TEL it to the People

TEL it to the People:Technology Enhanced Learning and theMaking and Hacking Communities
Dr. Brock Craft

(Pappert, Minsky, 1969)

(www.processing.org)
(scratch.mit.edu)

Making & Hacking: recap
Wireless/Ham radio/“Dxing”
Electronics + Micros
Telephony/phreaking
BBS Culture
Electronics + robotics
Internet
Making + Hacking

“Democratizing” learningw/ tangibles?
Internet and communication
Online learning communities of practice + Making & hacking
Informal, self-guided
Sharable learning designs
“Internet of Things” creates new learning opportunities

The new potential in using small programmable object technologies (SPOTs) and robotics (“physical computing”)…
...to support embodied and kinaesthetic learning
...examined for the case of secondary mathematics education
A 2-month exploratory project to design hardware and software prototypes, tested in classrooms for “proof of concept”

Project partners:
Dr. Philip Kent (LKL)
Dr. Nicolas Van Labeke (LKL, now LSRI)
2 month duration
Funded by Becta (RIP)

Educational premise
As children grow learning progresses from physical (bodily-based) to symbolic
Presumption is that physical mode is left behind; can the physical/kinaesthetic contribute to symbolic conceptual learning?
As abstract conceptual content increases, the intellectual distance from physical activity increases - how to maintain the connections for learners? This is where the SPOT technology supports learning

A case study in mathematics
(mathematics being a subject whose abstraction is notorious)‏
Bodily Interaction with mathematical ideas in non-Euclidean geometry a sphere
Problematise concepts that students would consider obvious and beyond question:
Are there “straight lines” and “angles” on the surface of a sphere?
If so, what do these have to do with the familiar straight lines and angles of the two-dimensional plane?

Devices and activities
Virtual angles
Spherical Geometry (great circles and triangles)
DODO (double odometer)
Maps and journeys: translations from spherical to plane geometry

Proof of concept trials
Selected Year 10s in: academy school, independent school, G&T summer school.
Trials of 2 to 2.5 hours, 5 to 7 students in group
Can students use the devices we created?
Can students engage with the ideas that we intended? Indications for learning?

1 - Virtual Angles

2 – Spherical Geometry

“What is a triangle?”
2 – Spherical Geometry

3 – DOubleoDOmeter (DODO)

4 – Maps and journeys

Results
Students can create their own tests and activities. What other things will they do?
Teachers can engage with this approach to learning
Teachers’ enthusiasm to hack learning designs and build with small programmable objects themselves? (Mathematics meets D&T??)
Where are we with programmables/SPOTs?…

Designing tangibles for learning(www.lkl.ac.uk)

Arduino (http://arduino.cc)

LilyPadArduinohttp://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/LilyPad/

Basic Stamp and BoeBots(www.parallax.com)

Phidgets(www.phidgets.com)

mBed(www.mbed.org)

SunSpots(www.sunspotworld.com)

Beagle Board(http://beagleboard.org/)

Bug Labs(www.buglabs.org)

Useful suppliers and resources
Rapid (www.rapidonline.com)
RS Components (rswww.com)
Farnell (uk.farnell.com)
Sparkfun (www.sparkfun.com)
Lady Ada (www.ladyada.net)
Make Magazine (www.makezine.com)
Instructables (www.instructables.com)

Dr. Brock Craft
http://www.brockcraft.com
http:// www.lkl.ac.uk/research/SPOT_ON
http://www.tinkerlondon.com

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TEL it to the People

by Brock Craft

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