By: Adriana Silvestre, Adrian Granchelli, Meipsy Shackleford, Jane Wu, Jungwhan Cho
Welcome to our ‘mobile’ first open education resource on Do-It-Yourself Learning: https://etec-diy.weebly.com/ . This is an informational website that will answer some of the following questions:
- What is DIY?
- Why is it important?
- How can you DIY?
Our OER, is truly OURS because the interactivities will expand the usefulness of this resource. We want you to:
- share how DIY makes you feel,
- share/comment on some useful tools/resources, and
- share what you have done yourself.
We are looking forward to seeing your contributions and hearing your questions and comments.
Have fun,
From The DIY team
Hey Team,
Thanks for putting this resource together. I really appreciate all the buzz you were able to draw from your classmates around this topic. I think the one thing that I’m still a little confused on though is the role of mobile technology when working on DIY-esque projects within the classroom. I totally understand the value of Makerspaces, but when I think about DIY learning within the context of mobile and open learning, I see a bit of a disconnect. To me, Makerspaces seems to be more about trial and error and creativity rather than using mobile resources to help learn how to do something yourself. Are elementary students learning via mobile-accessible resources that they’re sourcing themselves, or are they using their own creativity and imagination to come up with new things? Either way, they are extending their abilities and growing as capable humans in the process, but is there an aspect that we’re still missing within our goal to make students self-sufficient? I’m not saying we simply give them some wood, nails and tools and say “this phone here will teach you how to build a table from scratch”, but is there something inbetween?
Also, to further answer your question posed at the end of the OER, my DIY experience revolves around cooking and food photography. I have learned a lot about cooking (and a little bit about photography and photo editing) through hands on experience in the kitchen and a lot of help from the internet. I actually blogged about it for a couple of years and ended up working with a few different local brands as a result. I haven’t touched it in a few years but it’s here if anyone is curious: https://fromjamestojamie.wordpress.com/
Thank you, DIY team, for an interactive OER on DIY. I enjoyed sharing and seeing what other DIY projects our colleagues have completed and what their talents and creativities are. I am leaving this comment here, because like James, I also did not see the direct connection between mobile and open learning and DIY in this OER and it is a missed opportunity. You have definitely utilized some mobile tech in this OER by showing the social DIY feeds (which is really cool because they are dynamic!), but how can we best utilize mobile and open learning, whether it be on MOOCs, microlearning, online courses or using social like YouTube, Pinterest, etc. to embrace digital DIY with students and other learners? An instructional design comment also: I feel videos used for instructional purposes should be given some sort of context for viewing like a brief main idea and some guiding question – why do you want me to watch this video? What do you want me to think about or get out of it?
My answer to the OER question: I do a lot of DIY cooking and very little other kinds of crafting or making. We watch a lot food documentaries and cooks, and one I particularly enjoy lately is Sam the Cooking Guy. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s Canadian living in some fabulous temperate California city where he can cook outside seemingly year round, and he makes some fantastic looking food (even if we’re not eating meat anymore!) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRj3Tcy1Zoz3rcf83nW5kw
Thank you for a great week of learning Team DIY! I loved all of the examples you included in the OER and ended up bookmarking the TED talks to forward on to colleagues as well- they were fantastic although I was pretty worried about the student that had created his own rockets and the serious injuries he ended up receiving as a result of not following any safety protocols! I found the links to Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning particularly useful to use as a lens to view DIY learning with. I wonder though whether you think there is any subject out there that does not suit itself well to DIY learning? Or do you think there is a space on the continuum of expertise (learning) in which DIY fits particularly well? Is it more suited to complete novices or should one have some kind of basic background on the topic before embarking on DIY learning? Maybe this might even be context specific?
Hi Carla,
Thanks for your questions. I think we are all on different spaces on the learning continuum and DIY can help us pursue and achieve expertise on a variety of topics. I am not sure if there is a particular subject that is not very suitable for DIY learning. Still, it may not be ideal for everyone for many reasons (i.e. learner may require for direct, intensive support).
On your question about whether DIY learning is suited to complete novices or require basic background information, I think it depends on the context and what the learners are going to do. As you mentioned about the student who built his rocket and ended up with serious injuries as a result of not following the safety protocols, there are situations where necessary background information and proper training may be required before taking on DIY learning. A different example is a group of grades 6 and 7 students creating book trailers using an iPad. With very limited classroom teacher guidance on iMovie software and photography, they created book trailers of the novels that they wanted to recommend to their peers.
Hi Team,
I’ve enjoyed coming back to your project throughout the week and seeing the contributions being added, it’s great to see what my classmates have been doing with students and on their own! I really appreciated the connections you made between DIY learning and the BC ADST curriculum as an anchor for your project.
One thing I would have liked to see more detail on is the design process. You had an infographic of it on the “So What?” page but I think that’s a concept that would be worth diving further into during a discussion on DIY learning. What does that look like as we’re learning a new skill? How do we empower our students to move through the steps of the design process in a meaningful way? I think the design process is central to DIY learning and it’s something that I know a lot of my colleagues aren’t very familiar or comfortable with.
Hi DIY team, I loved diving into your OER this week, it really got me thinking about the creation part of DIY (which I have never done) rather than the consumption aspect of it, which I do plenty.
I use DIY videos all the time when teaching.
I enjoyed going through the Padlet and seeing everyone’s DIY. It inspired me to make my own (a project for the end of the summer).
Here is what I like to DIY (have been doing it for years) and will make DIY tutorials at the end of the summer (Picture in the Padlet).
I always liked going fruit picking. Being a teacher and not working during the summer makes it easy. Early in the summer I go strawberry picking at the farm but also wild strawberry picking it the forest. Mid-summer I go Raspberry picking in my grandma’s garden and at the end of the summer it’s wild blueberry picking. I have also recently started to grow hot peppers, using the knowledge passed on by my deceased grandfather and also various gardening websites like https://www.almanac.com/plant/bell-peppers
With all of these fruits and peppers, I like to make jams and jellies. I have never bought jam or jelly from a store, it’s something I like to DIY. Here’s what I’ve made so far this summer (and it’s only the begining). I’ve never thought to make a DYI video or other resource to show others how to DIY jam themselves. This OER has got me thinking about it.
