[hackerspaces] Spark 181 – Mitch Altman says hackers could raise $10mil

[Jerry Isdale]

Rose White asked :
> Now that I've read about the "flipped classroom" model, I think it
> sounds good for this effort--but I think that the term isn't common,
> or at least not common to folks who aren't parents or involved in
> online education. Could you explain it to the group? All I know is
> what I found on a quick search.

Flipped Classroom is a sorta new term which basically inverts the conventional lecture-in-class/practice-as-homework to watch-lectures-on-line/practice-in-class-with-mentor  The classic model here is Kahn Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/) with its math/science videos. Many schools are finding this works very effectively for some subjects.  The Kahn videos follow a very specific model -- no talking heads, drawing hands work the problems.  The students can pause/rewind and rewatch as often as desired to understand the material -- unlike in-school lectures that go quickly (esp as students doze off, get distracted, etc) with no repeating.  Teacher/Mentors get to spend more time answering student questions and helping them work problems.

Shop classes are often taught this way - an introductory video to (insert machine tool/technique), followed by quick demo by teacher (tweaked for local model of machine, etc) and then student practice.  Its how I learned metal working basics ... followed by lots of practice.  The vids we had at my metal shop were probably 30+years old judging by the clothing, haircuts, and still images.  A couple of them even had 'ding' sounds to advance the film strip. (how many of you remember film strips?)

I've been talking up this idea a bit in the community - at School Factory, USFLN symposium, with contacts at Kahn Academy.  I think it is something well worth while.  

For the Badges part - I think it would be a terrific extra for the students to create an Instructable/How-To/Documentary of their projects. One this would promote their work/portfolio, two it would get more how-tos out there, and three it would train them to pass on the knowledge.

So one early badge would be the Instructables badge.  (hmmm maybe we could get some funding from Autodesk?)

Jerry Isdale
isdale at gmail.com



On May 10, 2012, at 8:47 AM, Jerry Isdale wrote:
> I like the Hacker Scouts idea.  There is a group over at SchoolFactory.org that is working to organize this ...
>    https://atrium.schoolfactory.org/makerscouts/
> 
> One issue I have with the Adafruit approach is that while they provide the badges, there is no associated 'requirements' for each (at least not yet.)  Each badge needs a sample activities list showing the types of things that should be completed to achieve the badge.
> 
> As Mitch noted, the in-school space funding may be harder to get with makerspace.com already rolling.
> What about a flipped school approach?
> 
> I propose the hackerspace community collectively create an archive of course materials for teaching various skills. This would include how-to videos, presentation slides, teacher support material, lists of materials, etc.  Skills would be the classic hacker activities - coding, soldering, metal bending, laser cutting, 3d printing, metal foundry, crafting, locks etc.  and also tie in more conventional school skills -- eg showing how 3d printing can be used to illustrate geometry, etc.  The course materials archive would get peer review, and require use of an open (Create Commons) license. Then schools, spaces, fablabs, and other kid/adult organizations around the world could access them online and use them locally.
> 
> On top of that we create an organization that solicits funds from foundations, etc and collects up the $10mil+, which it in turn passes on to courseware developers to support their activities.   This organization helps reduce the grant scramble that individual efforts would need to do ... and collects them so MacArthur etc sees one well done proposal rather than 20 lesser ones.
> 
> Jerry Isdale
> isdale at gmail.com
> 
> 
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20120510/7a8efa82/attachment.html>