Tinker, Make & Learn (Canvas.net)

The interactive methods in the course promote an open-ended, two-way exchange of ideas. Activities will be introduced each week that engage a specific set of making skills.

Join us for thinking fun and problem solving — where learning meets tinkering, making and design. This professional development MOOC begins with the case for experiential learning and making and the intersection with blended learning. You will view examples of learners engaged in complex creating and problem solving with technologies and identify curriculum and lessons for your own blended learning curriculum. You will have the chance to individually tinker with a range of exciting new low-and high-tech construction materials and then expand on those experiences through collaboration in the Canvas environment.

The Tinker, Make and Learn MOOC is for teachers, librarians, higher education faculty, and other educators interested in finding out more about making and learning! And it's FREE!

Participants will explore:

- New tools and technology that can reinvigorate experiential learning.

- Best practices for integrating maker thought into blended learning.

- How to plan maker projects that use technologies with the maximum learning impact.

- How to make the case for making and tinkering as learning.

- Fabrication with cardboard and found materials, squishy electronic circuits, wearable computing, Arduino, networked objects and more are all on the menu.

This Tinker, Make and Learn MOOC builds on the expertise of some really amazing Maker organizations, such as Parachute Factory, Connally High School, and the Center for Cultural Technology. And in this MOOC, we're will have a chance to get a look inside some exciting maker spaces through interviews and virtual tours modeled after The Odyssey Initiative. All of this will take place in a replicable blended Canvas course.

This MOOC is about two things -- Making and about blended learning. We want to model the concept of blended learning that teaches uses experiential learning. There will be information exchange through panel discussions, hands-on homework assignments, readings, tours, interviews and videos. There is organized material that we're putting together but at the same time this isn't just a one-way transmission of us just lecturing to people about what the Maker Movement is. On the contrary is this to be a class where everyone is collaborating and co-creating knowledge. There's going to be a lot of opportunities for people to go out and do stuff. It's not just sitting at your computer learning about making, but you are will go out and try something with your colleagues, go do something, go have a making experience for yourself. That's what we're really after. Come and make with us!