I gave this presentation to a room full of librarians, teachers gallery and community workers on Friday 20th March. My aim was to share as much information as i could in 20 mins about Maker Spaces. I did this by telling my story and sharing lessons learnt from travelling the USA in 2014 researching the Maker Movement.
10. REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH
1. Students must have some control over the direction of
their learning.
2. Students must be able to learn through experiences of
touching, moving, listening, and observing.
3. Students have a relationship with other children and with
material items in the world that children must be allowed
to explore.
4. Students must have endless ways and opportunities to
express themselves.
Working with Joy – She has taught me a lot of things along the way
Little Bird
Three Farm
Manon
All of our speakers
Warren for coming all the way from Townsville
Exciting to see people here from a diverse range of orgs
Wifi
Hashtags
Facebook
Who am I – Personality
Motivated
Generalist
Not exceptional at one thing but ok at a lot of things
Energetic / Dyslexic / Open
What orgs do I represent
Three Farm – More about them soon
Makers Place – More about them soon
Today I am going to tell you my story, in doing so share with you some golden lessons I have learnt from my fairly short career.
Where did I start?
St Clair
Mum and Dads involvement in Camp Quality/Lions Club
My first job was at KFC – My sister (assistant manager got me a job there when I was 13)
Played a lot of sport
Graduated in Year 12
I have a great careers adviser enrolling me into 2 TVET courses (Design/marketing)
Selected to go the Enmore Design Center - Diploma of Digital Media.
I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer!
EXPLAIN IMAGE
OSS Digital - sweeping floors and trimming posters here in Leichardt.
Mentor Greg
Greg convinced me to get an education on the job
For a whopping $35K I became a large format printing making huge graphics.
I loved making things. It helped me with process, systemizing and determination
Production Manger
Sandwiched between account managers, designs and the makers.
When I started in 2006 we had 5 staff
When I left in 2013 we had 42 staff – 28 of them were makers or designers and they reported to me.
I loved my job
I loved my bosess and team
One major problem! It was all kind of shallow.
Constantly surrounded by picture of modles and brands
Tired and weary
I had a awakening
I started questioning to our suppliers about materials
How is this made, what are the raw materials, where do they come from?
After hearing for myself
The penny dropped
I was playing a part in an industry that had no regard for its impacts
Sometimes these graphics would only go up for 1 day!
So much, resources, time and money
I had a very good relationship with Greg he was my mentor
I told him how I was feeling.
His quick and simple response was “Good is a Verb”
I took it that as yes Mel I understand your moving on.
For the next year Greg let me “moonlight” and literally rummage through the sometimes perfectly good post production waste.
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I worked at OSS Digital with co-founders of Three Farm, Grace Turtle and Yasmin Smith.
Collect the decent off cuts
Resize them
Make some cash by selling them
Save OSS some money too
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Grace started getting a little more creative
We use FREE software
OSS’s state of the art cutting machine
And Offcuts
Major interest in Digital fabricaton. A form of Digital fabrication is 3D printing
REFER TO IMAGE + Quote
Grace and I decided we were going to buy our own printer
We bought the printer and had to wait for it to arrive
In the meantime we would spend countless nights chatting about the potential of this technology
Third Industrial Revolution
Democratization of manufacturing
Subtractive vs Additive
REFER TO IMAGE
Makerbot arrived April 2013
Three Farm was born!
Three Farm works from a philosophy that supports lateral power structures that are formed when the lines between designer, maker and consumer are blurred, meaning that anyone can and should be able to produce their own goods, customised to their own personal needs and wants. It is Three Farms mission to empower individuals with the confidence, knowledge, skills and tools to design, change and be proud of their own futures and environments.
But doing this meant I needed to UPSKILL!
So I booked flight to the USA
Enrolled in a certificate of Design Entrepreneurship
NEXT SLIDE
Just before leaving to the states in April 2014 I went to a 3DP conference in townsville
I met Warren
Meeting Warren at that time was the best thing that could had happened.
He had just done a trip t American libraies
Thanks to Warren
I got lost of insights
I didn't’t just go to libraries
Not enough time to talk about them all.
