Edutopia - June/July 2008 - (Page 19)

HeadofClassJTechTeacher Lee’s a classic do-it-yourself guy, part of a growing movement of people who are extending consumer appliances beyond their original purpose, or finding new purposes altogether. Teachers, too, are natural DIYers. Consider the enterprising teacher who demonstrates model rocketry using a coat hanger, an inner tube, and a soda bottle, or the crafty fellow who builds a hovercraft out of an old CD, a balloon, and a soda-bottle top. Keeping students engaged with hands-on projects can be especially challenging with limited resources and changing curriculums, but here are a few sources of inexpensive tech hacks, perfect for teacher-student collaboration: • Check out the growing communities of DIYers online, where aspiring hackers swap instructions for all kinds of projects. Web sites such as Instructables and Make: offer project plans, videos, and tips any teacher can ﬁnd useful. The excellent Howtoons has simple, inexpensive projects that kids would enjoy, presented in a fun cartoon format. These simple projects are not as elaborate as Lee’s, but the sense of satisfaction is the same. • Investigate the blog scene. TeachClever is not about tech hacks, per se; it’s a blog about making teachers more productive and efﬁcient. But it includes a healthy selection of tech tips for the classroom that make it a great stop for a project pick-me-up. Also check out Tech Savvy Teachers, another worthwhile online stopping point. • Take your class to the mecca of mechanics, the Maker Faire. Held twice a year, the Maker Faire, sponsored by Make:, is an astonishing gathering of DIYers of all ages. Plenty of excited teachers attended the 2008 event in San Mateo, California. You could see them building rockets and marshmallow guns when they weren’t being entertained by the ﬂame-throwing ﬁre engine, the Diet Coke–and– Mentos fountain, or the bicycle rodeo. Inside one of the main halls, long tables were ﬁlled with kids and adults busy working on projects led by helpful docents. The creativity at the faire DIY DOINGS wasn’t limited to hardware and Check out inspiring Web sites and share your classroom tech hacks at electronics, either. There were taedutopia.org/tech-hacks bles of people silk-screening their own designs and creating new things with old cloth and thread. The overall lesson of the day: Ingenuity and creativity is something we all possess, and, as with any other skill, your inner DIYer can be cultivated. What makes DIYers special is their enthusiasm and their willingness to share their expertise. DIYers are truly lifelong learners and teachers. They don’t always realize it, though—they’re too busy having fun. e Hack Attack Some inexpensive tech tricks yield big classroom dividends. By Geoff Butterﬁeld ohnny Chung Lee is not your average video gamer. When Lee, a bespectacled computer science graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, bought a new Wii gaming console, he wasn’t content to burn endless hours playing the tennis, bowling, and golf games that came with the popular system. Instead, he modi⇒ed his Wii to perform a variety of simple tasks that, together, can mimic expensive technology—tech often out of the reach of the average classroom teacher. Then he posted the instructions, and accompanying video, online. For instance, with about $50 and a trip to Radio Shack, Lee can show you how to turn a blank wall space into an interactive whiteboard—savings: about $1,500. Another project he devised instructs intrepid hackers in the best way to create a steadycam for stable video work. Cost: about $14. J Cost: Materials vary based on project. Time to set up: Depends on project. EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 19 http://edutopia.org/tech-hacks http://EDUTOPIA.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - June/July 2008

Edutopia - June/July 2008 Contents UpFront Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design Young Minds, Fast Times Wii Love Learning No More Pencils, No More Books Tech Without Support All the Right Moves Room to Learn Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Jeff Corwin

Edutopia - June/July 2008

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