This is a chapter I submitted to peeragogy.org as part of their Peeragogy Handbook. It appears under chapter V: Convene. Thanks for checking it out
We just wrapped up the 2nd Annual Champlain Mini Maker Faire at the beautiful Shelburne Farms Coach Barn. This was a watermark for my connected learning project from the summer #clmooc. The project continues in the Intro to 3D Digital Design class that I’m giving. One of the themes I am playing with is persistence in time and other experiments in multi modal making. Presenting the faire as a mixed reality event to the students focused their attention to a deadline, an event coming way too quickly. For the most part they weren't ready, neither was I. I left participation online at the faire optional. I was fortunate and each day a student came in world and worked on their makes. Flying around, projected on a screen, in front of passing faire goers -- many curious folks stopped in to ask questions. One student, Blue Rose, did some interesting interior work in her 'box-ish' design. The creation of interior spaces that the learners made intrigues me. It speaks to the interior process occurring in the make, that turning out, what is in. We look for the product, missing the process. The making is what is so much fun in OpenSim. Anther student, whose avatar's name is Marcus Brutus made the delicate da Vinci flying glider. A great project for OpenSim. If you have the choice to make anything you can imagine, where there are no material or physical constraints, what is it that you choose to make? What would you choose? Mr. Higglesworth, the avatar for another student, used the opportunity to rapid prototype his set design for a play he was directing "The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon". This production occurred the same weekend as the faire. When the video is available the Director wants to load into a media URL and project it in world on his set. The set is a concept. Monolithic, imaginary, mono tone. He explored other textures but in the end went with black. Snaps from the three Dark Stage Makes These are makes from the Dark Stage, featuring Double-Vision, Seeing Redd Productions, and Movement in Miniature.
There is a tremendous amount of content to chew over and synthesize. In the thick of it its difficult to get my bearings. Making is always going on all around us, if we can see it. In reflecting about connected learning here I wonder about all the separations that we have institutionalized and internalized. We are sorely disconnected, especially from the earth. This is the cirsis we face as a species. Separated, we are planning our own obsolescence, throw away people. Making reconnects, and the more dimensions engaged, the less we are separated.
MakerSim: Ontos and Hephaestus in the 3Rd Rock Grid running on OpenSim.
A Make Cycle resembles a fibonacci fractal more than a road. And the map is mythopoetic. Humans as myth makers. The Maker Myth is the the journey to MakerSim. After Hephaestus is thrown from Olympus for defending Athena, he re emerges Husband to Aphrodite, a cripple and the ultimate maker, appearing on a chariot. In this re telling of the tale, Hephaestus falls into Lemnos and emerges from a volcano to be transported to Shelburne, Vermont and the spectacular Coach Barn.
Going through a series of maker stations, finally Hephaestus finds the Sky box of MakerSim, sees the entire simulator (has the revelation of flight), and falls again into a volcano, repeating the journey. And though the tale features a male protagonist, the role of the feminine is equally as essential and insightful into the nature of making. This is a cycle, and the myth of eternal return. I wonder about what I can learn from these ancient stories of makers, and how it connects to the present, the future? Myths hold secrets as we re discover who we are. They need to be remade. The ultimate remix. MakerSim is the Virtual MakerSpace I created to accompany the Champlain Mini Maker Faire. Organized as a social network using spruz.com. The idea is to provide a persistent virtual environment to build a network around the event for the Makers. I have some other synthesis occurring with this event. It will be the focus of a class I am teaching in the fall:Intro to 3D Design. The students will be makers virtually, and hosts of the machinima. As a mixed reality event it will occur both actually on September 28th and 29th in a real place, but simultaneously and for a little bit longer, it will persist as a virtual space, a learning environment, MakerSim. I'm looking for a blended learning environment, that captures the rich, unique diversity of place with the affordances of the internet. Maker Faires and MakerSpaces provide opportunities for this kind of activity. But there is more here. I can't quire figure out how to get to it. But it is about access to Maker Faires for anyone, anywhere. In some way. Start somewhere. why not here? So I hope to work with some learner's with access issues, who can only participate virtually, or primarily. Once we open this up to a connected internet anyone can attend in some capacity. And as we enhance our ability to mix and blend reality, the greater and more immersed the virtual participation will be. It is here that the greater the diversity, the greater the potential for innovation and catharsis. What did I make this week? I made pies, lots of food, we made meals. We made garden beds We made water journey’s, looking in a Loon’s eye I made a mind map of my map project I’m making a machinima of my map I’m building the scenes with my partner Making a story board to tell a story I am making a map that is cyclical, covers past, present and future, and is both literal and imagined. Way too complicated but fun! I made connections with new people in the #clmooc I interacted with some people on the #clmooc I added people in Google+, joined new groups, and was added back I looked at their stuff, we chatted, HungOut I became a little more curious about these people and what/who they are connected with I made a blog, reflecting on last week I’m making a blog post for this past week, oh this is it! I made utterances, tweets and retweets I added new people to follow on Twitter, and deleted some too I made new connections to the local area, and Uttarakhand, India, as we participate in global climate change events together I’m synthesizing new components and comprehending new systems
I’m missing some synchronous activities of the mooc, but just barely—I like to chew things over in my own time I was added by +Cynthia Davidson in her #f5f, along with fabulous others, providing “interesting ideas, projects, and encouragement this week.”
