We’re Banking “Makes”!

#CLMOOC, the Making Learning Connected MOOC, is going strong with lots of making going on!

One of the features of this year’s collaboration is the new and improved Make Bank. Participants of last year’s MOOC may remember the make bank which was a place for people to find or post “make” projects for others to try and remix.

The new Make Bank is better organized, more visually appealing, and has the ability to add examples and tutorials to makes that are uploaded.

Here are a few new makes that have recently been posted to the Make Bank. In Make Cycle #2, the team from the Northern California Writing Project suggested this “Make a Meme” make. CLMOOC participants loved this activity, adding many examples of memes they created and also remixing this make into new and different forms. In addition to digital makes, the Make Bank includes diverse real world makes like this one about string games or these about food. This week in CLMOOC, facilitators from Maker Jawn in Philadelphia of the YOUMedia Network will bring storytelling into our Connected Learning space. We can’t wait to see what everyone does with their make!

The inspiration for the Make Bank originally came from DS106 and their assignment bank. So this spring, when Alan Levine of DS106 fame announced the availability of a new WordPress theme implementation of the DS106 assignment bank, we jumped right on it. Our Make Bank itself is now an open resource that can be adapted and reused by others.

This Make Bank project is a great illustration of how openness can benefit learning. Alan and DS106 have made their work open so that others like us can borrow it. And we have open licensed our work at CLMOOC, including the Make Bank, so that others can use it as well. We’ve already heard many stories of how others are incorporating CLMOOC “makes” into their own practice.

Our Make Bank includes last year’s CLMOOC makes, which numbered 75. And since CLMOOC launched just a few weeks ago, the community has already added 25 new makes and 40 new examples and tutorials.

If you haven’t explored the Make Bank yet, take a peek, try out or remix something from the make bank, and consider adding a “make” or example of your own!

By Karen Fasimpaur