Permission 2 Play - ULearn 15 Pre-conference

'Permission to Play' (P2P) lived up to its name; educators tinkered with code, robots, 3D printing, e-textiles, making moves and gaming (to name just a few!) and became part of the global maker movement.  We connected, co-operated and paved the way for future collaboration.  The opening symposium with Prof. Jane Gilbert, Marc Osborne and Tim Carr was definitely one of the P2P highlights, igniting 'why' we have permission to play in our schools.

Prof. Jane Gilbert challenged our concepts of the make movement by asking three thought provoking questions:

1. How are maker spaces educative?
2. To what extent do they fit with and prepare children for our world now and in the future?
3. How can we use this to rethink education?

We are now in the 3rd industrial revolution which involves solving problems, protoyping creating and sharing - the maker movement in a nutshell.  The production process has been 'democratised' through the availability of 3D printing, robotics, e-textiles etc.  Prof. Jane Gilbert challenged educators to be agile and flexible in order to respond to a wide range of futures, to build our intellectual capacity and build our collective intelligence to work closely with others.

Tim Carr (self proclaimed Mindkits Ninja!) challenged educators to use new technologies to find ways to engage our students, bring learning alive by providing hands-on learning opportunities, grow students' passion for learning, and allow them to 'unravel' new understandings and ideas.

Mark Osborne identified the need to place student agency as a fundamental pillar of education, so that students can be the agents of change within their world, and to ensure the make culture within our schools are inclusive regardless of age, ethnicity or gender.

P2P was inspirational and fun!  My next challenge or goal is to develop DATS (Design, Arts, Technology, Science) at Shotover to engage, embrace and inclusively integrate the maker culture to respond to a whole range of futures!