Alexandra Bal, Jason Nolan, and Yukari Seko

This reading gave me some new terms to associate with the constructionist mode of learning. Specifically, the term maker culture and how it has been introduced into the formal education system in the US, with its various merits analyzed through the lens of shifting perspectives of youth, as well as evolving technologies. This narration starts from the idea of children as hackers who seek to understand the world by challenging their environment and testing its variables with an open-ended inquiry. It set up the stage for me to explore its relation to cultural identity, which is best relayed through the statement, 

“Maker culture has the potential to represent a cultural model that encourages individual citizens to construct their own social realities, connections, and material aspects of living,..”

When we consider the environment outside of schools where children grow up, they are exposed to different realities, cultures, and practices. The authors have presented how this learning that happens beyond the classroom needs to be synthesized and accepted into the formal education system to enable each unique experience of the learners to be translated as valid knowledge. It means going beyond just the expression of these self-taught lessons through the various media that are now empowering youths to put their voices into the world and to engage in building and making. 

After reading this, I wanted to add my observation of children in certain cultures who are taught from a young age to shadow the livelihood of their parents and participate in the occupation of their households. I think some interesting case studies could be derived from the development of these children whose foundations are built first on observation and experiential learning before the lessons taught in schools. Especially if these children are brought up with less access to technology or from under resourced communities. The factor that I would like to explore is the gap between maker culture or DIY capitalism and the curriculum of formal schooling, and which one is given more importance in such a scenario where family values, culture, and socioeconomic background play a dominant role. Will there be room for inquiry and exploration? Will they be interested in the type of lessons that are being taught in a formal classroom?