P. Matthew Dillon began teaching in 1986, after completing a MA in Curriculum and Teaching Childhood and Elementary Education from Columbia University-Teachers College. He has taught kindergarten through fifth grade self-contained classes in public schools in New York and Texas. Moving to Hawaii in 2010, Dillon worked at a private school as the elementary science coordinator/teacher and the K-5 Engineering & Design Teacher. In 2014, Matthew became the first Lower School STEM/Makerspace teacher at ‘Iolani School, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
He has spoken about makerspaces and maker education at FETC, Stanford University's FabLearn, Schools of the Future (HI), and the NSTA STEM Forum. He also presented at ATLIS, the Hawaii STEM Conference and ‘Iolani’s Ignite Innovation. In addition to presenting, Matthew has run various professional development sessions for both private and public schools in Hawaii.
Have you heard people talking about “making” in schools, or “makerspaces”, or “maker education”? What about 3D printers, squishy circuits or arduinos? The idea of making to learn is a philosophy of education that goes back to the late 1800s/early 1900s and the writings of John Dewey. “Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”
There is a lot of discussions about makerspaces and how they are used in schools. Some schools have put makerspace technology in their libraries. There are also schools that have put a piece of makerspace technology (like a 3D printer) in a singular classroom, and it's used mainly by that class. And there are stand-alone spaces...rooms/labs set aside just for making.
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