Maker Librarians at MakerEdu Conference

Maker Librarians at MakerEdu Conference

For the first time in South Africa, our friends at Think Ahead Education Solutions and Create Africa, hosted Makerspace in Education Conference. The conference took place at the Redhill School in Sandton , 07 May.

As the conference was targeted for teachers, it was quite fascinating to explore how the education system might look like in the future with the integration of MakerSpaces. Over 100 teachers got a chance to learn how they can start a MakerSpace in their schools.

The Geekulcha Maker Library Network, a project by the British Council's ConnectZA, was invited to the conference to share knowledge in Makerspaces and best practices.

Lead Maker Librarian in gauteng, Tiyani Nghonyama was amongst the speakers with fellow Makers from around the Country. Tiyani emphasized on these points:

  • Women are born makers, let's use that to accelerate women skills development and adaption in this digital revolution
  • Localization is critical in Makerspaces
  • Collaboration has enabled us to do more
The day was filled with Talks, Show&Tell and workshops with Robots, 3D Printers, Makey Makey sessions, etc. Geekulcha's station was focused on "Educate Everywhere" solutions:
  1. Participants made Zines and put content, knowledge to share with the future generation.
  2. DIY Projector made out of a shoebox and magnifying glass for teachers to educate everywhere.

A fun day it was, we learned so much and we shall impart the knowledge in our common practices.

We would like to thank the team from [Layyers](http://layyers.co.za/) for the collaboration, all participants who came to the workshop and a hearty thank you to the event organizers for making it happen.