In this episode we talk to Amanda Jolliffe from Microsoft Dreamspace where she brings us on her journey from her role in Dreamspace through to all the various activities that happened in the space before the Covid-19 lockdown came to their virtually hosted events including a TV programme broadcasted nationally!
About Amanda: Amanda Jolliffe is DreamSpace Lead in Microsoft Ireland. DreamSpace is an education venue that has an ambition to be a catalyst for change in how school communities think about and engage in STEAM and digital technologies. The DreamSpace program content is developed by teachers, of which Amanda is one. You can find out all about the DreamSpace programs using the details below or search social media pages with the #MSDreamSpace.
In this episode we are joined by Christine Campbell, Founder and current Managing Director of Anyone4Science co-hosted by Vicky Twomey-Lee and Jeffrey Roe.
Christine brings us through her journey on how Anyone4Science was born. She has such a vast wealth of experience and knowledge that we were jotting them all down and we hope you find this podcast useful from engaging young audiences, lessons learnt and much more.
In this episode we talk to Mark Pickering from Jellylab (UCD). Co-hosts are Tomas Ward and Vicky Twomey-Lee. Mark is no stranger to Dublin Maker festival and also was one of our Maker-a-Day during Science Week 2020.
We will be talking about how anyone can be a researcher at home and behind the scenes on how Mark and his team of researchers use accessible materials for their their research, his philosophy of punk rock regarding to his research – “punk microscopy”, experiences from all their Maker creations implemented in their labs. We gushed about LEGO and 3D printers. Of course, the fun you have when making and experimenting, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.
📢 We are delighted to announce that Dublin Maker (and DCU) is a partner on an Erasmus+ Programme called ASSESSMAKE21 (thanks to Mairéad Hurley from Science Gallery Dublin for connecting us to Learnovate who is the main drive of the project). Maker Advocate, Vicky Twomey-Lee will be point of contact on behalf of Dublin Maker.
🗓 Dublin Maker will be planning the first multiplier (information) event at the end of Jan 2021. Keep an eye out when we will announce the registration page for the event, it’s free to attend and will be online. If you are an educator, Maker, organisation that work with kids and youths, thinking of forming a Makerspace or having Maker activities in your community, library, school, club, etc., this is an event is for you!
Below is some info about ASSESSMAKE21 (the website will be coming shortly).
ASSESSMAKE21: Innovative digital solutions to assess 21st century skills in makerspaces: schools & non-formal
As the maker movement is increasingly adopted into K‐12 schools and nonformal makerspaces, students have more opportunities to generate unique, personalized projects and artifacts, such as computer programs, robots, DIY electronics and to develop new competencies and skills.
Digital making technologies if coupled with proper learning methodologies such as suggested by Constructivism (Piaget, 1974) and Constructionism (Papert & Harel, 1991) can provide learning experiences that promote young people’s creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem-solving skills, the essential skills necessary in the workplace of the 21st century (21st C Skills).
However, assessment of these higher order skills is not easy, particularly within these open-ended environments where students create unique solution paths to problems, interact with peers, and act in both the physical and digital worlds. Currently, digital technologies offer novel methods and solutions to assess the 21st century skills and offer insights to learners’ efforts and achievements that become available for both learners and researchers. Thus, the goal of this project is to provide, pilot and validate novel assessment methods and tools intended to use for the assessment of 21st century skills.
The assessment solutions will be piloted in different learning contexts but focused on makerspaces (schools and nonformal ie the makerspaces will be either currently located in Schools or will be nonformal spaces whose programmes engage with School groups). The project partnership will run learning environments that will enable students to act as makers using a wide variety of physical and digital tools through hands-on experiences that emphasize collaboration and creativity following inquiry-based approaches instead of direct instruction of facts and formulas.
Teachers and non-formal educators will receive training and will be highly involved in planning and implementing the activities. Finally, the project will report findings and conclusions from implementations and assessments that will take place in 5 schools and 4 non-formal maker spaces in 4 countries.
In this episode we are talking to Miriam Harte and Jen Hensen from TechSpace along with my co-host Tomas Ward.
More info about TechSpace:
The TechSpace Programme
TechSpace is an education programme of Camara Education Ireland. TechSpace offers training, development, support and opportunities for youth organisations and schools to deliver STEAM and Digital Creativity projects. Find out more about us and how you can become a TechSpace Educator at TechSpace.ie!
ESB Creative Tech Fest 2020
This year’s ESB Creative Tech Fest will be a National Event with a Regional Approach .
On the 28th of October 2020, young people’s creative work will be celebrated and recognised via a live award ceremony online and a virtual reality exhibition. ESB Creative Tech Fest on the 28th of October will be accessible from youth centres, regional hub and even at home
Awards
Young People and Educators from across Ireland’s TechSpace Network are invited to develop creative projects and enter a wide range of award categories in the fields of STEAM, Digital Creativity and Computer Science. The award categories are now LIVE – click here for more info! (Closing date for entries is October 9th) Digital Youth WorkJen mentioned digitalyouthwork.eu, which is a great resource around STEAM/Digital Creativity resources for educators. It also has lots of cool info about youth projects and programmes, which are super impressive!
Our next episode of The Dublin Maker Podcast is up, and we (Vicky and Tomas) are chatting with MakerMeetIE’s Chris Reina, Pamela O’Brien, Hassan Dabbagh chatting about creativity in education, creative thinking and making to how Covid-19 is affecting society.
You can find MakerMeetIE and updates on their upcoming plans at:
