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The Maker Movement is an extension of the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) movement inspired by the democratization of manufacturing practices and tools in the early to mid-2000’s. Instead of relying on commercial manufacturers, who only catered to large corporations, Makers use tools like the 3D printer and even drone technology, to take creation and production into their own hands. In this way, new technologies have created a level playing field between corporations and individual creatives, a fact that Makers use to their full advantage.

Right away, certain patterns emerged. First, great teachers tended to set big goals for their students. They were also perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness. For example, when Farr called up teachers who were making remarkable gains and asked to visit their classrooms, he noticed he’d get a similar response from all of them: “They’d say, ‘You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you—I am in the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure and changing my reading workshop because I think it’s not working as well as it could.’ When you hear that over and over, and you don’t hear that from other teachers, you start to form a hypothesis.” Great teachers, he concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing. Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls. But when Farr took his findings to teachers, they wanted more. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah. Give me the concrete actions. What does this mean for a lesson plan?’” So Farr and his colleagues made lists of specific teacher actions that fell under the high-level principles they had identified. For example, one way that great teachers ensure that kids are learning is to frequently check for understanding: Are the kids—all of the kids—following what you are saying? Asking “Does anyone have any questions?” does not work, and it’s a classic rookie mistake. Students are not always the best judges of their own learning. They might understand a line read aloud from a Shakespeare play, but have no idea what happened in the last act.

You might, for example, set up a book discussion blog, a wiki for collaborative research, or a Google doc for collaborative writing.

By contrast some web apps are perfect for the “one-class stand”

Web 2.0 can optimize collaboration

The report's main findings are: students prefer a range of possible learning methods, rather than one or two prescribed options, and flexibility is very important to them proactive engagement with students and co-ordinated efforts by higher education institutions can markedly improve standards and accountability there are varying levels of ICT competence among lecturers and staff, and this can have an impact on students' learning experiences students commonly requested more ICT skills training, particularly around using and referencing online resources.

Educators at all levels have not understood that learning is no longer about the past, as Bush’s memex was. It is no longer primarily about what has been said and done and described and proved, but, importantly, is about what is being said, and what is being done, and what is being described and what has not yet been proven.

asks the students to explain why Reginald or Julia made a particular comment in class yesterday, the answer is not on the Web. If you are working in the present progressive instead of in the past tense, then student answers will also be in the present progressive.