THE MaKEr MoVEMENT aNd dESIGN aNd TECHNoloGY Torben Steeg, D&T Consultant Who are Makers? Even if you haven’t had any direct involvement with them, you’ve probably heard of folk who call themselves ‘makers’ or ‘hackers’, or of the ‘Maker Movement’, or of Fab Labs or hackspaces, or of open source hardware projects such as the Arduino and the RepRap 3D printer. All of these are aspects of maker activity. ‘Maker’ is a term used to describe people who like Commons licences, thus allowing them to be to make stuf; often using (and also designing and developed and modifed (i.e. hacked) by others. making) high technology tools (microcontrollers, This world view is summarised in the Maker’s Bill laser cutters, 3D printers etc). To a large extent it of Rights. is a largely self-defning term (if you call yourself a maker, you probably are one) and takes in a The things that makers produce are often quirky broad swathe of interests that includes crafting, and produced for themselves or their immediate Steampunk, heavy engineering, electronics, community (rather than made with an immediate embedded control, programming, robotics and eye to mass production). Often they are a result biotech amongst many other things. There is of ‘tinkering’ or ‘playing’ with materials; see a strong bias towards open-source tools, both ‘The Art of Tinkering’ in Further Reading below. hardware and software, and a belief that the However there are also examples of things created products you make (and those that you own] by makers becoming the basis of a commercial should be released with ‘open’ or Creative company – many products on funding sites like Kickstarter have their origins with makers. Roots of the Maker Movement The desire to make stuf is hardly new. DIY has been around a long time and became more of a leisure pursuit and less a necessity during the second half of the last century. What is new is the coming together of this DIY mindset with a collection of tools and resources that have enabled the maker movement to do more and to communicate better. These include the rapidly dropping costs of digital manufacturing tools, the availability of powerful free software, the rise of open hardware, social networking and the growth of community spaces where makers can gather. See http://makezine.com/2006/12/01/the-makers-bill-of- Photo of the Amsterdam FabLab at the Waag rights/ for a statement of use rights Society D&T Practice / 2: 2015 22 www.data.org.uk Two signifcant things happened in 2005: frstly However, while FabLabs and MakerMedia are Neil Gershenfeld published ‘Fab’; a book that signifcant infuences they also are just facets of detailed the development of a making course the wider maker community, which is incredibly at MIT open to all students and the subsequent diverse. Across the world makers get together to creation, as a spinof, of what he called a FabLab hack and make in a wide range of settings from (Fabrication Laboratory), a workshop stocked informal gatherings in cafes, through a wide range with state-of-the-art but low cost digital designing of ‘makerspaces’ and ‘hackspaces’ (there is a and making tools with a focus on community use. growing movement, mainly in the US, so far, to There are now more than 400 FabLabs worldwide, site makerspaces in libraries) to professionally run including over 20 in the UK; one of the aims for a membership organisations such as TechShop – FabLab is that it should be able to make another which is run a bit like a ‘gym’ for makers. one. In the US (mainly; there is a scattering of afliates Also new in 2005 was the launch of Maker Media across the world, including a couple in the UK), and the publishing of Make magazine and its 100K Garages is an organisation that helps associated website. The website has grown to connect makers with each other and to those with include a shop (Maker Shed) of equipment and fabrication facilities. On this side of the Atlantic, resources for makers as well a large and growing the UK Hackspace Foundation lists 49 afliated repository of step-by-step maker projects. hackspaces – and this certainly isn’t the total; I In 2006 Maker Media ran the frst (‘Bay Area’) know of a number of spaces that don’t appear on Maker Faire (strap line; ‘The Greatest Show (and this list. Tell) on Earth’) in San Francisco. In 2014 the 9th Bay Area Maker Faire hosted over 1,100 exhibits The Maker Movement and Education. and there were 130,000 attendees. In 2013 there When I read Gershenfeld’s ‘Fab’ book, two were 100 Maker Faires around the world, including things particularly struck me. Firstly he has some seven in the UK, with a total of more than half a interesting and insightful things to say about how million visitors. And numbers have certainly grown to organise a curriculum in which students are again in 2014. working on individual projects, based on very open and diverse starting points, using a wide range Hackers In everyday usage (especially by popular media) the term ‘hacker’ is generally used to describe those who illegally break into other people’s computers. However, historically, such people were always called ‘crackers’. Certainly, in maker culture, ‘hacker’ is used much more widely to describe folk who are clever programmers, adept at taking apart code and tweaking it for new purposes and, by extension, those who like to do the same with hardware. D&T Practice / 2: 2015 23 www.data.org.uk of materials in a lab with a large number of digital In the US, the Obama administration has viewed fabrication tools available. However exploring that the maker movement very favourably, referencing would be the subject of a diferent article. it in a number of key speeches and, last year, hosting the frst White House Maker Faire. The Secondly it occurred to me that (even in 2005) result of this interest is that signifcant federal many school D&T departments were at least money, followed by substantial funds from as well equipped as the minimum specifcation industry, has been made available to set up the for a FabLab (at that time the frst schools were Maker Education Initiative (‘MakerEd’) with the installing 3D printers, a technology that didn’t, aim of developing Makerspaces associated with then, fgure in the list of prescribed FabLab schools. Because of the very diverse nature of equipment). It seemed to me that here was a the US education system this initiative is focused, great opportunity to open up the school to the at least to start with, on extracurricular activity. community – and open up the D&T curriculum This is clearly a US-based Initiative, but they are to new ways of working. But discussions with very open to working with makers and educators schools at the time were not positive, partly across the world and four makerspaces in the UK because the idea of makerspaces was pretty new are currently afliated. and few had heard of FabLabs and, probably more signifcantly, it was hard for schools to see MakerEd is based frmly on a constructivist view of past the barriers of things like insurance, health learning and sees engagement with making as a and safety and security. powerful lever to support learning. A number of US schools have embraced making as a core element of their curriculum. Most famous is High Tech High a network of 12 charter schools (roughly equivalent to a Multi Academy Trust in the UK) in San Diego. Even more radical is Brightworks, a private school where the whole curriculum is built around collaborative, mixed-age projects in which making is a core activity. Imagine: D&T as the central subject in the curriculum. Two recent books, ‘Invent to Learn’ and ‘Design, Make, Play’ make the case for making as a core component of a rounded education and provide case studies from a range of schools as well as advice on how to get started. You’ll notice that most of the sources I’m referencing are from the US; this is a direct result of that being where the maker movement is most active (and it helps that the US administration is supportive, seeing a positive contribution to STEM education). However, I am convinced that STEM subjects in general and D&T in particular could beneft from the interest-driven, open-ended, constructivist approach to developing products that the maker movement embodies. This isn’t to argue that all of D&T education should be given a maker favour, but I do think it is a perspective that could enrich practice. D&T Practice / 2: 2015 24 www.data.org.uk Some examples from the UK “Generally there’s a distinctive opportunity from working outside the I hope, having read this far, that you’ll be assessed education system as well, pleased to hear that there are examples giving us the freedom to allow kids of education and makers working to be driven by their own interest together in this country as well. At a rather than steered towards creating a strategic level the RSA, with NESTA and specifc thing. They can fail and learn BIS, is exploring ways to support the from that failure.” maker movement and links to education are frmly in their sights; expect further Mark Stroup is a maker and educator announcements from them ‘soon’. And based in London. In a current activity he the Government is certainly interested; in is working with a middle school advisor September this year the Cabinet Ofce, on a Saturday outreach program.