Hackerspaces and homeschooling
Paul D. Fernhout
this hackerspaces link, in the context of chatter about a homeschooling
kid interested in smelting metal. The link has been on the list several
times before obviously, and most people here probably know of, but I
just thought I'd put it up again, especially for anyone new:
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Hackerspaces
It's great how much info is there, like in the documentation part on
setting up a hackerspace as far as legal info, insurance, etc.. I have
not looked at that site in quite a while and it really is great to see
it going so well. There is a lot there.
The "Sprout" space I visited at the H+ Summit (Bryan helped set up a get
together there, thanks) has a quote on their site that goes perfectly
with the unschooling-variation of homeschooling.
http://thesprouts.org/
"A good educational system should have three purposes: it should provide
all who want to learn with access to available resources at any time in
their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those
who want to learn it from them; and, finally, furnish all who want to
present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their
challenge known." � Ivan Illich "
What's also of interest is this idea of a homeschool/hackerspace
connection. I can wonder if that is an underexplored idea?
I also saw this two year old essay by Dougald Hine yesterday, which adds
another aspect to hackerspace advocacy:
"The Future of Unemployment"
http://agit8.org.uk/?p=307
So, yet more reasons to:
"Build 21000 flexible fabrication facilities across the USA"
http://pcast.ideascale.com/a/dtd/44897-8319
Anyone know what's happening to that bill in Congress related to more
funding for creating some centers?
"H.R.6003 -- National Fab Lab Network Act of 2010 (Introduced in
House - IH) by Rep. Bill Foster [D-IL14]"
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:h6003:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.06003:
"(3) to seek to establish at least one Fab Lab per every 700,000
individuals in the United States in the first ten years of its operation."
I wonder if homeschoolers could get behind that somehow?
--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
====
The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies
of abundance in the hands of those thinking in terms of scarcity.
MauiMaker
Serendipity. There is a conversation on the Hackerspaces.org
discussion list (http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/
discuss) about hackerspaces and education. In particular about sharing
class/teacher materials.
This was sparked by my seeing a couple panels at Maker Faire Bay Area
about "Future of Education" and "Hackerspaces and Education". Hacker/
Maker spaces are definitely an emerging source of education in a
variety of subjects. Mostly these are tied to maker activities -
electronics, wood/metal working, etc. However, there are also ways to
tie in more complete STEAM education (Sci, Tech, Engr, Art, Math)
using projects in a maker space.
Getting home schoolers involved with makerspaces would be great. I
encourage you to look up your local space - see
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces. Be sure to check
the 'planned' spaces too. The site defines a space as one that
actually has a permanent dedicated physical meeting space. A lot of
spaces do not have permanent or dedicated space. It takes a fair bit
to cover rent.
There is also http://schoolfactory.org a loose organization of
hackerspaces and other groups that helps set up spaces, education
plans, etc.
Jerry Isdale
http://mauiMakers.com
On May 25, 6:53 am, "Paul D. Fernhout" <pdfernh...@kurtz-fernhout.com>
wrote:
Paul D. Fernhout
Jerry-
Thanks for the links and comments.
There are a broad range of homeschoolers, and to simplify they run from
very structured and curriculum-based on one end of a spectrum ("school
at home") to very hands-on and child-lead and adhoc at the other
("unschooling"). Many families do tend to find themselves somewhere in
the middle or may move around that continuum at different times or for
different kids (some of it is a personality thing, either for the child
or the parents). Som So, an emphasis on linking hackerspaces directly to
a curriculum will seem important to some homeschoolers, but unneeded and
maybe even unwanted to others. An example related article:
"The Extremes: Unschool vs. School at Home and more..."
http://theunpluggedmom.blogspot.com/2011/02/extremes-unschool-vs-school-at-home-and.html
We're very much towards the unschooling end ourselves right now. But
there are advantages and disadvantages to any approach.
I'd be curious in general what was covered on those panels. I see there
is a post about it, though I don't have time to listen to it all right
now though:
http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/2011-May/003991.html
The panel sounds interesting: two self-taught technologists, an educator
who focuses on hands-on. With moderator embedded in the mainstream
educational system? Anyway, that's just the first six minutes, and it is
moving into comments on classrooms. But I'll have to watch the rest
another time and see what it explores or how it relates to homeschooling.
