area where coding is very helpful is to build soft skills. The more students write complicated codes the better they become in focusing and organization skills. Coding sometimes becomes challenging for students due to the rules and steps that are necessary to build and follow. This helps the students to build resilience while working through these challenges. When students learn how to code they learn how to communicate their ideas clearly with the computer.
Coding can also pave the future of the kids by empowering their confidence and problem solving. It teaches life skills and offers more opportunities for a future careers.
As you can see, the values that coding brings are vast. Whether that is for academics, life skills, or just for fun, coding opens up a world of possibilities for our students and it empowers them with the necessary skills and mindset to thrive in whatever path they choose to pursue. Integrating coding in our curricula will help students to become participants and to see themselves as active contributors to the digital world. As technology is becoming an integral part of education, it is important to become innovative and creative and coding offers us this opportunity.
Examining the Changing Potential of Makerspaces in Education
First of all, The use of technology in education is becoming more and more common in today’s ever changing environment. Even though there are many advantages to technology, it’s important to remember the value of creative and inventive hands-on learning. Makerspaces are cutting-edge settings that allow students to participate in group projects and practical learning experiences while developing their critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. This blog article examines makerspaces as a concept, their function in education, and their effect on literacy. Describe a makerspace. Makerspaces are, at their foundation, physical spaces created to support informal, group learning via hands-on production. In addition to a range of tools and technology that would not be easily accessible in conventional classrooms or homes, these areas give children access to 3D printers, robotics kits, and creative workstations. Makerspaces’ main objectives are to stimulate creativity, welcome original ideas, and promote experimentation. Establishing an Environment for Innovation: Educational specialists Debby Kurti, Steven Kurti, and Laura Fleming contend that makerspaces have to be planned with students’ wonder, curiosity, and fun in mind. These settings foster a culture that values trial-and-error learning and encourages making mistakes. Makerspaces enable children to develop critical skills like perseverance, autonomous problem-solving, and creative thinking by creating an environment of exploration and discovery. Integrating Makerspaces into Literacy Instruction: Laura Fleming, a library media specialist at New Milford High School in New Jersey, is one educator who has done this successfully. Fleming uses makerspaces to add interactive, artistic components to regular literacy projects. For instance, utilizing the resources and equipment in the makerspace, students are required to create their own versions or conclusions for non-linear narrative works. Fleming encourages greater comprehension of literacy themes by having students imagine, create, and construct their ideas. Makerspaces’ Place in STEM and STEAM Education Makerspaces are strongly related to the educational tenets of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and STEM (Science + Art). These frameworks place a strong emphasis on integrating multidisciplinary topics into practical, project-based learning opportunities. Makerspaces allow students opportunity to investigate real-world difficulties and build practical skills that are useful across multiple areas by combining components of design thinking, problem-solving, and discovery learning. Important Things to Take Into Account Before Implementing Makerspaces: There are a few important things that educators should think about before establishing makerspaces in their classrooms. These include figuring out what tools and services are required, setting up infrastructure support, forming alliances with tech businesses or community organizations, and putting in place an assessment mechanism to gauge the makerspace’s efficacy. In summary, makerspaces offer students the chance to participate in practical, group learning experiences, which is a revolutionary approach to education. In an increasingly technologically-driven society, makerspaces enable students to become active creators and innovators by promoting creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities. Makerspaces are an invaluable tool for creating meaningful learning experiences and equipping students for success in the twenty-first century, especially as educators continue to experiment with novel approaches to content delivery and student engagement.
First of all,
Coding has become a necessary ability for pupils of all ages in the current digital era. Teaching coding in elementary school has many advantages, including boosting creativity and improving problem-solving skills. The goal of this guide is to give teachers useful advice and tools for integrating coding into their lessons and giving students an enjoyable and approachable learning environment.
Coding: What is it? Programming, or coding, is the process of instructing a computer to carry out particular tasks. It entails creating software, websites, and apps by writing algorithms in programming languages like Python, JavaScript, or Scratch. Why instruct in computer programming? Students gain greatly from learning to code in primary school.
These benefits include:
Encourages creativity: By helping students build and develop their digital projects, coding gives them the freedom to express their creativity. Problem- solving abilities are developed: Coding calls for logical reasoning and problem-solving, which aids in the development of critical abilities that are applicable to a variety of academic topics.
Confidence- boosting: Finishing coding assignments successfully gives pupils a sense of achievement and increases their self-assurance in their skills. Improves comprehension of technology: Learning to code gives pupils a better grasp of how technology functions, enabling them to act as knowledgeable digital citizens. Creates future opportunities: Knowing how to code gives up a lot of options for employment in industries like technology, engineering, and design. Is coding applicable to all disciplines and courses? Yes, integrating coding into different courses and curricula can improve student learning across academic fields. Instructors can create interdisciplinary linkages and provide students with practical learning experiences by integrating coding projects into language arts, math, science, and even art and music classes. When will kids start learning to code? With age-appropriate resources and activities, coding teaching can start as early as kindergarten and introduce young students to the fundamentals of computational thinking. Students can progressively go on to more complicated coding topics and languages as they finish primary school.
