W9 - What would you need to coordinate a “Maker Day” for your school?
For this week’s question I really had no idea where I would begin to do something like this. After reviewing the reading materials I realized I needed to expand my thoughts around what a maker space/day is supposed to be. Up to this point I visualized a maker day as an avenue to showcase prototyping with technology as is the focus of this particular course. It has been inspirational to see the variety of ways a maker event can come together. I really liked Galina’s approach in building a “Dream Team” that would gather pre-event to sort out the logistics, details and sharing different perspectives that can address any planning gaps. This reminds me of my days as a manager at an Apple store where the leadership team would do a conceptual walk through of the next big technology release. We would start outside the store and think about every aspect of the experience from various viewpoints customer, specialist, inventory ect. I think the same level of preparation should go into any event to make it a successful one. In reading through the UBC Maker Day Tool Kit I began to realize the concept is larger than just one day, in-fact it is just a postcard to the larger Maker movement idea and for some participants it could be an introduction to the ethos of the maker world, no pressure right? The tool kit is also quick to point out that a “Maker Day” is not to be confused with other similar terms like “maker faire” or “maker space” as each of those has a different purpose. With this context, I realized the coordination of such an event would be similar to other professional events I have sponsored before, with lots of planning, aligning the support, logistics etc. I found one of the biggest things to lock in, is support from your leadership, if they are bought in to the idea then everything from resources, people and funding can become much easier to obtain. Not to blather on but one last feature I would include is a curation mindset, in that I would want to organize the event based on the maker talent...what tech is going to be featured? How to organize the displayed designs in an appealing logistical format? Are there any special needs... power, fast connections, etc. Technical difficulties can suck the energy out of great ideas so having back up plans and meeting with the presenters prior to the event can help mitigate that to focus on the problem solving. Ultimately, I will use all of the aforementioned ideas to create a coding maker day at Denali Montessori, as I will be donating my Aurdino kit to the class and if will be fun to do a day of making and invite other classes to join in the fun.
References:
https://www.itabc.ca/sites/default/files/docs/discover/Final%20MakerDayToolKit.pdf
University Innovation. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2019, from http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/Maker_Day