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I went to Austin, Texas March 4-9 to attend SXSWEDU the 5th thru 8th. I met some people from my network in person, I added some new people to my network. I had a couple of good conversations and encountered a couple of interesting ideas. But I am spoiled, I wanted more casual, informal networking. Not at a bar (evening socials). You can’t have conversations at a noisy place. I have been to conferences that have gaps in the schedule and some designated space for these interactions. You cannot schedule “Happy Hour” & “Social Meetups” at the same time as other sessions on the schedule. You need a place to go where people expect you to “butt in” to their conversation. A place to go where no one is allowed to sit alone, others drag you into their conversation. I go to conferences because those are the only places I can have face to face conversations with people in my network. The sessions are nice, but I could get just as much info from a shout out on Twitter and some website research. Conferences are about networking.
Some of things I did encounter that I will look at in more detail : - The Dumpster project in Austin is the question of how to turn a dumpster into a sustainable home. It is an actual design/build project, but also a discussion starter for many science topics around the Huston-Tillotson University campus. How many sci-fi future movies show us living in the space the size of a dumpster or shipping container. I think this was the best idea to explore. - There was a nice session about Education in Finland that I tweeted many ideas. Education started from nothing after 5 wars created shortages of everything. Education is highly valued, teachers are trusted, the Minister of Education is the 4th most powerfu in the government. Early education is social and play basic education is age 7-16. Lots of free , free, free. School sports not a big thing. Learning spaces rather than classrooms, and movable / flexible spaces. They look at a 50 year return on investment. Second best session and it was only 20 minutes (should have been longer) and in a room that only fit 70 people (waiting line). -There was a Designing An Innovative School panel session with people from 4 different schools. One was Holy Family Academy near Pittsburgh PA and the interesting point Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri made was about the partnerships they have with businesses , many of which are internships for the students. Besides student learning, these also help the students afford a private school. - A nice session about the national program to help Maker Education through Maker Ed , Google, and the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh. Making is working with people building capacity and professional development. They are creating a national network, with 15 Regional hubs supporting up to 20 schools each. -Rigorous Whimsy was a session about Understanding through Creativity. They have a book “Intention : Critical Creativity in the Classroom” which I added to my Amazon list. A lot about learning activities with authentic purpose and audience, opportunities to show what you learned connected to things you are interested in. Very much MakerSpace ideas “if they build it they will get it” - National Geographic has very good Education programs that can bring scientists into you classroom. Some of this is via YouTube live sessions. Dr. Robert Ballard is an upcoming event. -Dragon Printshop is a school “intrapreneurship” program at The Art Institute in Round Rock ISD. They partnered with a local printer to learn about the business. They use a wide format printer and students run the shop only 1.5 hours a day producing posters and banners and wall flair (paper only). They now have screen printing and are hoping to get a good chunk of the ½ million dollar t-shirt business that the District does. Every school District should have this as part of their Makerspaces, paper printers, vinyl printers, tshirts…
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No, not Iggy Pop. Saint Ignatius High School, Lakewood Ohio. I was off Friday, so I took the opportunity to visit St. Ignatius High School to visit Jonathan Jarc (@trendingedtech ) and his learning space. They took a regular computer lab (industrial carpet, rows of tables with desktops) , pulled everything out and created a more collaborative, creative space. They made some of their own furniture, had a local person custom make some, and bought some. There are several areas to do large/medium group teaching from, with TV & projectors having Apple TV’s connected.
They added some maker equipment that went with their new “Digital Literacy” 2D/3D design class that they started 3 years ago, replacing their “Computer Applications” course. All sophomores (~300) take this for a semester. One quarter is 2D design,working with vector graphics drawing and photoshop. The students use the cnc machine, laser cutter and vinyl cutter, as well as cardboard, for projects. The students have MacBooks. The other quarter is 3D design, stepping things from 2D to 3D , while using laser cutter and 3D printers. They have an awesome toy/ornament design project. They do a high volume of printing and need the multiple machines. They have 6 regular printers and are getting 4 more. They have 4 , “specialty” 3D printers. The class is in the Art department. Jonathan and one other teacher teach this , as well as Tech PD duties, and a couple of other classes (like a 3D design elective for Juniors & Seniors. They have 28-30 students in each section and need more space. There is an old auxiliary gym that is only used for some things that they would love to take over. They could also use another teacher so they can reduce class sizes (we all know how “easy” it is to just add a teacher to staff). A couple of Art students actually mashed up some ideas and used the CNC to make patterns that they can roll their ceramics on. I enjoyed some nice conversation with Jonathon. it is always nice to bounce thoughts and ideas off others who have similar interests.  