The Macroscope courtesy of ESRI
I remember hearing about the greatest innovation of our age-- the macroscope. If we assign the paradigm shift that occurred in 2007, as the ubiquity of user generated content (web2), we have to acknowledge that the second most trans formative discovery was that of the macroscope, intoduced in the article, "Geography's View of the World", By Jerome E. Dobson, Professor of Geography, University of Kansas. It seems that our mooc facilitators are bringing us down the path of Particpatory 3DGIS. If I had another career it would be in GIS. An incredible tool for inclusion and exclusion, mapping, like any scientific inquiry presupposes the answer and contains the bias of its inquirer. That's what so cool about participatory mapping in 3D. It is the web 2 of mapping. It mixes it up and includes wisdom not found in assumptions but through a deep knowledge of place. "One of the reasons that tacit knowledge is being surfaced during P3DM is that the relief model helps different elders reflect on their own knowledge and listen to each other. It makes tacit knowledge become coherent and identifiable for the holders of that knowledge. This can be missed using other techniques. It is the link between memory, land and maps which creates a particular focus." Isn't this what we are trying to do in our #CLMOOC? Spatial knowledge embedded with something deeper. Our spiritual journey, our memories and history, or path to each other. There is a tremendous amount of untapped wisdom in this. I wonder what it would look like? And for me it is a metaphor of our struggle with homogenization, the common core. The tools of PPGIS are common, but the context is unique. Which should inform which? Similar forces are at work, in any map. ie., Here are the coal deposits. No, sorry, there aren't any endangered species there. This is the way to get there, through this town, not that. Put the road in here. That kind of thing. I am reflecting about this as I try to create my map. Spatial and spiritual, past and present.
I have been participating in the #clmooc as part of 'A Massive Open Online Collaboration about Connected Learning' that the National Writing Project is facilitating. One of the most exciting aspects of the Maker Movement is its emergent bottom up nature. In this sense it does act in some ways like a self organizing learning environment, rhizomic learning, as Dave Cormier envisions the cmooc. The many prompts that the team at #clmooc facilitates are excellent places to begin. LOL. I suppose this is one way I learn. Though I do find the make cycles a bit tight in terms of a time frame. If I make one vision even partially manifest in the course of a year I would be delighted! And to make one real connection with another person would also be incredibly valuable. The vision that has been cycling around me is that of a virtual makerspace. I am taking this mooc as a way to develop and explore this idea, piggy backing on the wonderful energy that the others in the mooc are exuding, eager to share and learn.Through my own experiences in 'makerspaces', and I use this name very broadly, I have wondered about accessibility and equity. I observe both that it tends to attract people who would not normally be interested in making and connections to STEM subjects, yet excludes them because of physical access. I started thinking about what a virtual makerspace would be, and how it could be universally accessible. OpenSim is a virtual Makerspace. Here there was space to dream and create. It is a space to collaborate. Yet the deep past called to me with names and sounds. I dreamed of Hephestus. The god is enabled. MakerSim was created, Ontos and Hephestus. They can be found on the 3rd Rock Grid. Hephestus returns from exile on the chariot he made, winged, though crippled The Maker has long been a god, and the myths that surround him have tantalizing connections to the maker movement today. There are deep insights into our nature in this image and tale. Not all of it savory. Here is the info on this image: K7.6 THE RETURN OF HEPHAISTOS Museum Collection: (not known where), Berlin, Germany Catalogue Number: Berlin F2273 Beazley Archive Number: 201595 Ware: Attic Red Figure Shape: Kylix Painter: Attributed to the Ambrosios Painter Date: ca 525 BC Period: Archaic This god's connection to Aphrodite, his parthenogenesis and his crippled and ugly appearance, seem to suggest something more universal in his aspect of creator. It makes sense to me that in the ancient world people who were different or challenged in some way, would not be going off to war, or the fields farming-- but likely they would be making. Although a powerful masculine figure, not all cultures identified these characteristics as exclusively male. For example in Celtic mythology the aspects of creation and fire are feminine, the goddess is named, "BRIGIT (Breet) / BRID (Breed) / BRIG / BRIGID / BRIGHID ((Ireland, Wales, Spain, France)) *goddess*" Associated with Imbloc. Goddess of fire, fertility, the hearth, all feminine arts and crafts and martial arts. Healing, physicians, agriculture, inspiration, learning, poetry, divination, prophecy, smithcraft, animal husbandry, love, witchcraft, occult