Self-Made: The Body as Frontier for the Maker Movement in Education

Abstract

A variety of technologies--exciting, troubling, controversial--are emerging for the purposes of extending or augmenting the biological capabilities of human beings. These technologies include (among others) sensory augmentation devices, brain-machine interfaces, robotic exoskeletons or prostheses, and techniques of genetic alteration; in every case, the intent of the technology is to allow people to perform activities beyond the traditional boundaries of body, mind, and genome. The advent of these technologies augurs new and difficult questions for the maker/education community. What body- and mind-changing artifacts could, or should, be available to children and teenagers? To what extent-whether for educational or social purposes--will, or should, democratized "making" apply to the physical and cognitive limitations of the maker? This paper explores some plausible future pathways for the educational maker movement in the light of this imminent development in technology1.