Michael Stone is an educator who led efforts to create 34 maker labs in K-12 schools in Hamilton County, Tennessee, though he doesn't consider himself to have any skills or an interest in creation. He was a basketball coach with a degree in computer science. Now as Vice President of Innovative Learning for the Public Education Foundation. a non-profit organization in southeastern Tennessee, it is an education leader that has embraced creator education to help students develop technical skills, but also to learn about solving problem-solving and collaboration. It talks about doing as authentic learning, involving real problems and solutions, and leading to authentic evaluation.
This transcript of this interview is also published in the MakerEd newsletter, along with a video of the conversation on the MakerEd YouTube channel.
00:00 Authentic learning and creation
02:09 Michael's Background
03:54 Falling into Fab Labs
05:46 From master teacher to master learner
07:57 Training
12:06 Authentic Rating
18:44 Going from one school to many
20:21 Pioneers and Settlers
26:37 Mixture of custom manufacturing and custom learning
We worked with Volkswagen Group of America and the State of Tennessee to open what is now considered the largest network of school FabLabs. We have 34 FabLabs in schools. We call them Volkswagen eLabs, and it will open nine more this summer. So we will have 43 in K-12 public schools in our community by this time next year.
In all transparency, I got into teaching because I wanted to coach basketball. I'm 6'9" and here you can't coach boys basketball if you're not a teacher. So I graduated I became a teacher. Turns out I have loved it. I loved teaching at least as much as I loved coaching. Nine years into my career I had the opportunity to change. I went to a local STEM school and they were looking for someone to open a Fab Lab I didn't know what a Fab Lab was.
What got me excited was that the director said - his name is Dr Tony Donan - he said, "I know what we're not going to do is we're not going to spend the whole day teaching kids lecture style or didactically how to use 3D printers and laser cutters and tools. Our goal is to place children in the most authentic situations possible and to embed rich learning in those situations.
It's really about helping schools reinvent what's possible. How do we really train children for the future? Part of that is what we think about, and I'm sure we'll come to that, but part of it is that they have to develop the ability to pick up new technical skills quickly and apply them in a given context.
I told the principal that I didn't have those skills. He changed my life with his response to this observation. I was basically getting my name out of the hat for work. And he looked through really dark and he said, honestly, I don't care if you don't know what a CNC router is. My only question is, are you ready to learn it? And would you learn to do it in front of children? Would you be willing to learn it with kids by your side?
I think the competition in...
Michael Stone is an educator who led efforts to create 34 maker labs in K-12 schools in Hamilton County, Tennessee, though he doesn't consider himself to have any skills or an interest in creation. He was a basketball coach with a degree in computer science. Now as Vice President of Innovative Learning for the Public Education Foundation. a non-profit organization in southeastern Tennessee, it is an education leader that has embraced creator education to help students develop technical skills, but also to learn about solving problem-solving and collaboration. It talks about doing as authentic learning, involving real problems and solutions, and leading to authentic evaluation.
This transcript of this interview is also published in the MakerEd newsletter, along with a video of the conversation on the MakerEd YouTube channel.
00:00 Authentic learning and creation
02:09 Michael's Background
03:54 Falling into Fab Labs
05:46 From master teacher to master learner
07:57 Training
12:06 Authentic Rating
18:44 Going from one school to many
20:21 Pioneers and Settlers
26:37 Mixture of custom manufacturing and custom learning
We worked with Volkswagen Group of America and the State of Tennessee to open what is now considered the largest network of school FabLabs. We have 34 FabLabs in schools. We call them Volkswagen eLabs, and it will open nine more this summer. So we will have 43 in K-12 public schools in our community by this time next year.
In all transparency, I got into teaching because I wanted to coach basketball. I'm 6'9" and here you can't coach boys basketball if you're not a teacher. So I graduated I became a teacher. Turns out I have loved it. I loved teaching at least as much as I loved coaching. Nine years into my career I had the opportunity to change. I went to a local STEM school and they were looking for someone to open a Fab Lab I didn't know what a Fab Lab was.
What got me excited was that the director said - his name is Dr Tony Donan - he said, "I know what we're not going to do is we're not going to spend the whole day teaching kids lecture style or didactically how to use 3D printers and laser cutters and tools. Our goal is to place children in the most authentic situations possible and to embed rich learning in those situations.
It's really about helping schools reinvent what's possible. How do we really train children for the future? Part of that is what we think about, and I'm sure we'll come to that, but part of it is that they have to develop the ability to pick up new technical skills quickly and apply them in a given context.
I told the principal that I didn't have those skills. He changed my life with his response to this observation. I was basically getting my name out of the hat for work. And he looked through really dark and he said, honestly, I don't care if you don't know what a CNC router is. My only question is, are you ready to learn it? And would you learn to do it in front of children? Would you be willing to learn it with kids by your side?
I think the competition in...