knowledge. or, "SCATHACH / SCOTA/ SCATHA ((Ireland)) *Goddess* The shadowy one. Goddess in the destroyer aspect. A warrior woman and prophetess who lived in Albion (Scotland), probably on the Isle of Skye and taught the martial arts. Patroness of blacksmiths, healing, magick, prophecy, martials arts." In Chinese mythology, "Nüwa is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven. "Nüwa used yellow clay to make people. But the clay was not strong enough so she put ropes into the clay to make the bodies erect." I found this very interesting video about making and the disabled by Meryl Apel transcribed here on the HASTAC site entitled Making Space in the Makerspace: Building a Mixed-Ability Maker Culture. The practice of ‘flipping’ the classroom is intriguing because it opens the door to correcting the inversion we perceive in institutionalized learning environments. Flip the lesson plan, flip the teacher, flip the facility, flip the school-- I’m speaking about inversion in the sense of Plato’s cave allegory, everything is not only a shadow, but it is inverted. What should be up is down, and what seems like what’s best is often not. Happily, I have been able to structure my learning environment in a student centric, project based manner. In some ways I have flipped the facility --a performing arts center-- the learners are responsible for designing and actualizing all aspects of the performance venue. But looking deeper into the structure of my ‘center’ I know it is heavily and essentially driven in a top down manner. Of course. This is an academic facility and it has programs to fulfill. In and of itself this is a vital and fantastic learning environment; hands on, connected, blended, experiential, problem-project and place- based. Flipping the institutional order, on the other hand, would look very different. It would move from a push scenario to a pull one. A truly flipped ‘center’ would be a place for learner driven programming and creation-- a place where learners can follow their collaborative vision quest and personal learning journeys. The users would drive which way the programming went. A very exciting scenario. But this is a very different scenario from most learning environments, classrooms, telecentre’s, etc. Inverting the order of the learning environment is necessary for a truly ‘flipped’ learning environment, not simply learner actualized, but learner driven. This is the step to “Education 3.0” that Jackie Gerstein talks about. One way of characterizing this is along the lines of the constructivist approach, literally -- making of all kinds, is learning. Tuning my lenses, and looking at the ‘center,’ the learning environment as a makerspace, suddenly reveals new insights. The potential of what goes on, and what could go on, in a learner driven makerspace is opened up exponentially. A makerspace is user driven and follows a path guided by the materials at hand or provided. Naturally the place that this activity, the making, occurs in has an equally important role to play as the participants and the materials. So I ask myself, what would this performing arts center look like if it was a ‘makerspace’? You can ask yourself about the learning environments you work in: what would the telecenter look like as a makerspace? What if it was driven by pulling in the things the users wanted, not pushed upon by what the salesman provided? Makerspaces have been excited by the explosion of hackable electronic media and devices, such as the Raspberry Pi. While ICT’s are a critical component of the proliferation of makerspaces and hackerspaces, making is not confined to this. In a more ecological way the many interconnected systems that support a place of any kind all are made. The choice remains with the user. Making the makerspace, making the electricity, making the food, making the decisions of what to make should revolve around the needs of the users. In this way, the telecentre is very similar to a makerspace. The difference is that currently the computers and ICT infrastructure are programming the users, as they do in most schools. In a learning environment 3.0, the users would be pulling in what they wanted to learn and know-- making what they wanted or needed, programming devices that met their interests. Program or be Programmed. The innovation that allows us to morph our learning environments into 3.0 learning (making) environments is user generated ‘vision’ in a connected world. This is precisely what my center or your classroom or a telecentre could become-- a connected learning environment where making occurs driven by the interests of the learners. And they will be most interested! The learning environment I teach in, a performing arts center in a small rural college, cannot shed its circumstances. It is part of an institution and the programmatic top down, curricular obligations that determine its nature and purpose. The tsunami of change in education encourages me to follow the needs of the learner. Using the educational philosophy of the makerspace, I appreciate my learning space in an entirely new way. I am looking for ways to enhance the making and to liberate the curiosity of the makers and the making that occurs within it. |