As I progress through these weekly feasts I am discovering and re-discovering new tools and new ways of approaching my students and the curriculum. Your links to the curriculum, TED, and even the OECD help to really send the message home that these goals are grounded in evidence and really allow for students to guide a lot of the learning.
I love DIY projects and as mentioned in one of your linked TED talks, robotics and ADST kits that come to schools don’t often allow for creativity. I think your OER fits very well with what we’ve gone through in the previous weeks. Video primary inspires a lot of DIY, AR and educational apps really push forward avenues for self-directed learning, and even virtual museums guide virtual visitors through learning from their homes.
It was fun sharing our DIY projects and even from just seeing each-other’s creativity I’ve gotten some inspiration. I like to think that if something works for me then it’ll work well for my students, and this OER works for me.
Hi DIY team. Thank you for sharing so many resources and studies about DIY education. I think DIY will be a key part of family education, which has many potentials. My wife and I have been amazed by massive ideas on Instagram, but we have to admit that bringing these ideas to life sometimes is time-consuming. How to make DIY feasible to parents is an interesting topic. I have a question: what is the weakness of DIY education?
I would imagine that having materials available for such a wide range of potential student projects could be a difficult undertaking. This is probably why school projects are limited to a certain type of project (birdhouse etc). I really like the idea of a makerspace and allowing for a lot more creativity, but I struggle to apply that to grades 6/7 as it seems easier to facilitate in a high school.
Hello DIY Learning team.
I really enjoyed looking at the DIY projects that the others shared on your site. Just this week my boss asked me to make a DIY video for the university’s website. I work in the Chinese department so they wanted us to show how we prepare Chinese dishes. It was awkward because I was recording myself and having to teach a class at the same time.
The video was on how to prepare Chinese pastry. My video was not much different of the DIY videos that I saw and learnt on how to prepare ir. DIY learning (on a specific subject) does not do it with one tool or resource. My knowledge on baking has all come from DYI youTube videos.
People have more time because they stay at home. I wonder if DIY learning has raised because of the current situation. Has the current situation changed DIY learning fate? Would it have been different if there was not social distancing?
Sylvia,
Great questions you posed and I think overall that there has been an increase to people taking advantage of using DIY over the past few months. I know of many people who have taken this time to learn new recipes, improve their home, play guitar, improve their online teaching and so much more. I am not sure if the fate of DIY has changed, but I do think there has been increased engagement in many situations as people try to fill the gap of the time that they may have had on their hands.
Thanks Adriana, Adrian, Meipsy, Jane and Jungwhan. I was particularly intrigued by what you used to create the interactive infographic – I didn’t know about Genially (https://www.genial.ly/). It was a DIY inside a DIY 🙂 Seeing all the other DIY projects classmates have been working on from baking, gardening to bike repairs in the padlet was fun.
One question that I didn’t include earlier – I wonder if anyone’s experienced issues of credibility with DIY learning. There are so many ways to learn a new skill, but how do you present it as something that’s been accredited (aside from just being able to show what you know).
Hey Aiann,
That’s an interesting question. When I think about accreditation, I think its value varies greatly depending on the situation and the skill involved. First, if I’m using resources prepared by somebody else for my own DIY project, their expertise will definitely be important to me, but it doesn’t mean they have to be accredited in any way – sometimes their level of expertise will be apparent, and sometimes it will take viewing a few items within their portfolio (whatever that may consist of). I think about this when I choose recipes online for dishes I’ve never attempted before (a sort of DIY, I guess). I usually take time to peruse food blogs for quite a while before settling on a recipe because I need to know I can trust that person’s tastes and skill level. It doesn’t mean that I need them to be certified in any way, but that body of work speaks volumes. If I’m hiring somebody else to complete a task for me that would normally be done by a certified tradesperson, I would need major assurances that they have had extensive experience and have in-written guarantees of quality work. So I guess for me, it really just depends on the size of the job and the market that person is working within.
To add to this, I have two brother-in-laws that both have extensive experience within the realm of DIY. One of them is a self-taught computer animator. Through independent learning, he managed to gain an internship at a visual arts company straight out of high school, and has now been working in the industry for 15+ years without needing to attend a post-secondary institution. My other brother-in-law is a DIY hobbyist mechanic. He may have had some training in high school that I’m unaware of, but that can only take you so far, and I imagine he has to constantly read up online and watch videos to help him navigate different models. Even though he’s self-taught, I trust him working with my car because of his formal background as a mechanical engineer (which he does have accreditation for). If he didn’t have that comparable background experience, I probably wouldn’t trust him to work on my vehicle as much as I do.
Hi Aiann,
Thanks for your question. I think the growth of DIY learning has led to online learning platforms that provide accreditations. One platform that comes to mind is Coursera. From their website – “Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.”
I haven’t used Coursera, and I am curious what the user experience was like if anyone has any experience with it. It does seem to provide a variety of courses/certificates/online degree programs.
https://www.coursera.org/
Team DIY. Congratulations on putting together such a well-designed and compelling OER for this week. Many of my thoughts on your project have already been shared by our classmates but I would like to make mention of how well your topic contributes to the knowledge bank we are building with all the previous OER’s. As we expand our understanding of the applications (not just apps) of video, AR, mobile games, and mobile collaboration we see the tremendous value in both the professional development of teachers and their resources but also the apprenticeship of student knowledge construction through e-learning strategies. DIY projects are best at promoting self-reflection and risk taking in a real world context.