What seems to happen so often is that innovation can only work on one
dimension (or at most a few dimensions) at a time as it is otherwise too
hard. So, I can well expect hackerspace mental energy might go into
supporting the existing education paradigm before supporting alternative
education. Here is one alternative set of research-based thoughts about
education that fits right in with how hackerspaces work in practice,
though: :-)
"From Degrading to De-Grading"
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/fdtd-g.htm
There isn't a hackerspace I know of near where I am, and I can wonder if
the sparse rural population could support one (the Adirondack Park). At
least my kid and I get to hang out sometimes in a neighbor's sheet metal
shop. :-) But it is not the same as a hackerspace (with both good points
as in no dues and bad points as in not widely-community-focused).
--Paul Fernhout
MauiMaker
The Degrading one would have been good to have for that saturday
panel. The moderator asked how hackerspace project based education
would deal with grades.
The range of homeschooling is known to me. I think it can match well
with the range of education at makerspaces and fab labs. The Fab Lab
folks tend to be more into curriculum and certificates, while
hackerspaces teach what members want to teach/learn. Most of these
seems to be in areas of electronics, programming and assorted new
fabrication tech (3d printing, laser cutting, cnc mills, etc). There
are also the classes in conventional tech like welding, metal working,
etc if the space has the equipment. I'm hoping spaces start sharing
their teaching materials so people at other spaces - and home/
unschoolers can use them.
The folks at http://Sparkfun.com have a lot of interesting kits (like
the http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10339 Arduino Inventors Kit). At
the Maker Faire, after the panel, I talked with their director of
education and he said they were planning a whole series of material to
help educators use the various kits for project based learning. This
will be a boon to home schoolers too.
As for rural populations supporting spaces, I too wonder. Adirondack
Park area is bigger than Maui with about the same population. We have
lots of tourists and their biz. You get some, with people coming in
for camping etc. Either way, visitors wont be prime market. Its hard
to get locals to travel to meetings and I find many of the makers with
space (farmers, contractors, etc) dont see a need for community
workshops. "Why should I share my lathe, mill, welder?" On the other
hand, there are those who are willing to share and locals who want to
learn making skills. Teaching welding, metal shaping, wood turning,
etc might be good workshops for local kids of all ages. And you might
get people coming out of the cities for some time in country learning
"quaint" old skills. Before I moved, I took a weekend class at
TinManTech near Grass Valley CA. Learned about shaping and welding
metals.
On May 26, 11:35 am, "Paul D. Fernhout" <pdfernh...@kurtz-
> On 5/26/11 11:59 AM, MauiMaker wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for the links and comments.
>
> There are a broad range of homeschoolers, and to simplify they run from
> very structured and curriculum-based on one end of a spectrum ("school
> at home") to very hands-on and child-lead and adhoc at the other
> ("unschooling"). Many families do tend to find themselves somewhere in
> the middle or may move around that continuum at different times or for
> different kids (some of it is a personality thing, either for the child
> or the parents). Som So, an emphasis on linking hackerspaces directly to
> a curriculum will seem important to some homeschoolers, but unneeded and
> maybe even unwanted to others. An example related article:
> "The Extremes: Unschool vs. School at Home and more..."
>
Paul D. Fernhout
> As for rural populations supporting spaces, I too wonder. Adirondack
> Park area is bigger than Maui with about the same population. We have
> lots of tourists and their biz. You get some, with people coming in
> for camping etc. Either way, visitors wont be prime market. Its hard
> to get locals to travel to meetings and I find many of the makers with
> space (farmers, contractors, etc) dont see a need for community
> workshops. "Why should I share my lathe, mill, welder?" On the other
> hand, there are those who are willing to share and locals who want to
> learn making skills. Teaching welding, metal shaping, wood turning,
> etc might be good workshops for local kids of all ages. And you might
> get people coming out of the cities for some time in country learning
> "quaint" old skills. Before I moved, I took a weekend class at
> TinManTech near Grass Valley CA. Learned about shaping and welding
> metals.
