New Makerspace in ES PIE

I have been an Apple Distinguished Educator for 10 years and it has provided such inspiration. To be connected with the amazing group of ADE educators has given me so much. I have presented a lot over the years on publishing but a few years ago I decided to challenge myself to try something new. To branch out and reinvent myself. It can be daunting to start again but I saw the potential for Maker Education and really wanted to be a part of this worldwide movement. At the time, my school had decided to develop an iTime program (Personal projects) with the help of Kath Murdoch as a consultant. I really wanted to be involved, but my job at that time was all about digital as I was a technology integration specialist. Many of my ADE peers in other schools were moving into this area but it took a while for me to follow as there was and is still so much work to be done in the digital area. I needed buy in from my school and although I could see all of the connections myself, but it took a while to grow those for others to recognise.

What I needed to do was make sure that I included digital literacy into every iTime session. Catering to as many as 20 diverse projects in each class can be overwhelming. Using our Apple devices with apps such as Book Creator and Seesaw has helped not only to grow learning dispositions but also to make the learning visible for others to see. Using iPads also gave students access to virtual mentors via videos. This effectively enabled me to help more students at the same time.

This is the first year that I have been a working in a big Makerspace that caters to the whole campus. It is very daunting! Previously, I have worked in a small room which was only able to fit 8 students at a time. The school renovated the library and as a part of that, a Makerspace was built on the second floor.

This year we opened the Makerspace doors to everyone and in that process, we needed to make sure that everyone was catered to. I am so grateful for the support of the homeroom teachers. I learn from these teachers every day as together we try to navigate the demand from our students.