Mathieu Penot

Creativity—and community—in virtual hands-on learning

One of the good things that this situation [shelter at home] brought to me is that I had to reimagine my master’s project. I started to do hands-on workshops online on Zoom. For the last eight weeks I’ve facilitated more than 20 workshops, and I could see in children who came regularly that they started making their own projects at home and teaching me what they did. . . . They enjoy creating their own things and having the chance to share them and to be proud of what they are building. . . . I’m learning a lot on this project, especially on how to translate physical facilitation into digital facilitation, and being inspired by what the children make. 

Mathieu Penot is a master’s student in learning, design, and technology at Stanford Graduate School of Education. See some of his work at Creativity by Mat, a series of short videos to inspire kids to make things at home.

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