Thanks for the other comments. Sure, people might come from the cities,
but I don't think they are going to do that looking for learning about
MakerBots or CNC. The might come for weaving perhaps, or stuff about horses?
I can wonder if rural non-town areas just have their own dynamics that
make it harder to have a collective effort. People in cities or towns
are more used to having some collective infrastructure. Often people
choose rural areas because they are more independent people in various
ways (and often more private and less outgoing). So, that is going to
lead to different social dynamics, with good and bad points. Our town
does not even have a book library, for example.
Also, I should be clear that rural towns are different from rural
non-towns. When I used the word "town" just there, I meant more like
local jurisdiction, as it is called a "town" but there is now town
center. Several miles away is a real "town" with sidewalks. The social
dynamics of the two areas are completely different. That town has a
library, and a church-run youth center, and probably could support some
kind of hackerspace (likely in a church basement?). The two places are
also at complete ends of the privacy spectrum as well. So, I guess I
should be clear I am talking about rural non-town areas (even if they
are called "towns" officially. :-)
While not easily available, this book goes into the details between
rural towns vs. rural non-towns:
"Life After the City: A Harrowsmith Guide to Rural Living" by
Charles Long"
http://www.amazon.com/Life-After-City-Harrowsmith-Living/dp/0920656145
Rural non-town areas, with residents who may still have farming roots,
are to some degree the last bastion of people with decades of many
hands-on skills and can-do making attitude to make and repair stuff with
welders, operating heavy equipment, having home lathes, and so on. But
rural areas also may have trouble networking as well as city areas?
I can wonder if a sad consequence may actually be that rural areas will
fail to pass on those skills? Short of some big government program of
the type rural people usually vote against? :-) It may well be up to the
towns and cities to relearn that attitude on their own. Rugged
individualism has its good and bad points.
Still, many rural people are more than happy to share their skills
one-on-one. It is just a different social dynamic. And I can think about
what it might take to make the most of that. It is true that clubs are
still important here. For example, there is a woodworking club that
meets in a school (but 45 minutes from me, and I have not been to it).
So, I think, in the case of rural areas, hackerspace clubs that meet
regularly (once a month, or more frequently) as face-to-face events
might be important in building the social connections needed for that
later one-on-one "hey, come over and I'll show you how to weld in my
shop" kind of stuff. And to a less event, there are annual festivals and
fairs, which taken together across a hour or so driving range can be
happening every couple of weeks during some parts of the year, at least
where I am.
And here is a chart that may well prove me wrong perhaps, :-) showing
rural areas have been much quicker to pick up internet technologies than
past trends:
"Farming & Rural Life in the 1970s to Today"
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe70s/farminginthe1970s.html
"One of the central stories of the last quarter of the 20th century was
the quickening of the pace of agricultural innovation. As you can see in
the following interactive chart, consumers in the first part of century
slowly adopted most of the new technologies that were offered to them.
Generally, rural residents took even longer. Electricity, telephones,
cars, trucks and tractors all show gentle adoption slopes. The
exceptions were new communication technologies like radio and
television. And by the end of the century, both urban and rural
residents rapidly adopted computers and the Internet."
So, I can wonder if a rural non-town hackerspaces initiatives (as well
as a homeschooling aspect) should just feel different than an urban/town
one somehow? And perhaps focus more on the monthly club aspect and less
on the shared facility aspect?
--Paul Fernhout
Paul D. Fernhout
> The Degrading one would have been good to have for that saturday
> panel. The moderator asked how hackerspace project based education
> would deal with grades.
Well, now you know for next time. :-)
I'm writing a second reply because by coincidence someone just posted a
link to a homeschooling/unschooling list I am on. This link relates to
the issue of the deskilling of the USA as a larger theme, and the fact
that these often non-graded non-academic skills have become devalued. It
is recent testimony to Congress:
"Testimony of Mike Rowe; Creator, Executive Producer and Host, Dirty
Jobs"
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/mike-rowe-senate-testimony.html
"... For most of his life, my grandfather woke up clean and came home
dirty. In between, he accomplished things that were nothing short of
miraculous. Some days he might re-shingle a roof. Or rebuild a motor. Or
maybe run electricity out to our barn. He helped build the church I went
to as a kid, and the farmhouse my brothers and I grew up in. He could
fix or build anything, but to my knowledge he never once read the
directions. He just knew how stuff worked. ...
