Modern Makers

Dale Dougherty

Dale Dougherty is the founder of MAKE and he is often referred to as the ‘godfather of the maker movement.’ Dale spoke with us about the maker movement, the importance of making and how this can be integrated and optimised in schools. Dale started the MAKE magazine in 2005, because, “I was inspired by seeing people doing things like building robots, it could be buildings or planes, all kinds of stuff and a lot of technology-based things. I had the idea, if you’re a cook you read magazines about cooking, if you’re woodworking, it has projects in them. I thought, we have all this technology around us, all this stuff, but we’ve kind of lost some of the know how to put that stuff together in new ways. I came up with the name MAKE and I though, we’re going to call our audience makers. We’re not just readers, we’re makers.” Following the creation of the MAKE magazine, Dale started the first Maker Faire in the Bay Area of San Francisco, in 2006. He recalled, “what I think appeals to me about makers is that they were enthusiasts. They were people that loved doing what they were doing. They weren’t imagining that they were going to be CEOs of a big company or that this was going to take them anywhere. They just love doing it. This is playful, it’s kind of what you do as a kid when you have the time. I thought, even on a cultural level, we need to do more of this as adults, we need to do more of this stuff and play with it and figure out what it can do.” Dale reflected on the importance of making, “often making is done as a hobby but one of the values of hobbies, apart from getting good at it or doing it is that you connect to other people because of it. People that are not in your family, they’re not necessarily in your friends’ network, they didn’t go to school with you. They just have the same interests. I think that’s what is powerful about making is that you start making these connections to other interesting people and it’s not because they work for you or that you work for them. That can just open things up for you.” Dale continued, “and as kids, that product you have is really interesting, but I’m actually interested in the product. That’s you, that you’re becoming. That you develop, that you tried to do things and even with limited success, that begins to define you.” Developing maker spaces and maker programs in schools is something that Dale is passionate about. He explained, “sometimes in our conformance culture, if you stick out too much, people think there is something wrong with you, that you’re weird. So, being creative is kind of weird but when you put all of those weird people together, that’s when you get

Dale Dougherty at one of the Maker Faires , organised by MAKE Magazine.

this intensity and passion, and it feeds off each other.” Dale reflected that some social media sites can stifle creativity and inspiration. He countered, “you should never ask a maker why they did that. You could ask them their inspiration and their answer could simply be, I had an idea and I just acted on it. That’s wonderful.” Dale discussed how he has created maker spaces and what he believes are essential elements of such creative maker spaces. “I thought of maker spaces as a kind of solution that we needed everywhere. They could be different sizes, just for kids or multi-generational. Given the ten years that we’ve actually had so many of them in so many communities and different kinds of contexts, I still feel like the potential is under realised. Especially in schools, I wanted to create something other than a classroom. I wanted to create something that didn’t have desks. I wanted work benches. That’s actually the most important thing. Maker space is a place to do work and particularly a workbench that has multiple people working at it.” Dale also emphasised the importance of makers moving around and interacting with others in the maker space. The development of improved maker programs, which appeal more broadly to students, in schools, is a challenge that Dale has identified. He explained, “too often, the maker space is just getting the kids that already have the interest and they can work on their own. They’re already self-directed, so maybe, that’s one third of kids. What about the other two thirds? How do we help them get along?” A second issue that Dale discussed is the curriculum or other constraints that teachers often feel, in the maker space. “Teachers are not comfortable asking kids what they want to make and letting them make it. It’s like, no, I’ve got to give you a challenge or I’ve got to align this with the curriculum.” Dale continued, “that open-ended kind of project is really, sometimes difficult for teachers and others to figure out how to support.” Dale reflected on his maker journey. “Actually, my most satisfying moments about making and education is when I’ve heard from educators, something along these lines, that this is why I got into education. Not to be a proctor of standardized tests but to help students become creative and learn.”

I had an idea and I just acted on it