I really did, I hated high school.  Looking back, I think it's because, as Papert said, I had to stop learning and accept being taught.  I remember countless hours of sitting in class, bored and not learning.  I know my teachers did their best, well. . .  most of them did, but I just don't think they were equipped to manage every learning style.  They seemed to be fine with those students who were interested and wanted to learn.  I just wanted to get back home to, what I now know was, my MakerSpace.  I remember my imagination being a fluid thing, dreaming up all sorts of interesting things to keep my body and brain active.  This was something that school, particularly high school failed to do.  It failed to motivate me to be hungry for the knowledge like I now see is possible from reading Invent to Learn.  I wonder where I might be now if I had had the opportunity to go to high school every day and be curious, inquisitive, and building - rather than sitting and learning.

OK. . . just because I can I am going to share my Maker side as it manifested itself later in life.  in 1988 I built a houseboat on a surplus US Navy Landing Craft.  You've seen the old WWII movies with the boat that pushes up on the beach and the front door comes down and all these military guys come out? That's the landing craft I built a houseboat on.  It's still floating around Santa Barbara somewhere.  Between 1998 and 2000 I built a self-contained computer training classroom inside a semi-trailer.  Yup.  Heated, air conditioned, with a 25 kilowatt generator, complete ethernet network, servers, the whole works.  When I started building it, computer classrooms were not easily available, nor inexpensive to rent.  By the time I finished it, a laptop could be had for less than $1000.  I never did get to use it for computer training.  Still have it if you're interested in a 28 foot semi-trailer - cheap  

The point is. . .  that I am a Maker (caps intended).  I have never really thought of myself as such. . .  but that was before I started reading Invent to Learn by Martinez and Stager.  I have always been so.  As long as I can remember.  The thing is that I never associated my passion with building with learning.  I do now.  

My interest lies in providing effective education (all levels really but  primairly higher ed) for disadvantaged populations.  In my 10 years experience  with for-profit education I have found that one of the prime factors in keeping  students motivated, learning, and progressing is student  engagement.

In Paul's Design class last term I got thinking  about how to use technology to heighten student engagement.  The idea I came up  with for the Design the Future assignment was a web-based interface to a  subject, age and career specific database of "lessons."  It's probably easier  for you to have a look at the Prezi that I created and that may be found here.  In a nutshell  however, we would allow students to create their own curriculum based on an  instructor or leader framework but unique to the student's career interests.  Students would need to progress to a certain level of difficulty in order to demonstrate mastery of the subject matter and I would envision a type of an
adaptive progression model to limit frustration and keep the student engaged.