As you note with the development of Web 3.0 is “empowering” innovators like never before but I was wondering… Does your team have any leads to more information about how Web 3.0 and Web 4.0 (the internet of things) might influence the DIY movement? In other words, how will the cost savings of advanced AI and Industry 4.0 affect the underlying incentives for DIY projects? What a great topic. Great job team DIY! Here is a video I found on the impact of Web 4.0. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_GuEGvCurA)
Hi Jamie,
Thank you for your question and connection between DIY and Web 3.0 and Web 4.0. The video that you shared explains really well the differences between all the Web evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 4.0. After watching the video, I have to admit that I am a fan of technology and love the idea of the internet of things, nonetheless, it also reminds me of the concept of singularity. Ray Kurzweil has predicted that machines will match human intelligence by 2029 and that singularity itself will happen by 2045. Especially, as we move to Web 5.0 which will be about the emotional interaction between humans and computers. With the evolution of technology throughout history there has always been changes on how labour force changes, as shown in the video. So, with web 4.0 it is only natural that many jobs will disappear as we move into industry 4.0.
Now, in my opinion, DIY would just adapt to include the new technology. In a report from Deloitte on how to prepare for industry 4.0. “Industry 4.0, Challenges and solutions for the digital transformation and use of exponential technologies”. One of the solutions presented involves the direct connection between Web 4.0 and DIY – ” With the widespread adoption of 3D printing, customers will prefer to download the CAD file to print parts themselves, in the quantity they need and when they need it, rather than have the parts shipped to them.
Another example I can think, that it is currently available as and app is IFTTT (If this then that), it serves as a DIY tool to create your own smart home/office/lifestyle, to create your own personalized connection between your IoT (Internet of Things).
Also, the DIY essence will only be more emphasized as we go into web 4.0, and Web 5.0, as it will reminds us that we humans can do things to, that we can do it in a way that brings in our personality, our care. Even nowadays, I can buy muffins in the grocery store, but it is not the same to me as the ones that I bake myself. I believe that the DIY movement brings a sense of empowerment, and satisfaction. I believe I am going to miss buying my groceries, when in web 4.0 or web 5.0, my refrigerator will order all my groceries online, finding the best deals.
So in conclusion, I believe that DIY will evolve to include web 4.0, and will continue to provide that sense of empowerment and accomplishment, and the experience of DIY itself.
Report from Deloitte – https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/manufacturing/ch-en-manufacturing-industry-4-0-24102014.pdf
Thanks for sharing your OER! With access to an abundance of resources, I really enjoy working on DIY projects at home. You noted Genius Hour as an educational approach to DIY. I was reminded of my teaching practicum when I engaged in Genius Hour with a Grade 3/4 class. I would provide them with a variety of materials that they would use to design their projects. They thoroughly enjoyed exploring their passions over a set period of time. They were creative in their work and they appeared to be so proud of their creations. I am looking forward to incorporating Genius Hour into the classroom again next year. Your OER was a reminder of how valuable DIY can be in supporting the learning process.
Ravneet,
Thank you for your response. Allowing students to explore their own learning, beyond the curriculum is important to bridge deeper understandings and connections. This past year I did not use Genius Hour but will be looking to implement that into my classes starting again this fall. This might be a great segway into re-engaging students back into the classroom and continue to explore their learning.
This is a great OER stepping stone into the DIY world. I have transitioned from screen shots in power point to screen recording captures showing DIY steps more quickly at my organization and is more easier to follow than job aids. Are these graphics heavy job aids even relevant in today’s DIY world? I find the importance of DIY lies not only in the knowledge of the subject matter or the ability to explain and show others how it’s done, but the how technology enables anyone from kids to the elderly to access any social media platform and just DIY a subject or content right there. We are all creative spirits and DIY is just another way we are evolving and revolutionizing the way we learn, which is not only through textbooks, but more visually and at our fingertips A great example is in some of my courses, if i do not understand a concept, I just jump on you tube or Ted talk to get clarity on the subject or find a more deeper learning connection to what I’m trying to understand. This is DIY for my brain to make sense of it all.
However, just like physical products we own, quality is important in what you are learning so we make smart decisions for our brain to accept ideas that worth our time and knowledge is ever important among the digital noise we are surrounded by.
Luke,
It is amazing all that we have access to at our fingertips these days. Like you mentioned, even if you need clarification on how to do something or to understand something, you can just look things up. The DIY world of learning has really evolved and there are so many places we can look to help us learn with the help of technology, making things even easier. Of course, it does require some effort on our part to sift through quality resources that find ones that suit your learning.
Hi Meipsy, correct and an example I am working on right now is LinkedinLearning which with our institutional license, I have to curate topics that are relevant to our Canadian staff. Finding quality is tricky but sometimes reviews help on sifting through the courses. However, I’m confused sometimes as to why Linkedin would want to have say, 10 different conflict management courses, as that makes it hard to sift through and find the differences between them all. It’s really time consuming. Same goes for coursera and Allison.com also but in the end, the quality does matter.
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for putting together another great OER! Like so many of the other topics covered in previous weeks, I walked into this one thinking that I had no background or experience on the subject, but quickly realized that wasn’t true at all. I was interesting to reflect on the ways that I’ve used mobile technology for DIY purposes without even knowing it. I consult YouTube for things like cooking videos and music lessons on a daily basis. I even found it to be a useful resource to teach myself how to use a lot of the apps needed to participate in prior OER such as video editing and web design.
One thing is that when I tried to contribute to the poll on the home page, it told me that the maximum number of responses had already been received so unfortunately I wasn’t able to participate in that part of the learning material.
Thanks again for putting this together!
Hi Jordon,
Thank you for your positive comments. I totally agree that many of us didn’t realize that we have been DIYing our learning when, in fact, we are doing it all the time. I have not been strong in Math or Science courses. However, when I started to work as an EA in our school, I need to learn a lot of science content just to help students who were struggling with English. I didn’t fully understand what “molar mass” was until I had to learn it and help my students with their chemistry homework. I’m happy to see more and more students nowadays know to consult other resources when they needed help.
