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I beg to disagree on the notion that "making" is a fad.
On the other hand, Shoving Makerbots in front of school children and
expecting the creative sparks to fly probably a IS current fad. sorry for
being crude, allow me to elaborate.
Back to the first sentence - Making was never a fad. Making things is part
of culture. part of being individualistic and thinking different, having a
vision and the drive to follow it, even if that vision is a weird Halloween
costume.
BUT - throughout history when new tools became accessible, our imaginations
and vision got ahead of practical considerations.
Consider 25 years ago when it was fashionable for every school to boast a
super-expensive PC lab, even when the educational merit of then-available
software was not that high.
Now consider 12 years ago when it was common knowledge that all students
should have web-connected PCs instead of notebooks, without a rigid content
framework to back that up.
Now it is happening again. Schools are rushing to claim to be the first to
have a 3D printer (sometimes they will do with just one!). And I am hearing
of some well-equipped FabLabs almost void of activity or active for just
few hours per week.
All this does NOT imply neither that "making is a fad" nor that digital
manufacturing labs are a bad idea. but consider the basics - new tools are
becoming accessible. we want to instill the notion that designing and
building your ideas is fun, cool and pretty easy.
Is that best done by having them scan and print themselves over a period of
60 minutes? or laser cut a drawing they doodled in inkscape? maybe. then
again, maybe we need to aim higher.
In every FabLab, magic does happen. creative sparks do fly. we just need to
help each other "distill" the conditions required to create more of those
moments, because this time the resources available are, um, less plentiful.
great preaching to ya. fab on.

Tom Sofer
FabLab Project coordinator
MadaTech, National Museum of Science and
Technology<http://www.madatech.org.il/Pages/MenuItemPage.aspx?ObjectMenu=35>
Haifa, Israel
Phone - 972-524-277774
Skype: tomsofer1

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