It occurred to me that I had become disconnected from a lot of things
that used to fascinate me. I no longer thought about where my food came
from, or how my electricity worked, or who fixed my pipes, or who made
my clothes. There was no reason to. I had become less interested in how
things got made, and more interested in how things got bought.
At this point my grandfather was well into his 80s, and after a long
visit with him one weekend, I decided to do a TV show in his honor.
Today, Dirty Jobs is still on the air, and I am here before this
committee, hoping to say something useful. So, here it is. ...
I believe we need a national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor. A big
one. Something that addresses the widening skills gap head on, and
reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce.
Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000
vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation
and utilities. The skills gap is real, and it's getting wider. In
Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They're retiring
fast, and no one is there to replace them.
Alabama's not alone. A few months ago in Atlanta I ran into Tom
Vilsack, our Secretary of Agriculture. Tom told me about a governor who
was unable to move forward on the construction of a power plant. The
reason was telling. It wasn't a lack of funds. It wasn't a lack of
support. It was a lack of qualified welders.
In general, we're surprised that high unemployment can exist at the
same time as a skilled labor shortage. We shouldn't be. We've pretty
much guaranteed it.
In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've
elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that
all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of
parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training
opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those
not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of
"shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick
up a shovel. ..."
The rest is just some rambles on that and whether kids should be looking
to learn those skills for "job" reasons.
===
First I have general reservations about the jobs argument long term.
Here is something related by me on what I feel are the long-term trends
from cheap energy, cheap robotics, cheap computing, and cheap biotech:
http://peswiki.com/index.php/OS:Economic_Transformation
For example, if energy is cheap and robotics are cheap, when your home's
plumbing springs a leak, you just throw your house away and print a new
one. :-) I know that sounds ludicrous right now. :-) I know, sounds even
over the top to me. :-) But let's say you had a small
very-densely-packed motor home with a leaky plumbing system and some
other issues. It might indeed be better to just unprint the thing and
then print it again. :-) And isn't that what we do now with
malfunctioning cell phones with "leaky" transistors, when such phones
have the capacity of million dollar computers of the 1980s? So, at the
very least, we may design more modular systems where we can replace
components in a home more easily. An article on 3D printing of houses:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=57
And while there may be somewhat of a current demand for hands-on blue
collar labor right now in the USA in some areas, in our current
socioeconomic system, these blue collar jobs like welding are often
high-risk jobs. They also often have low wages and few benefits (though
not always) relative to the risks and difficulties. Although lower wages
has been a trend towards worse pay is part of a general trend over the
last 30 years for all jobs in the USA:
http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/
There is a reason kids are not flocking to these jobs. I remember one
picture of welder working on a project, and while I don't remember the
exact details, it was something like the welder was 200 feet in the air
hanging from ropes with a welding torch working on some massive
structure (and I think upside down). Of course, the picture was probably
taken precisely because it was unusual, but still, these jobs can be
hazardous.
But it looks like fall risks are not the worst thing about real welding
jobs. Related:
http://www.wisegeek.com/is-welding-dangerous.htm
"The leading cause of health problems in welders relates to carcinogenic
or toxic chemicals. These chemicals might be in a sealant or coating
over the metal surfaces to be welded. Extreme heat releases molecules
into the air, where they are easily inhaled."
And in general:
"America's most dangerous jobs"
http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/13/pf/dangerousjobs/index.htm
Often they are jobs that can really wear out a body over the decades if
you do them sixty hours a week. The knees start to go, for example. That
can be true even as these jobs might be great fun and soul-building jobs
to do twenty or thirty hours a week either as a volunteer, as a hobby,
or for great pay. But that is not the option most people get who do
them. The same might be said about many jobs though.
