This is a guest post by Mr. Nauman that will introduce his soon-to-come bimonthly column, “Tech Bytes,” covering all things technology.
A revolution is sweeping the nation, indeed the world, that is by some accounts as transformative as the industrial revolution. It’s called the Maker Movement, not to be confused with Makers Day, which celebrates the accomplishments of women who made significant contributions to American society. The Maker Movement is about bucking the trend towards simply being consumers of technology by making technology yourself. But in truth, Makers Day and the Maker Movement go hand-in-hand when you’re talking about women making technology. Given the prevalence of stereotypes about women lacking tech skills, any girl or woman who participates in making technology is doing an inherently feminist act.
The Maker Faire, known rightfully as “the greatest show (and tell) on Earth,” is the most conspicuous manifestation of the Maker Movement. Maker Faires are gatherings of do-it-yourselfers in cities around the country where people of all ages and backgrounds share their own inventions and celebrate the spirit of ingenuity. These events feature everything from informative and inspirational speakers to workshops on everything from soldering to 3D printing to hundreds of booths with every invention imaginable and unimaginable. The Maker Movement isn’t just about inventing new things, but also about learning how to fix what you have. Rather than having to take a broken piece of technology in for repairs or just buy a new one, makers prefer to fix it themselves by learning skills at workshops offered at places like Maker Faires or looking up teardown instructions on websites like iFixit.
Hewitt students have participated in the New York Maker Faire for three years now, establishing a tradition of Maker Movement participation. Being an exhibitor at Maker Faire is a great experience because it gives you an real audience for something you’ve made.
Nicki Feldbaum ’15 observed, “When you make a farm game, a candy machine, a scribbling tool, an Arduino car—and there’s no one to play with it—it seems like the amount of work you put in served no purpose. Yes, you learned all the concepts, but those concepts that you learned created something useless. And that’s what the Maker Faire replaced; it gave us children who enjoyed what we made, using everything and finding everything interesting.” Samantha Hott ’16 “was surprised to see how many people were interested in the projects we had completed.” Another benefit to attending Maker Faire is the feeling that you are part of a wider community of people who care about inventiveness and ingenuity, which shows you that what you are doing is not just something happening in your school or home. Susannah Meyer ’15 put it this way: “Attending the 2013 Maker Faire was a great opportunity to be a part of the global Maker Movement. Being able to present our projects, see people’s reactions to our work, and interact with other like-minded individuals with shared purposes was really exciting. We could actively see the application of a general movement toward making, creating, and innovating that includes people of all ages and genders.”
You don’t have to attend a Maker Faire to be a part of The Maker Movement. MAKE Magazine is a quarterly publication that features do it yourself, or DIY, projects, and many people just post videos of their projects to share with other how they created them. If you are interested in sharing your tech creations with others, get online and join the movement!