As educators across the globe explore new pedagogies, teaching styles and tools in the pursuit of a new educational frontier, changed by the pandemic, Paulo Blikstein had already been long at work on what some may call 鈥渢he future of learning.鈥� His brainchild, the transformative program, reframes traditional teaching models for K-12 science, math and computation through the use of project-based, technologically driven learning.
Blikstein brought FabLearn to TC when the Associate Professor of Communication, Media & Learning Technologies Design joined TC from Stanford University in 2018. Along with Blikstein came the FabLearn Fellows, a "global ambassadors" aspect of the program he characterizes as 鈥減ioneers in generating ideas, best practices, and open-source resources for makerspaces, fab labs, and other spaces for creative educational work.鈥�
ED TECH VISIONARY Paulo Blikstein, Director of the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab, has spent his career creating technologies that allow children to explore. (Photo: TC Archives)
The 24 scholars chosen for the third FabLearn Fellow Program cohort are imparting project-based, technological maker space education to children in 15 nations, including Toga, Denmark, Senegal and Peru.
The cohort gathers virtually on a regular basis to share ideas and thoughts on the far-flung applications of maker-space learning. Their observations will be compiled in 鈥淐ultural Making Around the World,鈥� a book envisioned as a 鈥渁 comprehensive, global portrait of making practices using high-, low-, or no tech.鈥�
Read about four FabLearn cohort members: Charles Pimentel, a math teacher at Polo Educacional Sesc in Rio de Janeiro; Brenda Nyakoa, an educator in Kenya; Lars Beck Johannsen, a STEM program leader in Denmark; and Ridhi Aggarwal, an education leader in Ram Dwari, India.