This seems more typical for the USA for manufacturing jobs:
http://csrblogg.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/ikea-factory-in-us-accused-of-racial-discrimination-and-mandatory-overtime/
"Workers complain of eliminated salary raises, a frenzied working pace
and mandatory overtime. Several said it�s common to find out on Friday
evening that they�ll have to do a weekend shift, with disciplinary
action for those who can�t or don�t show up."
We could possibly fix those issues with some good laws, but that doesn't
seem likely anytime soon. If anything, the laws have been going the
other way. And unions have been falling apart as the "private welfare
state" does not make so much sense anymore for various reasons, where
only those older members in shrinking unions may still do well (future
members tend to lose out in negotiations these days), but companies move
their work elsewhere globally.
In general, the demand for cheap labor may drive things like the
redesign of how we make things to require less skills. For example,
steel buildings may be made in factories and shipped on site with
labels, which reduces the need for skilled labor on the assembly site.
Plumbing supplies can and have been redesigned to be easier to work with
(like plastic) for many situations. And so on. I'm not saying that will
replace all labor anytime soon, but it can reduce it.
So, while I like the rah-rah reskilling essays, I take them with a grain
of salt.
I feel the best reason to learn mechanical literacy, programming
literacy, or even wilderness literacy is the same reason to learn print
literacy. Learning to "read" things and "write" things is a way to grow
and feel more capable in our world. And we can also accept not everyone
will be good at all the different literacies out there with the shame
that school makes so many feel about that.
Hackerspaces can provide a lot of value for homeschoolers in just
getting to that point -- establishing a basic manufacturing literacy. It
was the kind of thing I learned just playing around in a well-stocked
basement and growing up around a father who had spent decades in the
merchant marines and then decades as a machinist and toolmaker and then
manufacturing engineer. But to think what I might have learned from him
if I had not had to sit at a desk all day every week day growing up
doing paperwork, and if he had not had to work 60 hour weeks (including
often weekends) to try to feed his family.
So, IMHO homeschoolers should not learn how to do plumbing primarily
because they think they might become a plumber -- though sure, if that's
what they want to become, great. Homeschoolers should learn plumbing and
welding and electronics and so on (if they want) because it helps them
grow as human beings in a variety of ways (one of which, is of course,
an ability to help oneself and others, but that is not the only thing of
value).
From:
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/buddhist_economics/english.html
"The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least
threefold: to give man a chance to utilise and develop his faculties; to
enable him to overcome his ego-centredness by joining with other people
in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a
becoming existence. Again, the consequences that flow from this view are
endless. To organise work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless,
boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little
short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than
with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of
attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.
Equally, to strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be
considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of
human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of
the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the
joy of work and the bliss of leisure."
That said, probably 90%+ of work in the USA is currently pointless
make-work, as I outline here: :-)
http://www.pdfernhout.net/post-scarcity-princeton.html#Making_the_whole_world_into_Princeton_University_or_how_Princeton_locally_stands_in_the_way_of_Princeton_globally_-
But at least a higher percentage of the physical hands-on work people do
in the USA is needed compared to the paperwork and guarding, to address
real needs and real scarcities.
BTW, you've also no doubt seen this by someone with a PhD:
"The Case for Working with Your Hands" by Matthew Crawford
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html
"The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a
simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also
stupid. This is not my experience. I have a small business as a
motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Va., which I started in 2002. I work on
Japanese and European motorcycles, mostly older bikes with some
�vintage� cachet that makes people willing to spend money on them. I
have found the satisfactions of the work to be very much bound up with
the intellectual challenges it presents. And yet my decision to go into
this line of work is a choice that seems to perplex many people. ...
As it happened, in the spring I landed a job as executive director of
a policy organization in Washington. This felt like a coup. But certain
perversities became apparent as I settled into the job. It sometimes
required me to reason backward, from desired conclusion to suitable
premise. The organization had taken certain positions, and there were
some facts it was more fond of than others. As its figurehead, I was
making arguments I didn�t fully buy myself. Further, my boss seemed
intent on retraining me according to a certain cognitive style � that of
the corporate world, from which he had recently come. This style
demanded that I project an image of rationality but not indulge too much
in actual reasoning. As I sat in my K Street office, Fred�s life as an
independent tradesman gave me an image that I kept coming back to:
someone who really knows what he is doing, losing himself in work that
is genuinely useful and has a certain integrity to it. He also seemed to
be having a lot of fun. ..."
