I'm reading Invent to Learn

Second post in a day! Blogger Boo Boo. Oh well.

Have you heard of this book? It is about "making" in the classroom. There is a local minimakerfaire coming up in a few days that I'm thinking of checking out. Not educational in focus but maybe it will help me figure out how to bring more real, hands on stuff to the school library.

I'm not done yet but thought I'd post about ... thoughts so far. Here is their webpage. Bold text is just me showing what really stood out ... it wasn't in the actual text. Italics is the reference point as well as I could mark it when reading the Kindle version and my thinking so far.


Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez





Do I need to get out more? This is the most textbook like thing I have read since ... a textbook. But still interesting enough to keep going. This will probably be long. Sorry. I did try to edit!


THIS book quotes Piaget "to understand is to invent" (So I am a doofus and can't figure out the Kindle page numbers ... location 159 of 5629 if that helps? Are the "locations" consistent across devices? #IdontknowasmuchabouttechasIpretend)

"this 'maker movement' overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing" (location 173)

"The sorts of projects made possible by these materials may make readers nostalgic for what primary education used to be and reinvigorate project-based learning. Classrooms could once again become places of great joy, creativity, and invention.... Tinkering is a powerful form of learning by doing." (locations 191 and 200)

"The maker movement represents a bright spot in a world that too often uses computers biased towards the least empowering aspects of formal education." (location 545 ... and this one made me SIGH the most. Dang if I don't get sick and tired of computerized drill stuff on the computer lab machines.  One reason I try to keep the library machines very occupied with more interesting applications. :( :( :()

A WHOLE BUNCH of stuff about constructivism in education

Britain admits they changed their ICT curriculum because "It is harmful and dull." (quote from another source but in location 697 in this book ... also HA!)

"Reading and 'remixing' another person's computer program is a sophisticated form of literacy students need today." (location 748)

"Makedo is a series of reusable connectors and hinges for turning cardboard packaging materials into elaborate structures and play objects." (location 776 ... and now I am SO MAD that when Educents had them I didn't go ahead and get some. This was when they were like so new and it was a great deal and I didn't. That always happens. Buyer's remorse goes both ways. Also why do I remember random stuff like that when I still don't know the house phone number of my new place?)

"Although the learning happens inside the learn's head, this happens most reliably when the learner is engaged in a personally meaningful activity outside of heir head that makes the learning real and shareable." (location 825)

"... this is from 1987! 'Seek out open-ended projects that foster students' involvement with a variety of materials, treating computers as just one more material, alongside rules, wire, paper, sand, and so forth." (location 905)

"None of the constraints of school are for the benefit of learning--they create a more manageable, homogeneous, efficient platform for teaching a predetermined bit of content." (location 933)

"The scientific method may work for testing a guess about how the world works, but it is not applicable to things that don't exist yet." (location 1115 ... I like that she points this out ... considering she was part of the group that if I understand correctly invented GPS? Which SAVES MY LIFE?!! #nosenseofdirectionatall)

In location 1364 there are Eight Elements of a Good Project. Go find a copy of the book and look them up. We can discuss later. ;)

"One of the responsibilities of being a teacher is to translate the mandates of the educational system into something that helps children understand their world." (location 1428)

"The value of student projects at all levels needs to be demonstrably obvious to even the most casual observer.... As teachers, we often promote the idea that process is more important than the end product, yet is is often the product that provides context and motivates students to learn ... There is no reason why student projects cannot be both cute and good. Interesting, timely, relevant, sophisticated, moving, whimsical, charming, thoughtful, original, clever, imaginative and innovative are all attributes that contribute to a good project.... Projects are what students remember long after the bell rings. Great teachers know that their highest calling is to make memories." (locations 1556- 1593 ... and that line about "both cute and good" made me laugh ... the following sentence is so true, though!)

"Is there some way I can do less and grant more authority, responsibility, or agency to the learner?" (location 1610)

"The best fun is hard fun." (location 1707)

"Teaching is not testing." (location 1929)


Are you bored out of your minds yet? I'm only a third of the way through!




PS NONE of these links are affiliates. I cannot deal with the forms to start that. :P ;)