Make: Three Modes of Making

FOREWORD

by Dale Dougherty

If there were a central tenet of Maker Education, it would be that students are empowered to do real projects based on their own ideas and interests — to be makers. A maker starts with an idea, develops it as a project, and then turns it into something real, something that demonstrates what the idea is and what it can do.

That’s a much more radical proposition for education than it might sound at first.

Most students in traditional schools don’t get to do projects. Instead, they are asked to sit and listen, raise their hand if they have a question, and take quizzes and tests. Students are not given the opportunity to create or build anything. Most teachers are tasked with teaching a subject — such as English, history, ...