And yes, unfortunately, the Poll Everywhere only allows a limited number of responses.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with us.
I think self-directed / DIY learning is becoming an increasingly necessary skill for today’s workers – as technology changes so rapidly, we all certainly need to “DIY” our constant skill-updates – and it’s important that we use education to bring students from a low level of self-directed learning readiness to a high level of readiness for SDL. For example, how do you take a student who just wants you to tell them exactly what to do into a fully confident self-directed learner who can set their own learning goals, choose a path, and make their own assessment? For many careers, that soft skill in SDL is mandatory.
As for my own DIY learning, I’m constantly teaching myself skills. This is a list of things I’ve taught myself over the years: embroidery, quilting, HTML and CSS coding, WordPress custom theming, Adobe Premiere, web mockup software, guitar, songwriting, house painting, sales and marketing, dressmaking, pattern drafting, cooking, and pastel drawing. Oh, and currently right now in the digital games summer intensive, how to make a video game with GDevelop in 2 days! PHEW
The reason I ask my question above is that I’ve done a LOT of DIY learning and I’ve had many students who just are not capable of building skills on their own in this way. How do we get them there?
I agree! I’ve been noticing more and more lately that jobs are requiring people to go out and acquire skills on their own instead of providing training. I wonder if that’s sort of a “dark side” of how mobile tech has made things arguably worse for people- organizations can now “outsource” their training, leaving it up to employees. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing? I guess it depends on the specific context.
Anne, GDevelop 5.0 is the epitome DIY learning. It provides a the basic platform (like a lab) and user has to experiment and learn through trial and error and through web resources. Good luck with your project in ETEC 565D. GDev can get addicting!
Hi Anne,
I think you ask the golden question: how do we get students to DIY, or on a bigger scale, how do we empower students.
Where do we even begin to answer this question? One area that has been highlighted for me in these discussions is the emotions students have when approaching DIY. My feelings towards DIY are predominately positive while so many in this thread and on the OER have shared negative feelings.
Taking a bigger snapshot emotions dictate motivation, self-esteem and experience.
As a teacher, we need to be aware that some students thrive being ‘thrown into the deep end’ while others need the scaffolding to support them, and that can greatly effect students’ emotions. So I wonder, is ensuring positive emotions a vital role to DIY?
Does anyone that have negative feelings with DIY have more to add? What helps you overcome you hurdles to DIY?
Great layout of the site, it was easy to follow along. There are also tons of excellent resources as well. It was interesting going along, realizing how much DIY learning is a part of my own life, both personally and professionally.
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your positive feedback. I totally agree with you. Technically, designing courses/ lessons is DIYing.
Hi DIY Group!
Your website was very easy to navigate through and gave me many useful resources I can use in my class next year! I was trying to enter a word into the poll but it says that the poll is full. It’s exciting to see all the examples of DIY others have done in their classrooms and the programs they’ve used!
A DIY project that I had my students do is create a sustainable house. They were allowed to create a physical diorama or use any computer program of their choice. Some chose programs such as Minecraft and Roblox while others used websites such as homestyler.com to create their homes. I then asked them to give me a tour of their home. Some made it like MTV Cribs where they spoke about each room as they did the walkthrough, others used textboxes as they did the walkthrough.
Below is a student sample of one of their homes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2O9Vr0pf3k
That’s an awesome project! I really liked the video and with such an open ended project it must have resulted in a lot of creativity.
It was amazing to see the variety of projects the students came up with and some of the inventions they thought up were quite innovative and outside the box!
Wow, Juliano! I love this idea! What a creative and fun way to incorporate DIY as well as student favorite games. I teach grade 4/5 students, do you think this would be appropriate for them to manage?
Thanks for the great idea!
Hi Kat,
I think grade 4/5 students would be able to manage an assignment like this and really enjoy it! Some adaptations that could be made to simplify it for them is to have them create fewer rooms with fewer eco-friendly items or to just focus on making one room. I asked my students to have at least 8 rooms (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, laundry room, garage, and a room of their choice such as a game room) and went over general home layouts with them (not having your kitchen next to your bedroom or garage) and they ran with it. Many of my students have played Minecraft and Roblox for several years so they were all pretty used to the technology. Some took it an extra step and created their own renewable energy source!
I’ve DIYed with my students iBooks, movie posters, book trailers, and songs etc. And here is one of my favourites: my advanced Mandarin students rewrote the lyrics to “Waiting for You” by Jay Chou, by a Taiwanese singer to interpret an Ancient Chinese prose they learned in grade 10. The song they wrote is in very simple modern Chinese, accompanied with pictures illustrating the meaning of the text. Here is an translation of the original prose for your reference: link http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/china/taoqian_peachblossom.pdf
link Grade 10 Students Song Parody
Hi Ceci,
Haha, I like the song your students created. It is funny to hear Jay Chou’s song got changed into Tao Yuanming’s Poem. I found that many students aren’t overly excited about making poems, however, when the teachers asked them to convert the lyrics of songs, and they loved it. To encourage an immersed English speaking environment, we applied a game called “talk around the clock” (students can only speak English during school hours). If a team loses, they need to change the lyrics of a song they like and sing their funny version in front of their whole class. It was designed as a punishment, but the students get to have fun at the same time. DIY truly is a powerful method to approach students, especially to students who are not that strong academically.
Hello DIY group!
What a fantastic resource you guys have created. I will definitely be adding these platforms to my ongoing digital toolbox resource. I enjoy making infographics, but I usually use Piktochart, but I love the one you guys created on Genially. The visual simplicity and interactive aspect of it makes it unique and different from the rest. I will definitely be using one of these in the future. Thanks for sharing that resource too. Additionally, I really enjoyed the aesthetic of your site. It is visually appealing, easy to follow, and navigate through.
A thought I had about DIY in the classroom comes from previous experience with students. This past school year I was teaching Grade 4/5 and we did a design thinking project creating their dream backpacks. It was interesting to see some students thrive, but a lot of my students struggled with idea generating. It was such a challenge to design something that the students use daily. Even after the interview and question period with another class to gain insight on what they envision in a backpack. I ended up showing a variety of different backpacks with technology, different shapes, and discussed unique features to inspire and spark interest. Anyone else notice that students rely on technology and researching to spark ideas, rather than generating them on their own? My thoughts are that students are relying on technology too much sometimes and lack their own thoughts and imagination.
Hi Kylie,
Thank you for liking our site. I’m also collecting tons of resources I got from other teams’ projects and sharings. Adrian made that infographic, I also liked it a lot, and I started to do some exploration about it myself.
” Anyone else notices that students rely on technology and researching to spark ideas, rather than generating them on their own?” I 100% agree with you. However, I feel like it’s a good place to start being creative, especially in China, under such high pressure of all kinds of tests. Maybe I’m being negative, but when I see my students know how to search resources online I’m happy. LOL
But yes, it could be a difficult process for educators to train the students to be originally creative, especially when they are growing older.
Hi Jane,
That’s a good way to look at it. Searching things online is a skill in itself and it is a great skill for people to have. But yes, how do you train someone to be more creative? I just think of sharing ideas to promote thinking and encourage thinking outside the box.
Thanks for sharing your project! It was great to see some of the things teachers are doing with their students and projects that people are doing at home. The poll was full and wouldn’t accept any more words for the word cloud but I would add “interested” and “excited” as my contributions.
Megan,
Thanks for your feedback. The poll was limited to a certain number of responses and it sure filled up fast! Thank you for sharing the words that you would have used to contribute to the activity. I like the words that you choose and found that I also was leaning towards those words. It can be so exciting when you find a project that you are interested in and even connect with as it just makes the learning even more enjoyable.
Hi Team DIY! What a fantastic website. I absolutely, absolutely love your website. Your website is beautiful with so much good information. That is what caught my attention immediately, I thought “Wow! Looks so nice!”. DIY, STEM, STEAM, Makerspaces, robotics, project-based learning are so important to teaching at this present time. I believe in active learning, it is the WAY to teach the students today. I live, breathe and talk about robotics. Whether we are talking constructivism or constructionism, I think we need these tools. Meipsy, I heard about your website before 🙂 It is really nice, looking even better with time. Excellent and very useful OER. Good job!
Hi Ram,
Thank you for your feedback on our OER and I am glad that you enjoyed navigating through our resource. Like you, I am also a big believer of hands-on learning and the ways we can use technology to enhance active learning.
Thank you for noticing my own DIY project, that was something that as you said, “evolved over time” and has taken practice and patience to develop. We started off with a facebook page, then blog, then another, trying to figure out what would work best for us. It has been a journey in DIY.
Hey DIY Learning Team,
Thanks for an amazing DIY journey! I’ve been adding DIY tools to my eTook Kit along the way 🙂 I used Poll Everywhere before, but only synchronously in the classroom. I didn’t know that it can be done in an asynchronous manner. Cool! The word cloud looks awesome. It is interesting to know that most of us typed in “empowered” & “creative”. I also liked the interactive feature of your infographic. It’s super engaging! Thanks for introducing Genially. POWr for creating a media gallery is new to me as well. I wonder what did you use to make the timeline? It’s beautiful. Apart from the tools, I also appreciate that you outlined the big ideas of the Applied Design, Skills, and Technology curricula. I also found the TED talks inspiring. I believe a lot of kids at school are like Daniel who loves a “doing” learning. Thanks again for sharing!
Hi Ceci,
Thank you for all the positive feedback.
The timeline infographic was made with a basic digital drawing program: inkscape – an open source 2D vector design software. https://inkscape.org/
Thank you, Adrain! Will definitely check it out 🙂
Thank you, Adriana!
Now, that you mentioned DIY as more personal achievement, I understand. It’s definitely self-empowering to be able to do things on your own. When children are young, we always hear them say, “look what I can do!” And now as an adult it’s the same feeling of accomplishment. I certainly wouldn’t trust myself to take on DIY tasks that involve more skill or would be me at risk either…such as changing the brakes on my car! So I can see how jobs will still be there for those with the professional skill.
Thank you for the information in the link. It’s great to know that more females are empowered through doing skillful tasks. I think when we return to school, I would like to create a DIY research project for my students (so that more of the males can experience this experiential way of learning) and encourage them to create a DIY of their own and share it with the class. Thank you and your team for the wonderful OER and inspiration for my teaching projects.
PS: the chocolate went really well! They were SO messy but in the end, they turned out perfectly and we bagged them and decorated them. Students and mother’s loved it!
Hi guys,
I really like the overall ‘vibe’ of your page. The quote at the beginning made me want to dive right in! I felt it flowed well, was backed by tons of research and inspired me to get going on some DIY products in my classroom but also in my own world! I appreciate all of the different ideas for the classroom you’ve given and allowing everyone to share out what they do in the classroom. Lots of great ideas. Thanks for a great resource!
Lindsay
Glad you liked our OER and that you are excited about being able to implement some ideas into both your classroom and your own life. I felt the same way when working on this project and will be planning on embedding more DIY Learning into my classes/life. There is so much more to the DIY world than crafting and home improvements.
Hey DIY Learning Team,
Thanks for sharing your OER! I loved watching the TED Talks to hear examples of DIY in schools and I also really liked the clickable infographic. I saved that website for future use!
What I found most interesting was the TED Talk Easy DIY projects for kid engineers by Fawn Qiu. I like how she explained and gave examples of projects she used with a low floor, high ceiling and customizable. It’s nice to hear examples that worked for her students as you can very quickly find yourself in a deep hole of searches when looking on the internet. I can see how these examples would work well with students even though I struggle to find examples that would work with my students with what I teach. The greatest challenge I face is getting support financially to complete projects such as those with my students and many of my students are not in a position where they could bring in supplies themselves.
