La Fabrication numérique » Golangustavo. What happens when you turn a middle school library into a hackerspace? Guest article by Thomas Maillioux above: David designs an animation for his LoL Shield with LoL Shield Theater Editor’s note: Several months ago I put a call out on this blog for a DIY electronics blogger, and I couldn’t believe how many funny, friendly, fantastically qualified people from all over the world responded.
One such person was Thomas Maillioux, an unconventional librarian in France. He told me about his work to bring hackerspaces into the libraries of public schools in metro-Paris to teach kids about electronics, programming, design, and even 3D printing. He graciously accepted my invitation in broken franglais to tell his story here on the blog. I hope you enjoy! What happens when you turn a middle school library into a hackerspace? By Thomas Maillioux A hackerspace at school I was lucky enough to work through the 2010 school year with a bunch of brilliant, curious pupils at the Evariste Galois middle-school in Epinay sur Seine in the northern suburbs of Paris. What now? Library builds a hackerspace.
3D Printing, Part 2: Printing a ton of passion and hope | 233 Tech. In part 1 of this article I talked about 3D printing in a sort of ‘WOW!!’ Way. As I was doing the article I realised the potential it had for application in education. As an undergrad I offered Civil Engineering at KNUST. One of the problems I personally had with the ‘system’ was the general lack of practical, interactive, fun ‘get-your-hands-dirty’ courses. I mean we did some cool practical courses, but there was never any indication it was supposed to be fun. There is a general perception that education in Ghana is not supposed to be fun, besides there are more pressing needs (like inadquate lecture rooms) and I am thinking of prototyping and similar activities. In fact in my opinion the very reasons given above are why we need this type of project.
My inability to describe all scenarios is in itself one of the reasons this would be a fantastic part of making our universities better. What I am suggesting has been done before, there’s always a precedent for everything. 1. 2. Ps. Sur la route des hackers évangélistes. Pour en finir avec les idées reçues et les vieux mensonges, pour que non-initiés découvrent la culture des hackers et les pratiques du Do It Yourself (fais-le toi-même), des véhicules équipés se déplacent à leur rencontre.
Le hackbus de Johannes Grenzfurthner et David Dempsey au festival Mozilla Drumbeat à Barcelone, l'automne dernier. Certains pensent que les idées des hackers, ces bidouilleurs qui aiment détourner les objets de leur destination initiale, sont réservées à une petite élite éduquée ? Le hackbus, un véhicule spécialement équipé, répond à ce reproche en allant à la rencontre des gens. Pour Johannes Grenzfurthner, un artiste viennois co-fondateur du collectif Monochrom qui fédère les initiatives de ce type sur la plate-forme hackbus.info, c’est un retour aux sources subversives du hacking.
Revenant sur un quart de siècle d’existence des hackerspaces, ces espaces physiques où se réunissent les hackers, il estime que le mouvement s’est embourgeoisé et replié sur lui-même. Hello_world! Tinkering with technology education. Does “making stuff” influence girls’ interest in technology and engineering? From Young makers to e-textile designers to student IT support squads, the stories and research imply that the answer is simply, “yes, of course.”
Last month I had the very cool opportunity to discuss this topic as part of a panel at the National Coalition for Women in IT (NCWIT) Summit in New York City. Having flown directly from Maker Faire in the Bay Area where girls and boys were both deeply engaged in all kinds of tinkering — from making spinbots to sewing to crafts to soldering — it was a pretty interesting cultural shift to attend a conference dedicated to overcoming the gender gap in computing and engineering. It seems counterintuitive that a field that has such an egalitarian, merit-based culture and ethic as computer science should be so overwhelmingly composed of men. It turns out that the context in which technology is presented has a large effect on how attractive it is to each gender. Related: