Educational Resources & Tech Tools 04/03/2015

• Why Don’t Makers Have Higher Social Status? | TechCrunch

  The article asks its readers to think about making in a new light, that of creativity rather than risk.

  tags: maker maker movement social status

  • Our society remains deeply biased against careers that involve any sort of risk. Economic anxiety caused by rapid change has encouraged more conservatism when it comes to careers, at precisely the time when we should be most innovative.
  • But while we have made the tools more accessible, we haven’t made the careers easier to build. Nearly all creative markets are what labor economists call tournament models, where the chance of winning is small, but the winnings are huge if you can reach the pinnacle of the profession.
  • First, we need to cultivate more role models that show how to be a maker and that such a career is entirely possible and potentially even profitable.
  • Second, and most importantly, we need to address the risk of these professions head on.
  • But we have yet to build mechanisms to de-risk these careers over time. How can we create more market resilience for creativity?
  • Society isn’t about to change its approach to risk, but we can change both the perception and actual risk of taking on a creative profession.

• Why Don’t Makers Have Higher Social Status? | TechCrunch

  tags: maker maker movement social status

  • The creative economy is supposedly taking over, and we are commanded by pundits to nurture our children’s creative talents so that we can help them race against automation in the labor markets. Then we look at American high schools, and find a focus on anything but making. Shop classes, art studios, electronics labs, and student newspapers are disappearing, and higher-level computer science is no longer offered in the Advanced Placement curriculum.
  • When there is space for creativity in school curriculums, teachers and administrators are positive and supportive, but that support seems to completely wither away when a student suddenly desires to do what they love as their job.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.