My DIY Project. This past week I learned how to install a kitchen faucet using this tutorial on YouTube. https://youtu.be/XqF5UhOW8fY
What I love about watching online tutorials is the ability to pause, do it yourself and then keep going. I find this to be the best way to learn how to do something! I felt so empowered completing this task on my own and it really boosted my confidence when it comes to projects around the house.
I have recently found inspiration on TikTok with DIY projects. There are tons of videos posted with brief tutorials. I can see why the guys in the SketchUp video shared DIY as a movement, it is very evident on social media as seen on your DIY Buzz page that people enjoy doing things on their own.
Great week to get some inspiration to do projects around the house while on summer break, thanks!
Katlyn
Katlyn
Thanks for your comment on our OER. I agree with you when you mentioned the concern about access to resources when doing DIY projects with students and this can definitely be a barrier. There are some areas where you could guide students in their choices where there isn’t a cost however, this may still limit yourself to what type of projects you can even do with students. I think many of us are in the same position and we have to be creative with our approach. A colleague at my school wanted to create soapbox race cars, so we as a school were able to do some fundraising and then we approached businesses in town to be a sponsor. In the end it was very successful. Smaller projects that have limited resources or cost is a great place to start.
I loved your example of using YouTube to fix your kitchen faucet. I also use that resource to help me when I need to fix something (which is not something I do very often because I am not handy) which gives me a feeling of empowerment as you said, “I felt so empowered completing this task on my own and it really boosted my confidence when it comes to projects around the house”.
Thanks for sharing your OER with us. It was easy to navigate through your OER. I like the poll on the landing page. That’s a nice touch! It also helps us to think about our feelings about DIY before we embark on learning more about it through your OER. I would have been nice to ask us at the end of the OER if we still felt the same way about DIY. I also like how you kept everything concise and short; not too wordy. I found the infographic on DIY learning quite engaging and informative.
Pascaline,
Glad you liked our OER and thanks for your feedback. We enjoyed putting the resource together and I like your idea of the poll also being used at the end to see how people felt after they navigated the resource.
Hello DIY Team! I really enjoyed your OER. I love how applicable DIY learning is to everyday lives! I really like your point about Web 3.0 on how DIY learning is based on participatory culture. Nowadays, people are more willing to share their experience or help each other on online forums, reddit, etc. We can draw from the vast experience of people online for our own DIY learning. One issue I have is the validity of the information from some of the DIY sources for more complex projects. How do we know that the author is trustworthy? I find that one has to personally test it to see if it works or rely on other people’s comments or ratings, and the troubleshooting experience is also part of the fun!
I also wanted to comment on the applicability of DIY learning from an industry perspective. During my engineering work experience, I found that a lot of DIY learning had to be done on the job. University education only introduces basic concepts. The problems you have to deal with at work often required you to find your own answers or learn on your own to fill the gaps in your knowledge and find the solution. There aren’t many readily available training or people to walk you through exactly what to do, and employers value your ability to learn autonomously. Therefore, having the ability to use free online resources for DIY learning is definitely a desirable skill in the workplace too!
One small question about the poll on the home page. Not sure if other people have the same issue, but I’ve been having trouble entering a response. After I enter my name, I see the ‘how does DIY learning make you feel’ question but I can’t enter any responses. Thank you again for a great OER! I really enjoyed all the resources you’ve provided.
I also had issues submitting for the survey, it indicates that responses are full.
Yes, It seems as if we have reached our limit in the number of responses.
Linda
Great point about the reliability of resources. When using a DIY resource, we as teachers need to further investigate what the resource is and how applicable it would be to use. When using a resource in the classroom, teachers should be part of the process and explore the resources with the students, in turn helping teach the students how to check resources for reliability, which is an important part of the DIY process.
In terms of the poll activity, it seems that we have reached our limit in the number of responses.
Hi Linda,
You bring up a good point on DIY knowledge available on the internet and trustworthiness. I think that trustworthiness of online content is a huge issue that encompasses pretty much everything online: can we trust this DIY author? can we trust this research paper? has it been peer reviewed? is this fake news? does the author have stake or bias? Critical thinking of what is trustworthy content is an essential skill as user published content becomes more and more popular.
How to navigate the validity of online content is the big question. Like you said, trusting in comments and ratings is a valueabel approach, or just trying it out when it comes to a DIY project. I’ve seen very recently, a fact check pop-up over twitter posts.
Hi DIY Team!
What a fantastic and clearly laid out OER. Thank you for the organized navigation of your website and pertinent information. I really enjoyed the infographic page with all the key points and benefits of DIY. I think experiential learning is so important and DIY can really be a great tool for students to be able to explore this way of learning. The self-regulated aspects were very interesting to note. I think that through DIY, it can allow students to experience the process while receiving immediate feedback and being able to self-assess their work in progress (highly important for self assessment and core competencies). My students love DIY projects because it allows them to be independent and creative.
A few things that came to mind while thinking about DIY for me were: will DIY dissolve certain jobs in the foreseeable future? If we can access how to do certain things on our own then maybe we won’t need to call out for service as much, can we trust DIY online as well as ourselves? Definitely the cost features can discourage the user from being able to use the applications, so I find that my student research DIY projects on YouTube more than anything. Another interesting observation that I have noticed with my students (grade 4/5) is that mostly my female students use DIY. I rarely see my male students researching DIY projects. I’m not making any statements or claims here, just an observation and wondering if you found any stats on users?
Thanks so much for the insights!
