“This course is genius-clever — it has enabled me to apply every part of this so called teacher-specific study to both my design and Fab Lab practice.” —Kirsten Browne, Co-founder Fab Lab Masterton I am not a qualified teacher. I am an active co-founder of a provincial open access makerspace. And here…

“When you bring people into a space in an interdisciplinary way, cross-pollination takes place… almost like a rubber band around you, and for you to have an understanding of the world you have to allow this to stretch out to surround other people. “The campus holds some incredibly dynamic people…

“Each NASA spacecraft has its own Twitter account and personality.” —Open University (p14) Social media has quickly become a sexy tool for businesses, brands and special interests to win eyeballs, enhance, disrupt, inform, misinform, persuade, and make money. Deployed for professional networking (as with personal networking), social media is like…

So far (touch wood), Fab Lab Masterton has not been challenged by inappropriate online activity while engaged in classes. Nor have we been challenged on our publicity via online media, which occasionally features photos or videos of young participants engaged in digital fabrication. I have been largely responsible for publicity…

Two weeks ago, Fab Lab Masterton was welcomed onto the UCOL Wairarapa campus with a pōwhiri on their marae. Local Māori leaders PJ, Hoani & Mike joined with UCOL Māori & Pasifika Student Support leader Simone Baker (Rangitāne/Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa) to create the occasion. Speaking was almost entirely Te…

Without taking much of your time, what follows is a quick tiki tour compiled for you. It explains why the maker movement—enabled by makerspaces—is not just a cool add-on, but core to a community that values education today. On the menu: 1. What are today’s major trends in education? 2. What does…

Check this out. It describes how the socio-economic status of a person or community influences their perspective… My last blog took a look at a recently formed “community of practice” amongst a cohort of teachers from Wairarapa schools studying Mind Lab post-grad together. It took a good deal of wrangling…

Educational theorist and practitioner Etienne Wenger is top dog in the study of “communities of practice” (CoPs). With many publications in this area, Etienne has distilled its definition: “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to…

It seems hard for schools to collaborate with one another, but there are paths through that tangled forest, and this is one… Teachers from primary, intermediate and secondary schools across the Wairarapa have come together for Week one of post-graduate course Certificate of Applied Practice — Digital and Collaborative Learning…