Since we had a day off from school, I went over to Maumee & Perrysburg to visit some friends and their learning spaces. In the morning I met with Jason Dugan (@maumeetech ) at Maumee High School. He is a former Computer Science professional that got into education a while back and has enjoyed it. He has been Maumee Tech Director for three years, the same amount of time as the new Superintendent, and they have been making changes for those three years. They really seem to have a good vision for student learning and MakerSpaces. Jason started by giving the Art teacher a 3D printer and things have blossomed in the art room since then. They have been repurposing space (corners and storage rooms) for various purposes. One has an XCarve (CNC router), one has a recording studio. They have added more 3D printers, another a ZSpace for scanning items into 3D design. Beyond hardware, it has been ideas and projects for the students. Design this, build this. AP Art has become MakerSpace class where the students need to submit 27 projects, and people can take it even if they have not had art before. One student who had not taken any Art before designed, built, and programmed a VR sandbox for the Middle School. The Art Room MakerSpace is open during lunch for students and many come to work on their own ideas.  Jason and Administration is working on expanding the idea of Maker. They are going to remodel the Media Center. One space behind glass walls will be a dedicated Maker Art Space. They will have multiple student collaboration spaces, as well as a central,open, MakerSpace. They have incorporated Maker into various aspects of their PD. MHS is also one of the few Ohio schools that teaches Computer Science, by having another former Computer Science professional run that and robotics classes.  We also went over to the Elementary. Jason showed me one of the 2 VR kits that they made (finding a certain phone, setup to go to the secure network so no need for extra router for teacher to mess with). They have MakeSpace after school and have had an awesome response, sometimes making it difficult to get all kids who want it. They have a 4 week STEM camp in June, with each week having a theme. There has been great response to this also The most important thing they have is people with Vision. People that see making is important, and the student is more important than a test. If you focus on the student they will perform well on anything. Because it is part of their vision it is also part of their budgets.  In the afternoon, I went to Hull Prairie Intermediate School to hang out with Jason Hubbard (@jsnhubbard ). Hull Prairie is a new building this year and is a STEM designated school in Ohio. I also got to meet Julia Whalen (@MrsWhalenSTEM ). We chatted for a while during his planning period and after school, and I watched 2 of his classes. They have a nicely designed building, as you would expect for new construction. They have lots of writeable surfaces, areas for student collaboration, TV’s on walls for presentations, various seating and tables, some rooms for presentations. One of the more intriguing things I heard was that they got rid of their library….but wait. They have a couple of reading areas with a good number of books. Most interesting is that they partnered with the local public library for students to get books via the online card catalog. The library delivers 3 times a week (and the school doesn’t have to keep a large inventory of books and can use that space for other purposes)  The only flaw I really see is there are too many kids in one class. They have great demand for STEM, design, maker type classes. But it is very difficult to do projects with so many students and get them all the feedback they need.
Maybe Jason Hubbard and I can meet up again at Jason Dugan’s STEM camp this summer.  I started visiting existing spaces and talking to people. My first trip was to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson and Matthew Gerber. They have an awesome space and he has some tremendous credentials/equipment certifications. They received an endowment to retrofit part of an existing building and created a space kids just want to hang out in. The space shows excellent planning and thinking. There is an entryway with some nice chairs and end tables, a couple of high rounds with tall chairs, very high ceilings with natural light and a TV panel wall. The short hall leading to the door has a giant size “lite brite”. Touch a dial and it turns on, spin it and it changes color. Great piece to get kids in a creative mode. They have 3 nice size rooms. One has a set of desktops with dual monitors that can be rotated. This room also has some whiteboard tables, garment printer, vinyl cutters, PCB prototyping mill, and various electronics.
The middle room has some awesome lab tables with great built in storage. There are also 3D printers in this room as well as a sewing machine, epilog laser engraver, some little bits, and lots of storage. The third room is a wood shop with all the tools you would expect, including cnc routers. There was a biology/cancer class using the lab table room and lasers to make cardboard mazes for their mice. There are some dedicated classes in the space. All Freshmen are required to take “Learn to Make” and “Learn to Code”. One interesting project that Matt mentioned was upper students making their own Arduinos. About 50% of the teachers have used the space. Almost 80% of the students have used it at one time or another. There are open lab hours for students , and teachers, to come work on projects.  I went to see the Cleveland Mobile FabLab and Sarah Wallace. It is a trailer that Sarah pulls from school to school. She was using an Epilog laser to cut out birdhouse pieces for the next days workshop. So the Lab has lasers, vinyl cutter, 3D printers, CNC router, various hand tools, and craft supplies. There is not a lot of space to move around with all that in the trailer. I forgot to ask how many people she tends to have in the trailer, but it cannot be many . She has a list of upgrades that she is working on. That is the thing with a space, as you use it you adapt and develop it. The FabLab is owned by the District, which is different than some places where the Educational Service Center is the owner. There is only 1 lab and 1 person and 105 schools. We talked about many things in the maker & FabLab realm. Went to check out the new Brady Middle School FabLab. It is a small space, but very bright and organized. There are no classes in the lab. They want it to be an integrated thing where teachers and students come use it for project based learning. The have 3D printers, laser engravers, vinyl cutters, sewing machines, a small and a large cnc router, some electronics and RaspberryPi starter kits. Something that they remembered to make the cnc work easier was the ancillary tools needed like band saw, scroll saw and sander. I went during an evening Open House and the kids were very excited and using all of the tools available. 
