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"As the maker movement sweeps the nation, many school librarians are in the early planning stages of incorporating a makerspace into their current programming. Some libraries are struggling to get buy-in and funding from administration, while others are still figuring out how to transform their space. What are the right tools you need to get buy-in and jumpstart makerspaces in schools?"

"Ten years ago, I walked past a newsstand and out of the myriad of multicolored covers, one jumped out at me: MAKE magazine. As someone who grew up making stuff, this magazine spoke directly to me. I bought copies and immediately brought them to the director of my school. I remember triumphantly exclaiming "We should show this to all of the teachers-think of the projects we can do!" A decade later, well-intentioned schools that create dedicated "maker spaces" worry me. For the uninitiated, a maker space often houses ultramodern tools like a laser cutter or 3D printers, mixed with drill presses, table saws, and soldering irons, or perhaps screen printing equipment or sewing machines. My fear is that stand-alone maker spaces will cause the powerful act of creation to be confined to only certain parts of the school building. I worry that yesterday's centralized computer lab-which we rightly democratized and decentralized by putting computers in every classroom-is today's maker space. When I walk past a new room being outfitted with a laser cutter or a drill press and hear, "This is our maker space!" I am tempted to ask: "What happens in all of the other spaces? What do people do there?" The act of creation is transformative. An individual's self-image is forever changed when he or she can hold up a real object-a real contribution to the world-and say, "I made this." In a time when students' lives are increasingly virtual, abstract and vicarious experiences, it is every teacher's job to make learning, and life, "hands-on." "

"If a school were to spend thousands of dollars on a class set of laptops, yet only use them for printing documents of random words or clipart designed by someone else, no one in their right mind would conclude that this technology was being used to its fullest extent. Yet, many schools are not prepared to hold their 3D printing programs to the same educational standards. At Brookwood School in Manchester-By-The-Sea, MA, when our first 3D printing project in 2013 resulted in a functional prosthetic for my son, it quickly became clear that these machines held the potential for some pretty transformative educational experiences, and set us on a path to getting the most out of this new technology. Below are some recommendations regarding how to "supercharge your 3D printing program":"

"Think your library needs a renovation? You might be right, but before spending unnecessary money on a major overhaul, you might want to think again. I receive inquiries all of the time from schools whose library's are not used, and thought that renovating their space was going to do the trick. Oftentimes, even with a big referendum that allows for a state-of-the-art renovation, those spaces continue to be unused. The solution to turning a library around is NOT a renovation, it is the culture. Upon my arrival at New Milford High School, I walked into a library that was unused and that was referred to by my principal at the time, Eric Sheninger, as a barren wasteland.  We didn't have the luxury of a big sum of money to renovate our space, so we were forced to think of other ways to make changes in our space.  Those changes focused not on how the space looked, but on transforming the culture of the space. "

" Seymour Papert, whose ideas and inventions transformed how millions of children around the world create and learn, died Sunday, July 31, 2016 at his home in East Blue Hill, Maine. He was 88."

"You've read about the maker movement. You've seen the posts with 3D printers, laser cutters, and three-axis mills in shiny new labs. And you want your students to start making, too. But you've got one big problem: you don't have a full lab -- or even a 3D printer -- because, like many educators, you don't have the biggest budget. Maybe you have no budget at all. But what if you could get started making tomorrow and didn't need all the fancy tools to join this movement? Making starts with a mindset, and simple materials are all that you need to get started. There are resources all around you, materials hidden in plain sight, tools just waiting to be used for a creative purpose. And with a little dose of ingenuity, you'll have your students making in no time. One perfect way start making on the cheap is through upcycling, the intentional transformation of hard-to-recycle materials into new products, thus saving them from the landfill. This type of real-world project not only teaches making skills but also helps you integrate making into your subject area. Study material science, explore industrial design, or dig into environmental education. As an added bonus, a project like this ignites your students' entrepreneurial spirit. Here's the five-step strategy that I've used to get my students making products out of hard-to-recycle materials. These steps could be done in one class period each, but if you want more time for ideas and iteration, feel free to expand the timeline as you go. Expect a beautiful mess, a bit of chaos, and a lot of fun as your students start to save the landfills -- by design."

"The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using "tech for tech's sake". We recently discussed the SAMR model during an Academic Technology Work Group meeting at The College of Westchester. We examined the video, SAMR in 120 Seconds. One thing that really struck me is how much the example helped, so I made it a point to gather and/or create some more examples."

" This blog entry aims to answer most of those familiar questions and point any beginners to additional 'how to' resources that may help you to find out more when you are ready. Remember it is still relatively early days for introducing mobile technologies into the classroom to support learning, evidence suggests that this process is transforming the way students learn and even the currently available Apps are changing on a daily basis because many of them were not originally intended for education. "

"The iPad makes new assessment practices possible. First, just being able to hear a student explain his or her thinking is a transformative event."

"Having taught the Year 6 Design & Technology unit 6D (Controllable Vehicles) in the same way for the past 6 years with a few tweeks here and there, I was looking for complete transformation on how this project is taught using the iPad and how it can bridge the between the school curriculum and technology."

"Any list of "Best Apps for Teachers" quickly gets superseded in the new releases of apps. More and more apps each week are being released to assist teachers. Some of these are simple apps that perform single tasks exceptional well while others transform the way that we present in a classroom. Here are another 10 that might help to make the classroom a place of contemporary learning."

"The micro-computer revolution of the 80's radically improved how teachers and schools carry on the business of learning. We now have iPads in classrooms that will not only improve it, but it has the potential to change the business of learning in schools. The question is, "Are teachers ready to adjust their teaching for this new learning revolution?""

"What lies at the center of my work productivity? What are the things I want to do with my iPad at work? These two questions are what each of the requirements below seek to answer."