On Offsite Dirt our Marketplace Series, we connect with Matthew Barbercheck. He teaches industrial arts to students ranging in age from 12-18. Barbercheck teaches in rural Michigan where some students come in with strong industrial aptitude due to the rural surroundings. Others not so much. Due to this melting pot phenomenon, and out of a desire to teach each student where they are at Barbercheck created CapableMaker. CapableMaker is a platform designed to deliver information on step-by-step projects, workflows, and/or procedures to students in bite sized manners. Students are able to retain information better and teachers are able to deliver information better.
In his experience with students and teachers, empowerment and confidence are the highest priority for teaching. We are experiencing mental health issues at the highest levels since COVID. His goal is to give the individual learner just that one specific piece of information for a workflow. This goal is to perceive confidently and hit that check mark. The outcome is to feel great about learning that one specific detail and then move to the next piece of information.
Rather than trying to recall a demonstration from the week before and getting frustrated because that individual cannot recall everything and then shutting down. CapableMaker is here to document the procedure and then distribute it to the student or learner, so that they can proceed very confidently to move forward.