I know I have very much missed some of the mind-and-hands together stuff
that used to come from working on robotics and electronics projects as I
moved mainly into software (and recently essay writing).
--Paul Fernhout
Giovanni Lostumbo
"The Case for Working with Your Hands" by Matthew Crawford
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html "
"Now, it is probably true that every job entails some kind of
mutilation." Furthermore, "I used to work as an electrician and had my
own business doing it for a while. As an electrician you breathe a lot
of unknown dust in crawl spaces, your knees get bruised, your neck
gets strained from looking up at the ceiling while installing lights
or ceiling fans and you get shocked regularly, sometimes while on a
ladder. Your hands are sliced up from twisting wires together,
handling junction boxes made out of stamped sheet metal and cutting
metal conduit with a hacksaw. But none of this damage touches the best
part of yourself."
There's also a page in A Confederacy of Dunces where Ignatius Riley is
hesitant to enter an autoshop because he doesn't want to be exposed to
the fumes of the benzene and other auto supplies. Quite funny when the
mechanic yammers at him to accept a little common sense.
On May 27, 9:11 pm, "Paul D. Fernhout" <pdfernh...@kurtz-fernhout.com>
wrote:
>
> > Interesting links Paul.
> > The Degrading one would have been good to have for that saturday
> > panel. The moderator asked how hackerspace project based education
> > would deal with grades.
>
> Well, now you know for next time. :-)
>
> I'm writing a second reply because by coincidence someone just posted a
> link to a homeschooling/unschooling list I am on. This link relates to
> the issue of the deskilling of the USA as a larger theme, and the fact
> that these often non-graded non-academic skills have become devalued. It
> is recent testimony to Congress:
> "Testimony of Mike Rowe; Creator, Executive Producer and Host, Dirty
> Jobs"
>
Paul D. Fernhout
> "BTW, you've also no doubt seen this by someone with a PhD:
> "The Case for Working with Your Hands" by Matthew Crawford
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html "
>
> I remember that article and this sentence remained with me:
>
> "Now, it is probably true that every job entails some kind of
> mutilation." Furthermore, "I used to work as an electrician and had my
> own business doing it for a while. As an electrician you breathe a lot
> of unknown dust in crawl spaces, your knees get bruised, your neck
> gets strained from looking up at the ceiling while installing lights
> or ceiling fans and you get shocked regularly, sometimes while on a
> ladder. Your hands are sliced up from twisting wires together,
> handling junction boxes made out of stamped sheet metal and cutting
> metal conduit with a hacksaw. But none of this damage touches the best
> part of yourself."
>
> There's also a page in A Confederacy of Dunces where Ignatius Riley is
> hesitant to enter an autoshop because he doesn't want to be exposed to
> the fumes of the benzene and other auto supplies. Quite funny when the
> mechanic yammers at him to accept a little common sense.
Giovanni-
Yes that is a terrific point, thanks. We all make our tradeoffs in life.
Jeff Schmidt, in the book "Disciplined Minds", makes the point that many
in blue collar professions look at doctors, or laywers, or to some
extent architects and engineers, or other "white collar" professions and
envy them because there is often no obvious "boss" in the way many blue
collar people have standing over them. But, he points out that the
reason those white collar people can operate for a time without bosses
breathing down their necks is that the schooling process (through
professional school) has essentially instilled in their "disciplined"
minds "the boss" so these professionals will do what the boss wants even
when the boss is not around. Or, at least, professional schooling
filters for those people.
Also related, I quote Chomsky here in a reply to a new report calling
for widespread US self-censorship in discussing our infrastructure:
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2192070&cid=36274078
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm
"Those of you who have been through college know that the educational
system is very highly geared to rewarding conformity and obedience; if
you don't do that, you are a troublemaker. So, it is kind of a filtering
device which ends up with people who really honestly (they aren't lying)
internalize the framework of belief and attitudes of the surrounding
power system in the society."
