Did you ever watch a kid figure something out? It’s magic.  Engagement is obvious.  Mentally and physically the kid is “all in.”  There is something so great about a kid creating with a pile of raw materials, solving a problem in his or her own way, or inventing something that doesn’t yet exist.

All of these thoughts have sent me back to reading the work of Seymour Papert.  His legacy is well defined in this article.  It amazes me to think  that before I was born, Logo was invented to be used by children. The vision of knowing that the benefits of having children program the computers, rather than having computer teach them was alive in the group creating Logo before schools were even filled with computers.

And here were are. Fast forward years and schools are embracing the idea of the makerspace.  But are they embracing the ideas of Seymour Papert and Constructionism?

• Are these spaces becoming places where kids can construct their own meaning, or places where they can use kits to put things together?
• Are kids coming up with their own ideas, solving real problems, and connecting with problems in their world?
• Is the makerspace a place where kids are exploring, dreaming, and doing or is it a place where kids are following prescribed recipes to jump through “standards”?
• Are we reserving open exploration, discovery, and creativity for one room in the school?
• Is the goal to order tons of gadgets and deploy instruction or is the goal to provide resources and let kids decide how they are used?
• Is the idea of ‘making” about making connections and creating understanding, or just making stuff that doesn’t have underlying meaning?

I feel like the whole idea of a makerspace is a real chance to bypass the crazy stringent limiting curriculums poured on our schools and get to the heart of real, true, authentic learning experiences. Flashy kits are exciting and who doesn’t get caught up in gadgets?  But, the real magic in making is in Papert’s Constructionism and his words:

  “The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge.”  

It is those very thoughts that can allow any space in your classroom, hallway, or school to become a makerspace.  And I think the best thing we can do is continue to be thoughtful about what that means. What real learning is. What kids need.  That’s when the magic will happen.