The Taking Making into Learning Contexts Resource Site intends to be your one stop home for open access toolkits, resources and professional learning opportunities. Together, we can help educators imagine innovative and creative ways to foster curiosity, imagination and creativity in our youth and in our practices. See what we have been doing recently #takingmaking
The Taking Making Into Schools, Classrooms and Challenging Contexts toolkit series and supporting materials pre-dates the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s Applied Design, Skills and Technologies (ADST) curriculum. In fact, the Taking Making in Schools Immersive Professional Development approach, supported by the Industry Training Authority (ITA) informed the integration of design, through design thinking, into the modernized notions of Skills and Technologies education.
Since 2013, we have worked with over 6000 educators, globally, to support professional learning in the areas of design thinking, development of design challenges, sharing of resources and materials, and generally spreading the work. We believe that all learners; students, teachers and families; can benefit as Canada embraces the challenges and opportunities of the 4th Industrial Revolution and begins to rethink the world of work and skill development.
People Behind the Resources:
Susan Crichton is an Emeritus Professor – University of British Columbia. She was the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education and the founding director of the Innovative Learning Centre (https://innovativelearningcentre.ca/). She is currently a consultant and designer in system change, participatory research, and innovation.
She taught in both the Bachelor of Education and graduate programs, focusing on Trades and Technology (ADST), new media, design thinking and Making, and appropriate technologies. Her research explores the thoughtful design and development of learning environments to enable quality learning, especially those in challenging contexts. She has worked to develop an immersive professional learning approach for professional learning, introducing maker education to educators locally and globally. Her work, focused on design and making, can be found at https://commons.royalroads.ca/takiningmaking/ and can be freely downloaded by acknowledging its Creative Commons licensing. Previously, she was a professor at the University of Calgary.
She has been a visiting professor in Bhutan, Chile, China, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania, principally in the area design thinking, appropriate technologies, and Making.
Elizabeth Childs is a Professor and Program Head at Royal Roads University. She has expertise in educational technology, instructional design, online learning, and design thinking. Elizabeth consults nationally and internationally in the areas of online and blended learning, online communities, professional learning, instructional design, and capacity development for technology enabled learning environments. She has worked with client groups across K-12, post secondary, government and industry to develop and implement blended learning environments and online learning communities in their organizations.
Elizabeth has had the privilege of being involved with Dr. Susan Crichton in the Taking Making into Classrooms immersive professional learning experience, and in contributing to the development of resources for the face-to-face and online environments which aim to introduce design thinking and maker education to educators locally and globally.