Hi Kat,
You raised very interesting questions. I personally don’t think that DIY will dissolve certain jobs, as ultimately even we become a “Jack of all trades” there is the need for people to be specialized in specific trades. We might do some projects DIY, but not take over the house plumbing for example. Also, there is a lot to learn when you are DIY, sometimes it doesn’t turn out as if a professional would have done it, but it is good enough, and brings the joy of personal achievement. I think that we all do DIY more like on the side, for leisure, and personal growth, but it is not a full path. I have also seen many posts on people trying to DIY different things, and not turning out as expected, for example a cake decor for the first time, so I am sure bakers will still have a job. This is just my opinion.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/200410252151030836/?nic_v1=1a7sz2JJnD%2FgiN3uXT5YN90yoqJfIDdG7UgPFgwLvewRwkgTvadVedG1wHTCvmlG8A
Another question that you raised that was really interesting was regarding female vs male DIY. Doing a quick search, I found that many women are taking more DIY projects now compared to before, but I couldn’t find much on female vs. male.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314619386_Female_Consumers_Empowerment_Through_Diy_Consumption
Thanks Kat, your questions made me do further research on DIY today, and by the way, I hope the chocolates for mother’s day turned out delicious.
Thanks for sharing,
Adriana
Thank you, Adriana!
Now, that you mentioned DIY as more personal achievement, I understand. It’s definitely self-empowering to be able to do things on your own. When children are young, we always hear them say, “look what I can do!” And now as an adult it’s the same feeling of accomplishment. I certainly wouldn’t trust myself to take on DIY tasks that involve more skill or would be me at risk either…such as changing the brakes on my car! So I can see how jobs will still be there for those with the professional skill.
Thank you for the information in the link. It’s great to know that more females are empowered through doing skillful tasks. I think when we return to school, I would like to create a DIY research project for my students (so that more of the males can experience this experiential way of learning) and encourage them to create a DIY of their own and share it with the class. Thank you and your team for the wonderful OER and inspiration for my teaching projects.
PS: the chocolate went really well! They were SO messy but in the end, they turned out perfectly and we bagged them and decorated them. Students and mother’s loved it!
Hi Kat,
The question of whether technologies that support DIY with web design and graphics are going to dissolve professional web/graphics jobs has actually popped up a lot in recent years. As a graphic designer, people will often ask me if I’m worried about tools like Webflow, Canvas, etc. My response is no, because while these DIY tools may make it easy to make your own website, making a well designed website with proper content strategy and good user experience design is not so easy and relies on knowledge and experience you can’t rely on a tool to replace.
DIY tools can replace jobs that are simple to learn in a few sessions, but in any realm where true expertise takes years of study, DIY tools don’t seem to be a job threat.
Hi Anne,
Thank you for much for your response. It absolutely makes sense and I suppose we all can’t be ” a jack of all trades.” Certainly more tools and apps will be created to support our daily activities but I would always rely on a professional for specific things as I would not trust myself to DIY.
Thanks so much!
I really liked the DIY infographic too. Super well done. The one thing that jumped out to me though was the idea of ancient apprenticeship that you highlighted at the beginning of your timeline. All things – crafts and careers – were held by a gatekeeper of sorts and that was one’s way into whichever sphere. Of course now I can learn to do almost anything on YouTube, and that’s wonderful. But what I can’t do is learn a profession on YouTube. In the ancient past I could learn to be a carpenter from a skilled carpenter and then earn a living as a carpenter. Today with DIY I can still learn how to be a super skilled carpenter, but if I’m going to be building anything beyond knickknacks (or maybe furniture), people are going to want me to have official education and credentials behind my name. For me this is a limit of the DIY movement.
But it’s not a limit to your site or its excellence. I had a great time clicking through and I appreciated that it wasn’t text heavy. And the inclusion of not one but THREE Ted Talks was great too.
Really solid job!!
Hi Tyler,
You bring up a really good point about the lack of professionalism in DIY learning and that is a large road block in most places but not everywhere.
Like you said, there are a ton of regulations and governing bodies for skilled work like carpentry but that’s limited to developed nations and also where there are already professionals.
Here’s an alternate lens:
In small communities of developing nations there may not be an expert of ‘X’. So a motivated individual could learn ‘X” through the internet and become the village expert. Like a big fish in a small pond, they wouldn’t be an expert by global standards, but they could serve their communities’ needs.
Even in developed nations there’s room for ‘professional’ DIYers. I have a friend who lives in Point Roberts (small USA community isolated from mainland USA) and he runs his own carpentry business with no formal training.
That’s an awesome lens I’d not considered. Thanks a ton for the insight!!
Hi DIY Team,
Thank you for putting together such a detailed OER. I am really liked how you started with how the topic of DIY makes you “feel.” I see many Maker Spaces and think, can I really do that? I am one of the ones that feel worried, intimidated and anxious at the topic of doing it yourself. I think that stems from my learning style in school. I was one that just wanted to memorize the process instead of thinking for myself. Critical thinking and problem solving did not occur until university. I realized that many of my students might not go on to post-secondary and may never get the epiphany that I did later on in their schooling. I think DIY is vitally essential for teachers to embrace and share with their students. As I moved through the website, I enjoyed the collection of TED talks from teachers who have had success with relatively “easy” DIY projects. I have shared my latest gardening experience where I have scaled back from last year. Hopefully, well-planned beds and a little research on companion planting will have more balanced results.
This resource focused on production more than consumption. I appreciated that emphasis because it allows the students to be in charge of their learning and allows more flexibility and free thought.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Kristin,
DIY can be intimidating for some people, sometimes even overwhelming. Like you said, it requires a change of attitude and approach. It is important for teachers in elementary and high school to provide DIY opportunities to students to promote experiential learning, critical thinking and problem solving. As you said, some of the students don’t necessarily follow an academic path. We are actually thinking about making a raised veggie garden box for our backyard. We are just planning on one or two. It is really nice how many you have!
We wanted to see the different perspectives from our classmates on DIY.
Thanks for sharing.
Great OER DIY team. I love a good DIY both inside and outside the classroom. I’m one of those annoying people that will see hard work and immediately think, “I could do that” 🙂
I actually found the poll on the home page interesting. The vastly different ways people feel about DIYing had me thinking that it may be the same for our students in the classroom. Some may feel creative and empowered, while others feel anxious and alone. I think this is important to keep in mind when integrating this type of learning in your classroom. Giving students an opportunity to do it on their own, but also providing them with the tools, resources, and support to be successful so it’s not quite so scary.
