“If you have an idea, just go and do it”, Massimo Banzi
Innovation and technology
Being innovative in the current, digital era (as an individual or a group) is considered a necessary skill. This is due to, in part, the competition that exists to find good jobs (Lepe-Salazar et al. 2017). To favor the acquisition of skills related to innovation, educational institutions operate various strategies, including internships and hackathons. Although these initiatives contribute to student learning and promote student creativity, they do not necessarily teach them how to innovate.
According to experts from the United States National Academy of Engineering, innovation may be regarded as an activity, product, process, or service that: (1) has a positive impact on society, either in the short or medium term; (2) represents an improvement (incremental or transformational) with respect to an existing activity, product, process or service; (3) is the product of the work of a multidisciplinary team; (4) has social value and/or responds to a social need; and (5) is potentially marketable (Bement, Dutta, & Patil, 2015).
Researcher Tina Seelig (2012) suggests that, the best way to become more creative and innovate is by constantly working regardless of whether the quality of what we do, initially, is not optimal. It is time and practice that give us rigor. A concrete way to achieve this goal is through the planning and eventual development of practices, corresponding to each area of knowledge, following the precepts of maker culture. Hence, for teachers, contemplating activities of this type (i.e., maker) in their semester or quarterly planning is so important.
On the other hand, by having different technological devices to carry out activities, a person is able to unleash their creativity and therefore be more innovative. For that reason, various authors link innovation with technological mediation.
“Let us build the change we want to see”, Emily Pilloton
Introduction to maker culture
The term maker culture is used to refer to the movement or collective effort to promote the sense of agency of individuals, through activities such as: (1) individual, team, or community work following the guidance and example of third parties; (2) free access to open, shared, multi-context and multi-experience knowledge; and (3) the development of services and products under non-linear schemes, such as agile or lean design (Hui & Gerber, 2017; Marshall & Rode, 2018).
Individual work that takes place within maker culture is commonly known as Do It Yourself (DIY). Experts on the subject suggest that DIY promotes values such as exploration, self-confidence, and self-management (O'Brien et al. 2016; Hui and Gerber, 2017). On the other hand, teamwork or community work is called Do It With Others (DIWO), and it is said to promote values such as openness, solidarity, and transparency.
Do vs Make
It is worth mentioning that maker culture can be divided into two fields/groups: do and make. The first, do, refers to the development of activities and projects that are not necessarily intended to create something tangible. Not all projects or activities that take place within this movement seek to develop technological services or products. In many cases, experts from different areas sit down to discuss ideas that result in models, frameworks, or plans for future work. This group within maker culture are known as DOERs.
The second, make, is focused on the production of consumables. All those who participate in projects and activities whose purpose is to create something tangible (either physical or digital) is called a MAKER. They are the most numerous within the movement. However, not all are focused on technology. Their creations range from delicious dishes to robots.
Table 1. Differentiation between DOERs and MAKERs.
| Slope | Common activities | Specific activities |
| Do | Identify problems
Investigate Propose solutions Evaluate Analyze results |
Prepare plans, models or frameworks |
| Make | Develop prototypes |
Stakeholders
Though to be good at something one needs experience, to start doing or creating one only needs sufficient resources, guidance and will. One way to clearly define who should be in our teams of doers or makers is by considering the stakeholders related to the project. The term stakeholder was used for the first time by R. Edward Freeman in 1984 to refer to the various interest groups that must be taken into account in the strategic planning of a business. For example, in the case of education, stakeholders include teachers, students, parents, managers, administrators, and government authorities.
To start working on a project it is necessary to understand who should be involved. One way to define it is by thinking about what activities will be developed. On Table 2 an example from the area of music composition is presented.
Table 2. Selection of stakeholders based on the activities to be carried out.
| Activities | Stakeholders |
|
|
Does this mean that all stakeholders involved should be part of the team? Although there is no single correct answer, it is advisable to select between those who will have an active role.
Maker culture in the digital age
To be part of this movement, one needs to: (1) have an identified problem, (2) know ways to solve it, (3) have an action plan, and (4) have a guide and resources to carry out the plan. Thanks to the advancement of technology, to achieve the goals mentioned previously, it is not necessary to have a physical space. In fact, many projects can take place at home. Such is the case of the works documented with the hashtag #DoItAtHome. We invite you to take a look at the pages of Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest to learn more about it.
To create from scratch or to resignify
One of the main entry barriers to creating is perhaps starting from scratch, that is, from nothing. This is not the case of those who join maker culture. According to Marshall and Rode (2018), DIY/DIWO can be understood as the act of combining and recombining a finite number of materials to arrive at new ideas. This process of resignification of what already exists makes it possible for all kinds of people to work on the development of a new service or product based on what they know or like.
Resources for Makers/Doers
To encourage you to participate in maker culture, we share with you a short selection of digital resources that you can use to start:
Bibliography
Bement, A., Dutta, D., & Patil, L. (2015). Educate to Innovate: Factors that Influence Innovation - Based on Input from Innovators and Stakeholders. USA: The National Academy Press. ISBN: 978-0-309-36879-7. DOI: 10.17226 / 21698.
Bergner, Y., Abramovich, S., Worsley, M., & Chen, O. (2019). What are the learning and assessment objectives in educational FabLabs and Makerspaces?. Paper presented at Proceedings of Fablearn 2019 (FL2019), March 9-10, New York, NY, USA. DOI: 10.1145 / 3311890.3311896
Eysenck, M., & Keane, M. (2015). Cognitive Psychology: A Students Handbook (Seventh Edition). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press. ISBN: 978-1-84872-416-7
Freeman, R. (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. USA: Pitman. ISBN: 978-0273019138
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). New York, NY, USA: Continuum.
Hui, JS, and Gerber, EM (2017). Developing Makerspaces as Sites of Entrepreneurship. Paper presented in Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW'17), pp. 2023-2038, February 25-March 01, Portland, OR, USA. DOI: 10.1145 / 2998181.2998264
Lepe-Salazar, F., Mondragón-Beltrán, E., Cortés-Álvarez, T. & Cárdenas-Coria, S. (2017). Methodology for the ideation of ICT solutions to social problems. Memories of the 4th International Congress of Educational Innovation (CIIE 2017), pp. 3155-3163.
Marshall, A. & Rode, J. (2018). Deconstructing Sociotechnical Identity in Maker Cultures. Paper presented at Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on GenderIT (GenderIT'18), May 14-15, Heilbronn, Germany. DOI: 10.1145 / 3196839.3196855
O'Brien, S., Hansen, A., & Harlow, DB (2016). Educating Teachers for the Maker Movement: Pre-service Teachers' Experiences Facilitating Maker Activities. Paper presented in Proceedings of Fablearn 2016 (Fablearn'16), pp. 99-102, October 15-16, Stanford, CA, USA. DOI: 10.1145 / 3003397.3003414
Seelig, T. (2012). InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. USA: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN: 978-0-06-202070-3
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: the Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.