What knowledge should students have before learning to code? There are no prerequisites or specialized abilities needed for pupils to begin learning coding. Nonetheless, fundamental computer literacy abilities, including keyboarding and navigating a mouse, are helpful. Furthermore, persistence, meticulousness, and rational reasoning are necessary for success in the field of coding. How can I begin instructing computer literacy? The following actions can assist teachers in beginning to teach coding in their classrooms:
Become familiar with the principles and instruments of coding: To improve your grasp of coding, go through internet resources, go to workshops, or sign up for professional development courses. Select tools for age-appropriate coding: Choose coding platforms and materials that are appropriate for your children’ age and ability level. For example, novices should use block-based languages like Scratch. Add coding to your course curriculum: Find ways to integrate coding projects into current lesson plans while keeping them in line with standards and learning objectives. Offer assistance and motivation: Provide a welcoming and encouraging learning atmosphere for students to experiment and learn about coding, and be available to help when needed. Encourage cooperation and imagination: Promote group coding projects and give students a platform to present their own concepts and solutions. What are the most effective sources for coding education? From actual coding kits to internet platforms, elementary schools can teach coding using a multitude of options.
Among the well-liked resources are:
MIT Media Lab created the block-based coding environment Scratch, which is perfect for novices and younger students. code.org provides a range of free coding classes and educational materials, such as Hour of Code activities, for teachers. Tynker: Offers engaging coding tutorials and games for primary school pupils. LEGO Education: Provides coding exercises and robotics kits that integrate building with programming principles. Bee-Bot and Ozobot are real robots made to provide young students with a hands-on introduction to fundamental programming ideas.
In summary: coding instruction in elementary schools can have a significant impact on pupils’ future employment prospects, creativity, and cognitive development. Teachers may prepare their pupils for success in our increasingly digital world by making coding accessible and exciting for them through the use of the materials and suggestions provided in this book.
I like to think that I am quite tech-savvy and have been known to be the “Go To” for anything related to MySchoolSask, but when it comes to coding, I feel like a complete novice. I am familiar with coding and conceptually I understand what it is, but to make it happen is a complete mystery to me. It was nice this week to check out different programs that teach elementary coding like Scratch as an opportunity for students to learn at a young age how this process occurs. I found it helpful to read more about coding in the classroom through the following website which provides a thorough guide for teachers to learn how to incorporate coding in their classroom. I think to fully integrate coding into the classroom, it would be important for educators themselves to deeply understand how it works, its applications, and why it would be necessary for students to learn.
However, I would like to spend more of my post exploring Makerspaces. Makerspaces focuses on the fundamental processes of building, constructing, deconstructing, and learning exchanges during these moments. It can involve the newest and brightest technology or the most primitive tools to explore and play. Personally, I love it when I have time to get into a woodworking project that involves all different types of tools and processes that I have limited experience with. This has served me well, and poorly in many various occasions, but it has been a great learning experience for me each time. So, I love the concept of allowing students to explore, and play with various types of materials and tools. Here is a video below that provides a thorough explanation of what this process could look like.
One of the trickier parts of this process requires finding the space, and equipment to set up this style of learning for students. It can seem daunting to start this process in your school if there is no program that is offered for students, but I stumbled upon this blog that offers great insight into how this transition could start in a school that can have a big impact. As well, on the Makerspaces website, they even craft a step-by-step process to how this concept could be applied to each individual context. This step-by-step process is quite intensive, but it does provide a framework for how this could work and operate within a school, or a community-based organization. And, after reading more on the topic, it feels it would be a great way to blend community resources and school-based projects all in one to maximize the impact of this program.
As a Math teacher, I took a class at university that focused on the major contributions of mathematicians over the course of history. Sir Issac Newton was one of the prominent figures in this elite list, and it was very interesting to learn more about his life and upbringing. Newton, from an early age, was known for taking things apart and building them back together. His approach was quite pragmatic in design, but offered great insight into how things function by inversing steps, ultimately to move in a full cycle. Many scholars have praised this problem-solving approach to the many inventions and discoveries that Newton made over his lifetime, and a few of those discoveries include modern calculus, laws of gravity, and fundamental laws of motion. So, these seem like pretty small impacts on the grand scale of mathematical contributions.
Newton had a keen interest in the practical side of constructing objects, and this process could be argued as a catalyst for his inventions and contributions to the math world. He did not inherently exude greatness or innovations in his educational journey, but his pragmatic approach to solving problems created countless opportunities to deepen his learning.
Makerspaces is a prime example of offering space and materials for students to develop their inner genius. And I believe that Newton would be a primary advocate for these programs to foster this innate ability that he developed over many years of tinkering and deep thought in these environments. Therefore, it would be really intriguing to see how schools and community organizations could unite to provide these rich learning environments for students to explore the inner workings of what could birth the next Sir Isaac Newton. In the worst-case scenario, students develop practical skills and self-confidence that could create numerous opportunities in their future.
Please let me know how you think Makerspaces could impact an educational setting, or if you have been directly involved with one.
Thanks!
