Learning & Leading Through Technology

of children will enjoy rewarding computing experiences. These experiences may not result in more professional computer programmers, but they will produce more adults who are capable of understanding and mastering their increasingly technological world. If you care about equity or closing the digital divide, you will advocate for all children to have rich computer programming experiences with a competent teacher.

Time for Change

Schools usually do not consider the worldview of their new kindergartners. Before they start school, many children have already used Skype or Face Time to communicate with others over great distances. They already know that when they have a question, an answer is just a click away.

A kid who has had the ability to
Google anything since she was a tod-

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dler has a different sense of herself as
a learner. Unfortunately, this image of
learning as an active personal process
may be in stark opposition to what
she will experience in a “standards-
based” school, where the teacher and
textbook are the limits of allowed
expertise. When a child can 3D print
and program her toys at home, school
as it currently exists will feel like an
episode of “Land of the Lost.”
The maker movement treats chil-
dren as if they were competent. Too
many schools do not. Making builds
on each child’s passion by connect-
ing their whole being with construc-
tive materials in a flow that results in
fantastic artifacts that almost always
exceed our expectations. We want our
kids so engaged in projects that they
lose track of time or wake up in the
middle of the night counting the min-
utes until they get to return to school.

Never before have there been more
exciting materials and technology for
children to use as intellectual labora-
tories or vehicles for self-expression.

You can empower your students while preparing them to solve problems their teachers never anticipated by embracing the tools, passion, and projects of the maker movement.

Sylvia Libow Martinez is a writer, speaker, maker, mom, video game designer, and electrical engineer. She co-authored the recently released book, Invent to Learn—Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom.

Gary S. Stager is a veteran teacher-educator and keynote speaker. He co-authored Invent to Learn—Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom and is a host of constructingmodernknowledge.