Kylie Peppler

Open portfolios are an important form of assessment within maker education because they can showcase examples of the kind of learning that happens in making beyond numerical assessment of knowledge and skills. Instead, collections of images, videos, and sketches can facilitate the exploration of a maker's personal creative process and ways of doing beyond a one-size-fits all model. Additionally, open portfolios can support youth taking ownership of their work and contributing to maker communities inside and outside of their own learning environments. Maker Ed's second Research Brief Series, published in early 2018, takes a deep look into the motivations, implications, and practices necessary to situate open portfolios as a means of assessment in maker-centered learning environments. The findings and briefs also draw on our analysis in the first phase of work (see Open Portfolio Research Brief Series; http: //bit.ly/MakerEdOPP1), continuing to reveal the many facets of portfolio implementation and assessment. This Research Brief series focuses on open portfolios as a form of assessment of youth-driven making and provides a broad survey of existing assessment practices in makerspaces that builds on and advances traditional portfolio assessment. We highlight aspects that educators in a range of maker settings consider when working to integrate youth practices.

Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, this book explores research indicating that youth are learning new ways to engage in the arts on their own time and according to their own interests. Digital technologies, such as production tools and social media, allow youth to create and share their art. Kylie Peppler urges educators and policy makers to take advantage of «arts learning opportunities» and imagine a school setting where young people are driven by their own interests, using tablets, computers, and other devices to produce visual arts, music composition, dance, and design. This book gives educators an understanding of what is happening with current digital technologies and the opportunities that exist to connect to youth practice, and raises questions about why we don’t use these opportunities more frequently.

Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, this book explores research indicating that youth are learning new ways to engage in the arts on their own time and according to their own interests. Digital technologies, such as production tools and social media, allow youth to create and share their art. Kylie Peppler urges educators and policy makers to take advantage of «arts learning opportunities» and imagine a school setting where young people are driven by their own interests, using tablets, computers, and other devices to produce visual arts, music composition, dance, and design. This book gives educators an understanding of what is happening with current digital technologies and the opportunities that exist to connect to youth practice, and raises questions about why we don’t use these opportunities more frequently.