Picked some insights I thought could be most valuable to you all
Just before moving on them.
Everywhere I went I would ask why is this movement so prevalent in America.
The responses I got were quite interesting;
STEAM (Science, tech, engineering, arts, math) Activities had been eradicated by the Bush government
Alternative learning environments where being pushed by parents
American an passionate about Made in America
Renowned for their manufacturing ability
Until China took the cake!
REFER TO IMAGE
Jean founder of the Exploratory
She had may lessons
One that stuck was teach tinkerers to teach
Use an approach to education (This comes in many forms)
Reggio Emilia Approach
The Reggio Emilia philosophy is based upon the following set of principles:
Children must have some control over the direction of their learning;
Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing;
Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that children must be allowed to explore;
Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.
The Reggio Emilia philosophy is based upon the following set of principles:
Students must have some control over the direction of their learning.
Students must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing.
Students have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that children must be allowed to explore.
Students must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.
Jean form the Exploratory – Use provocation to inspire problem solving
“Create something to make the world a better place”
A story that has stuck with me is TICKLE MACHINE
Warning its actually kinda sad!
Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee
Meg Backus
Create a safe space were people can just play, then back them when they want to contribute.
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Topographical Sandbox made by Jake young frequenter of the library
Elements
Sandbox
Projector
Sensors
Program
You move the sand (earth moving) the sensor can read the depth. The blue areas represent below sea level, the red is mountainous peaks.
Scrap DIY – Its all about DIWO – Do it with others
Chicago Public Library – Innovation Lab
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They really help each other out
In tern help their embers out
They have a maker bus that takes community members on field trips to other local Makerspaces
The art of asking is a powerful thing
They have a maker bus that takes community members on field trips to other local Makerspaces
Connect with other local Makerspace – This movement is not competitive its collective
Innovation Lab Chicago
This Pedro is a librarian
His boss approached him and said, this is happening do you want to play a part
He had no prior knowledge in 3DP laser cutting, he learnt with others, by getting stuck in making stuff
Of course online communities
REFER TO IMAGE – What are they looking at?
Open up information so people can be autonomous
They were really good by putting white boards around the room
We are yet to do this for ourselves; What is in the pipeline that is urgently needed is the skill share wall
Badge system
Member Contact Details
We make it clear at sign up that there is An obligation of our members to support other makers. This may just be writning something on the notice board or giving their time to teach somone something.
MAKER FIAR SAN FRAN - Enable
If you can’t think of at least 5 meaningful objects to print using 3D printing, then don’t buy one
This goes for schools also
So many schools have 3D printers they don’t use
I believe this is because the haven't thought about what problems they will solve
Have not empowered their students
Became very frustrated with failed prints
This goes for all technologies not just 3DP
APPLICATION AT MAKERS PLACE
MENTION CAITLIN printing prosthetics
Disability support gadgets
We have plenty of printers and people we just need problems
Fix broken stuff
EXPLAIN IMAGE
If you are going to launch and learn let people know that’s what you are doin
This way you can get contribution from them
Got home from USA
Renew gave us keys
This space was not occupied for 5 years
The refurbish + launch cost us $3000 Incl some equipment
We started with 1 Makerbot – look what we have now
LEAN Startup teaches you to be frugal and in tern more innovative
Most of our equipment has been donated are loaned –
Never pay rent – there is enough empty space that need vitalization. A Makerspace gives back to a community enough to warrant support of this kind.
SHARING ECONOMY
Interactive market research
FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE MAKE
Do find yourself in a tangled mess
Record SOP is crucial for you to be able to take a holiday!
Your team is not autonomous if its all in your head.
I am speaking from experience
Your Makerspace will have its own flare
Let is happen organically
Help people understand what is possible in a makerspace.
Sharpening knives
Compare the cost of all the equipment to sharpen a knife vs membership
MAKERS PLACE
Get our revenue streams in order
Put on a GM – At the moment we are ran from volunteers, which is ok but not a long term thing
Find a corporate sponsor that aligns with our values
Package up or learning's and strategy
Consult other organisations
Pop up in other places of Australia – We are currently building community in Wollongong
THREE FARM
Build a network if design and technology experts and teach them how to to teach