Sorry the video is in portrait orientation.
I kept trying to shoot it in landscape and the iPhone kept switching it to portrait. So I gave up and shot it in portrait... After 21 years….
I will not be in a classroom. I am taking some sabbatical time. It is an odd feeling. No new kids to get to know. No students to catch up with and see how much they have changed. No sports teams revving up for a season. No neighbor teachers to talk about what’s new. Everyone else tweeting about first days and new starts. But then again, no lesson plans, or paperwork, or new initiatives, or getting up at 5 a.m. One point of view might be that I am retiring for a year. Or maybe you could say I am going to “home school” myself. Though, in reality, don’t most teachers home-schooled themselves. Now I will not be dividing my time between learning things I want and lesson plans / curriculum / assessments. There are some people and places I want to visit to see how they do things. A main focus will be MakerSpaces and FabLabs. Do you have something awesome to share with me? There are some conferences to get to that I could not when I was in a school (FabLearn, SXSWEDU…). I have some books to read. I just got a CNC router to learn the nuances of CAD/CAM. Being a maker, there are always things to build (homemade gifts). I will continue to share my “edventures” here and on my youtube channel. I know what I want my next phase in the education world to be. I want to help people and places develop a Maker Mindset and MakerSpaces/FabLabs. Now I can focus on learning more about that, as well as figuring out how to get myself out into the world to work with people. Anyone need a partner for doing this? Do you need some help with these concepts? Please contact me ( @shirky17). Did I make the right decision to take time and refocus, redirect what I am doing in the education world? Leaving a pretty good paying job with insurance for nothing? That will be a lingering question.
Hello. Here are some videos of me beginning to use VCarve Desktop to create things to cut out on my Piranha FX CNC Router. VCarve Desktop is a combined CAD/CAM software, so that is nice.
#SPARCC17
I got in to SPARCC17 (Stark/Portage Area Computer Consortium) at the last minute (apparently some people had to cancel, thank you). It is held at Stark State College (where I taught for 5 years a LONG time ago). This was year 13 and still free, thanks to a good base of sponsors. Eric Curts is the main organizer (follow him and his website). They have a good mix of topics/presenters and 15 minutes between sessions. I started with an Adobe Spark session to refresh my memory about this tool. Students making book trailers was the core of this. I had mentioned this idea to my librarian for several years, but they never went anywhere with it. The new thing I found was http://booknook.infohio.org/ where teachers can submit student book reviews and they are accessible to all. That site/service might even link the book review in your library catalog?? I don't know why ALL schools don’t do this. I found out about https://meet.libbyapp.com/ which is an app to read library books, need to investigate further. Also found that there is a mobile maker space in SW Ohio called TinkerTank. I need to go visit them. The final session I went to was about Google Maps, Streetview, and Cardboard. Just wanted to see what they knew. Again, why don’t all schools have tours of their buildings available on Maps/Streetview??? Got to catch up with a couple of people in my network (Melissa & Andreas), but only added a couple of people to my network. Summer is when I take time to build stuff (in addition to home improvements like new stairs and siding). Some of the things I have built so far are flower boxes, bookshelves, trellis, another workbench (for my new CNC router machine), portable whiteboard... I want to also make videos about how I built them. Just to share. My next big thing is learning how to use the CNC router. I will need this skill for any MakerSpace or FabLab that I want to set up or work in. I probably will be playing more with some electronics/programming, hummingbird kits or edison or circuit playground … Maybe I should take requests...what do you want me to build/learn and teach you with a video? A couple of videos I did recently...  3 shelf rack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9h0i1VEty4 ) I built this from ¾” strips of wood long enough to get 12”x12”x12” spaces. It cost less than $20 and works nicely as a night stand holding up a lamp.  Portable whiteboard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id3kPWerNZM ) I saw several versions of simple whiteboards on wheels that can also act as dividers and wanted to try to build one. This cost about $70 to build ($25 for boards and $25 for casters). I was aiming for one with a shelf on the bottom. It works fine and i will use it often in my shop. The biggest flaw is it is a little wobbly because the boards are kind of free floating vertically, just some pressure from the other holding it up. There are other ideas on how to build this more stable, but I have newer things to spend money on.  3 box planter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz-MbHXvmXo ) 8 - 1”x4” furring strips (not #1 pine, just for cost) The wood costs about $17, then some miscellaneous shop materials (glue, nails/screws, stain). Made a little mistake with the top shelf….it should not be end to end (some of it should stick out past the supports). This makes the uprights “fade out” a little (not be perfectly vertical. Since this will be an “extended summer” (sabbatical) the building will continue. Just wait til I learn how to use a CNC router…..Homemade Christmas presents!!! (some other things i have built….but no videos
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