During the first FabLearn conference in The Netherlands, six research papers were published on maker education. In this publication the accepted papers are collected.
As early as 2007, the first maker education initiatives started in the Netherlands and today making keeps gaining momentum in education. As new parties are embracing maker education – its teaching principles as well as the innovative making technologies – it is a good moment to make up a balance of what has been achieved so far and to discuss where maker education could go. The research papers enable us to systematically reflect on the Dutch makers education experiences.
Read the research papers here (pdf)
The six papers were brought together at the FabLearn Netherlands 2018 conference to give a broad picture of maker education in The Netherlands. Some are written by insiders of the maker movement and others are written from the perspective of design and technology education. In this tradition, making and prototyping is seen as a crucial element and vital to the learning of young people.
For a complete picture, contributions from arts education are necessary as well, however, research in this area is still scarce. The papers describe various maker initiatives in primary, secondary and higher education and in libraries, however, many of them describe initiatives in primary education. Each paper has its own focus, and together they show what has been achieved in maker education in The Netherlands, and they highlight issues and new approaches that will forward learning through making in an even better way than before.
The FabLearn conference took place on Friday the 28th September 2018 in Eindhoven.
