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More hereMore hereSo what would an education-based hackerspace look like? How can education support the Maker Movement, particularly as it pertains to the creation of digital media and video games?
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The first difference between hackerspaces and traditional classrooms is in the fundamental purpose underlying each. In a hackerspace the idea is to play, experiment, explore, pursue interests, and see where these things take you. There is no predetermined outcome or formal assessment. Education, in sharp contrast relies heavily on a formal order, planned progress, and standardized assessment of "success." Really, these two models could not be further apart on a pedagogical level. Bringing the two into alignment would ideally require a rethinking of what education is and should be. Providing students with a bunch of computers and cutting edge software and saying "knock yourselves out" probably isn’t going to hold a lot of water with administrators, parents, or politicians in the age of quantifiable skills and accountability.
That does not mean that it shouldn’t happen. Our education system needs to change, and a move to a technology-centric curricular model is one very real way in which we could improve the system. Incorporating the Maker Movement concept within that change would allow for an acceptance of the unstructured education model that a hackerspace is ideal at supporting. If we can switch to a education in which what, when, and how people learn are variables rather than constants, there is a real possibility for an integration of DIY-type learning into the school system.
In keeping with reality however, a more direct way to support the Maker Movement in education is to establish hackerspaces affiliated with schools that can be accessed by students either during school as part of classes or after school. During school access would require flexibility on the part of teachers – but this also lends itself to a more traditional, structured curricular approach. Students can be provided with the tools and given general guidance, but also be allowed to explore within those parameters. This is a model similar to the one employed at Quest to Learn, a game and game design-based charter school in New York.
