The document discusses the significance of maker education in preparing the next generation for the demands of the 21st century workforce amid rapid technological advancements. It emphasizes hands-on learning through programming, robotics, and prototyping, while highlighting the need for competencies such as critical thinking and adaptability. The presentation also offers a global context for maker education and explores strategies for developing these essential skills through collaborative and creative projects.

1. Competencies
Century
Maker
Education
Ann-Louise Davidson Ph.D.
Research Chair in Maker Culture
Associate Director, Milieux Institute
Associate Professor, Education
Concordia University, Montréal Québec
in
21st

2. The maker revolution is here. Everyone can be a maker. Children are creating all sorts of STEAM
projects. Teachers from all levels are being trained to integrate maker-based projects in their
classrooms. It is the Gold Rush of micro-prototyping technologies, robotics, 3D printing, laser cutting,
electronic embroidery and embedded wearables. This is partly driven by the open-source electronic
market emerging from Shenzhen, online DYI communities, data sharing over the Internet, but mostly
by the worldwide movement driven by the 4th industrial revolution.
The next workforce will be faced with the new demands of a ubiquitous, mobile and ambient Internet
of connected objects fed by AI and machine learning (Schwab, 2016). By 2025, the World Economic
Forum (2015) predicts several technological tipping points, namely 10% of people wearing clothes
connected to the internet, 1 trillion sensors also connected to the internet, the first robotic pharmacist,
the first 3D printed car in production, and the first implantable mobile phone available commercially.
This will bring unprecedented changes because they will arrive at a speed that will affect all our
systems in all continents. They will force us to revise the nature of how we live, how we interact with
each other and how we work.
Maker education is part of the solution to prepare the next generation workforce because it confronts
learners to programming languages, robotics, additive manufacturing, prototyping, the internet of
things and the sensing environment. More than just knowledge about these topics, learners have to
develop competencies that will prepare them for a complex and ever-changing world that even
experts cannot yet imagine. In this talk, I will present the global context for maker education and an
operationalized definition of how to develop competencies in this context. I will also present results of
several studies on this topic. More specifically, I will discuss fundamental maker knowledge, attitudes,
resources, and how to design activities to mobilize competencies to complete multi-faceted projects
or solve complex problems.
Abstract

3. Everyone is a Maker!

4. http://isakskogstad.se/constructivist-pedagogy-is-like-a-zombie-that-refuses-to-die/
“How much more evidence do we need
to stop discovery-based, constructivist madness
and go back to traditional teacher-led teaching,
which is effective for real?”
“I don’t believe most things I read and I
am very sceptical of hypes and trends.
The only thing I accept as ‘true’ is what is
supported by high-quality research.
This means that when I read about, for
example, 21st century skills,
I am the one who says ”stop and prove
that it exists!”
Compare it to developments between 1990 and 2020.
What have we seen? Well, computers are getting smaller.
No radical changes have taken place,
which even leading economists have noted.
We still go to the hospital to be operated on,
even though the tools used by the surgeons
have been improved.

5. My response to Kirschner

6. https://criticalmaker.space Unflattening -Nick Sousanis

7. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/have-we-reached-a-tipping-point-for-technology/

11. What Is A Competency?
to accomplish
a task
to solve
a problem
mobilize
that I can
x
x
xx
x
x
x
x
xx
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x x
x
x
x
x
xx
xx
x.... .
.
..
.
.
x
x .
x
x
.
.
..
A set of information, knowledge,
resource, skill or attitude
Constructed over a period of time ...

12. www.educationmakers.ca

14. Chalet Kent Makerspace

16. 21+

17. Making
Making as
Social
Participation
Making as
Personal
Fulfillment Digital
Agency
Network
Creativity
Taking
ownership
of…
21st
as
Century
Skill
Critical
Thinking
Empowerment
Initiative
Entrepreneurship
Adaptability
Analytical
Thinking
Persistence
Curiosity
Prosumerism

18. Take initiative
Put your nose in other’s business
Try new toolsMix it up!

19. Learn playfully!
Be curious!
Create prototypes and celebrate small victories!Fix to learn!

20. Adapt authentically
Manage equipment and material
Learn to work safely in collaborative and
multi-purpose spaces
Adapt to changes in participation

21. Work
interdependently
Negotiate equilibrium in collaborationShare risks
Explore material futures

22. Learn to facilitate
Troubleshoot rather than correct
Facilitate challenges rather than
propose step-by-step procedures
Plan, but let participants figure it out

23. Design, plan, persist and stick-with the trouble
Plan more time and resources to allow space for mistakes
Start with basic knowledge and take the challenge after
Focus on learning rather than efficiency of production

24. Co-design and co-plan

25. Collaborate
with an ethos
of resourcefulness

26. Making to reflect on
sustainable futures /
making in scarcity

28. Robotics
Embedded wearables
Material futures
Quilting
Accessible music instruments
Coding mindset
Advanced 3D modelling

30. Maker Fundamentals
Basic Electronics
3D modelling
3D printing
3D printers modding
Plotter cutter
Embroidery machine
Laser cutter
Plasma cutter
Coding with Snap
GPIO programming
Analog and digital input and output
Basic sensors
Pulse width modulation
Binary number system
Handtools
Powertools
Bonding properties
Assembling principles
Soldering
Safety
Components
Functions
Interactions
Circuits
Electricity
Prototyping
Chemicals
Protective equipment
How to use toolsMicrocontroller concepts
Robotics
Tools
Operations (input-process-output)
Sequences and connections

31. Create new
meta-narratives

32. Competency
Making
Through
Century
21st
Deploy strategies to solve complex
problems using organic/recycled
materials
Design technological solutions
for everyday life
in a critical perspective
(ex. for a sustainable future)
Develop the flexibility to co-plan and
co-facilitate activities (or projects)
Be capable of working in a changing
context with a group in flux
Create new approaches to accomplish
ill-defined tasks

33. Making
Leads to
Engaging in
21st
Century
Competency