This document discusses civic making, which connects makers to their local community. It defines civic making as using do-it-yourself and do-it-with-others techniques to solve community problems. The document outlines different approaches to civic making, including making in community spaces, making for community by solving issues, and making with community through participatory design. It describes a civic making pilot project where youth identified community issues and developed prototype solutions. The goal of civic making is to use making and technology skills to take action and transform communities.

1. CIVIC MAKING
Connecting makers to community
December 8, 2015
PaulTreadwell
@ptreadwell

2. Hello!
I am Paul
Treadwell
I am Distance Learning Advisor at Cornell
Cooperative Extension. I also work (when I
can) with youth and technology in NewYork
State, and Nicaragua.
My blog is at: http://paultreadwell.com
You can find me onTwitter: @ptreadwell

3. Defining our conversation
■ Civic – Of or relating to the duties or activities of people in relation to their town, city, or
local area - OED online
■ Making - The process of making or producing something - OED online
■ Maker Movement - the name given to the increasing number of people employing do-it-
yourself (DIY) and do-it-with-others ( DIWO) techniques and processes to develop unique
technology products. - techopedia

4. Defining my
orientation
A curriculum which acknowledges the
social responsibilities of education must
present situations where problems are
relevant to the problems of living together,
and where observation and information are
calculated to develop social insight and
interest. – Dewey, John. Democracy and
Education : an Introduction to the Philosophy of
Education.1st Free Press paperback ed. NewYork:
Free Press , 1966.

5. MAKING IN, FOR, AND
WITH COMMUNITY
From self-referential to tech transfer to participatory development

6. Making in community
■ Organized spaces:
– Makerspaces, fablabs, etc. as community.
– Membership, norms, rules…..

7. Making in
community
Knowledge sharing
Tool sharing
Cost sharing
Personal expression

8. Making for community:
■ I have an idea:
– Making to solve an issue or problem
■ I have the expertise.
■ Here is the thing I made to fix x.

9. I can fix that!
I see the problems
I see the solution
I’ll build the solution
Technology transfer

10. Making with community:
■ Making with community:
– Making in consultation and collaboration with a specific community to identify,
define and solve an issue or problem.

11. We can…
Define the problem together
Develop solutions together
And do it again…
Participatory design and development

12. Technology as tool for change?

14. Weaving technology and community
action together
■ Pilot session July 2015
■ Youth gathered data about
community issues
■ Design teams focused on an issue
and developed a prototype solution
■ Civic making seeks to enlarge the
scope and impact of making in order
to embed the practices and
affordances a diy mindset into the
reality of our lives as civic beings.

15. Civic makers pilot July 2015

17. Computational to procedural to
community literacy
■ Making is an act of agency.
■ Working with technology develops a mindset, a literacy.
■ By developing an understanding of code, and coding practices, participants will develop a
procedural literacy that can then be used to understand, re-create and build a diverse
range of systems, including technological, legal, governmental and social systems.

18. The praxis of civic making
■ It is critical reflection and action in order to transform reality.
■ Explicit connection between:
– a concrete community with issues and needs
– digital/computational literacy and maker mindsets
■ It is critical hope in action.

19. Inspirations and others doing similar
■ IDEO – Human Centered Design
– https://www.ideo.com/work/human-centered-design-toolkit
■ Fab Labs and other MIT things
– https://www.fablabs.io/
– http://littledevices.org/
– And much more
■ Meaningful Making – Projects and inspirations from FabLabs and Makerspaces (pdf)
– http://fablearn.stanford.edu/fellows/sites/default/files/Blikstein_Martinez_Pang-
Meaningful_Making_book.pdf

20. My contact info
■ PaulTreadwell
– pt36@cornell.edu
– @ptreadwell
– http://paultreadwell.com

21. Image credits
■ John Dewey - http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a51565/
■ Making in community from: http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/fab-lab/
■ I can fix that: http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/72700/72765/72765_burroughs.htm
■ All other photos - PaulTreadwell