Thanks DIY team!
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
I too love DIY and am so ready to take on any project – DIY gives me almost all positive feelings.
Thank you for pointing out how the poll results would resemble the vast perspectives of a classroom. It is so cool to see the poll evolve over time. And I, personally, find myself jump over any negative associations or feelings that come up with DIY.
So I must admit that I did not read the instructions for the padlet carefully enough, and posted my whole explanation of my DIY experience rather than just the artefact… However, I’ll post it here as well as instructed!
I have always been the sort of learner who fiddles with something until I figure it out, particularly in the digital world. I find a program and play around with it until I can get it to do what I want it to. This came into play during our lockdown as I started making more video dance content. I am a Bellydancer, and I have recently been stepping up my social media game in order to have a more visible presence. I started a #bridgingthedistancethroughdance initiative on Instagram and YouTube to try and encourage people to make content that could help us feel connected. I learned how to edit video and audio fairly well over the years, but it was the videos of a friend of mine that prompted me to explore more! He told me that he used a couple of different apps to create and edit his videos, and thus I started exploring Videoleap, Hyperspektiv to see what kind of videos I could make. If you check out this playlist, you’ll see my progress as I explored these tools.
I found your website easy to navigate and I particularly liked being introduced to Genially! I’ve never used that tool before, but I really liked your clickable infographic! I think it would have been great to see some more examples of classroom activities that you would consider as being good exemplars of the DIY philosophy, and the tools/apps that accompany them. Your padlet under ‘Your Turn’ covers a bit of this, but I think we mostly interpreted that as being about our own experiences rather than the activities we create for our students. Otherwise, great job!
Suzzie
Sorry, the embed code didn’t work for the playlist…. here it is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxX0Vs1qLPJaozSw6XyVZdbm4ml4E3s2l
Does anyone else feel annoyed that we can’t post links and media in our replies? Or is there a way to do it that I don’t know about?
Hi Suzzie,
Are you annoyed by not being able to add links, etc. to the padlet replies? I also find it unnecessarily restricting
Hi Suzzie,
Thanks for sharing your DIY experience. I remember it from the Tik Tok A1 you shared! Social medias has made video and audio editing so valuable nowadays as well as soft business skills (i.e. marketing, following trends, branding). Being a social media influence is not an easy job.
We did discuss some having some concrete classroom activities or lesson plans for teachers to utilize but the world of DIY is so vast we thought it would be biting off more than we can chew. Also, did you find the Tools/Resources Padlet? In hindsight, it’s a bit hidden, on a tab of this page: https://etec-diy.weebly.com/how-to-diy.html
Yo DIY team,
I loved the architecture of your website! Super intuitive to make use of. I also particularly enjoyed the broad and updating #diy RSS, as well as the infographic on the rising opportunities of DIY. Your point forms about how to integrate DIY into schooling was particularly nuanced, and I like the fact it can be interpreted and applied to non-traditional learning environments.
I realised through your padlet that whilst I make a lot of stuff in my life, I don’t actually consider it DIY. DIY learning seems to be a very particular type of learning, usually related to skills you don’t usually have/make use of. This is interesting. What would constitute the essence of DIY in your eyes? Keen to hear more.
Thanks for this cool week!
Hi Jamie,
While working on this OER my thought of what DIY is shifted a bit and I’m glad that it brought up some questions for you too.
It seems that DIY is linked so storngly with home improvements but it is so much more than that. I’ve come to view DIY as anything you can do a professional usually does, for example build some furniture, be your own teacher, or cook a quality meal. I feel like the line of what DIY is, is a real fuzzy one – it could encompass anything or nothing – so I am really curious to hear yours and others thoughts.
Thank you DIY Team! I found your OER well organized with a clear flow and guided me along. Some highlights for were the Genially tool you used for that interactive infographic. That was a very powerful way to communicate some of the tradeoffs and I hope to use it in the future. I also feel the DIY Buzz section is a great idea as it keeps the OER “fresh”. I found the how-to section being organized into “Learn” & “Show” to be a great way to focus on and separate tools.
Finally, I really appreciate that your focus was not just on consumption, but also touched on content production, as I feel strongly it’s important that we are able to give back and contribute to the community. Seeing makers on every stage of their journey is crucial to creating a vibrant and supportive community of learners.
~Matt
Thank you Matt.
You are right about the OER not being just about content consumption, but content production. We wanted to make sure that this was an inviting resource where everyone can contribute, as DIY has some many different perspectives. The DIY Buzz does keep it fresh, every time that I went to look, new ideas would come up.
Thanks for sharing your OER. I found it very useful, and easy to use. I have to admit that the sharing part brings back memories of being scared, alone, and unsure. Those were the words I shared. I had taken a class that was online my first one years ago. I felt that way every time I had to do an assignment. Today the supports are way better. The instructors are easily accessible, you can chat with other students in the courses, and you don’t feel totally isolated. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for sharing. DIY is not always easy and many people feel the same way.
Today we indeed are lucky to have access to teachers (like you said) and also to have many different online communities that help one another: if you follow a YouTube tutorial, you can comment for help, or there are other sites, such as StackOverflow (for coding) where you ask the community to help with a question.
At the end of the day, DIY can still feel isolating when you can’t see someone face to face and I’m not sure how or if technology can overcome that.
Tyler, last semester was my first in the program, and there were lots of times I felt that way, too. It took me forever to write my discussion board posts or comments like this one, because I didn’t want to say something the wrong way. After feeling success in the courses, my confidence was definitely boosted. That’s what makes self-motivated learning and DIY so special, I think!
To some people though it doesn’t get easier. This is my last course in the program and sometimes I still feel hesitant to post on the boards for the “fear” of being wrong. One day I will be brave!