So, yes, in that context, which is worse, exposure to some benzene fumes
or exposure to soul-stealing ideology? You raise an excellent point.
"A Confederacy of Dunces" is a great book, btw. It's been a long time
since I read it (about twenty five years?). I should read it again, and
see whether there are new insights into things I missed the first time I
read it in my twenties but may notice now that I am older:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces
--Paul Fernhout
Linz Craig
Jerry pointed me towards this discussion after we met at Maker Faire
in San Mateo. I wanted simply to let you guys know about our free
teacher supportive materials that we will soon be offering to everyone
on SparkFun.com. We already have lots of tutorials and what not but we
are also developing materials to help educators do their job with
technology they may not have deal with before. Basically trying to
support all you educators out there. Our Department of Education at
SparkFun is fairly small and new, but we've got big aspirations. The
exciting part is that we offer all the educational materials for free.
This should interest all you homeschoolers. To sign up for our
Newsletter go to www.learn.sparkfun.com. Or watch the website and we
will let you know where you can get those materials the second they
are official. Here's hoping that hackerspaces can become a larger part
of the education system.
On May 26, 9:59 am, MauiMaker <isd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul
>
> Serendipity. There is a conversation on the Hackerspaces.org
> discussion list (http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/
> discuss) about hackerspaces and education. In particular about sharing
> class/teacher materials.
> This was sparked by my seeing a couple panels at Maker Faire Bay Area
> about "Future of Education" and "Hackerspaces and Education". Hacker/
> Maker spaces are definitely an emerging source of education in a
> variety of subjects. Mostly these are tied to maker activities -
> electronics, wood/metal working, etc. However, there are also ways to
> tie in more complete STEAM education (Sci, Tech, Engr, Art, Math)
> using projects in a maker space.
>
> Getting home schoolers involved with makerspaces would be great. I
> actually has a permanent dedicated physical meeting space. A lot of
> spaces do not have permanent or dedicated space. It takes a fair bit
> to cover rent.
>
> plans, etc.
>
MauiMaker
I got a no server error when using the www.learn.sparkfun.com
However learn.sparkfun.com works fine.
On May 31, 4:57 am, Linz Craig <lcr...@sparkfun.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Jerry pointed me towards this discussion after we met at Maker Faire
> in San Mateo. I wanted simply to let you guys know about our free
> teacher supportive materials that we will soon be offering to everyone
> on SparkFun.com. We already have lots of tutorials and what not but we
> are also developing materials to help educators do their job with
> technology they may not have deal with before. Basically trying to
> support all you educators out there. Our Department of Education at
> SparkFun is fairly small and new, but we've got big aspirations. The
> exciting part is that we offer all the educational materials for free.
> This should interest all you homeschoolers. To sign up for our
> are official. Here's hoping that hackerspaces can become a larger part
> of the education system.
>
> On May 26, 9:59 am, MauiMaker <isd...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Paul
>
> > Serendipity. There is a conversation on the Hackerspaces.org
> > discussion list (http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/
> > discuss) about hackerspaces and education. In particular about sharing
> > class/teacher materials.
> > This was sparked by my seeing a couple panels at Maker Faire Bay Area
> > about "Future of Education" and "Hackerspaces and Education". Hacker/
> > Maker spaces are definitely an emerging source of education in a
> > variety of subjects. Mostly these are tied to maker activities -
> > electronics, wood/metal working, etc. However, there are also ways to
> > tie in more complete STEAM education (Sci, Tech, Engr, Art, Math)
> > using projects in a maker space.
>
> > Getting home schoolers involved with makerspaces would be great. I
> > encourage you to look up your local space - seehttp://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces. Be sure to check
> > the 'planned' spaces too. The site defines a space as one that
> > actually has a permanent dedicated physical meeting space. A lot of
> > spaces do not have permanent or dedicated space. It takes a fair bit
> > to cover rent.
>