fussing with stuff

catsci

2009-05-15T22:05:00.004-04:00

catsci, originally uploaded by Dr. Monster.

Science fair fun!

Hello Blink!

2009-01-12T16:20:00.004-05:00

Everybody seems to be messing with Arduino lately. So today was my chance to give it a go. Jimmie Rodgers of Willoughby and Baltic helped me set up the software on my laptop at Noise Night. It was incredibly easy, and he helped me to understand that the IDE for the 'regular Arduinos' is different for that used on the Minty POV and Brain Machine.

Stephanie, one of my Programming students had a piece of code running on her laptop and wanted to test it with four LEDs. We set up a breadboard with the LEDs, and she got her program to run. She had it going Cylon style, where the light would pass from side to side. After she left, I noticed the breadboard sitting on the table, still hooked up to the arduino, so I figured I would give it a whirl. I plugged it into the USB port, fired up the IDE and saw her program run.

Then I decided I wanted to mess with it on my own, so I did a search for "Hello World Arduino" Hello World is usually the simplest program you can run in a computer language. I wanted simple, so I could understand what it was doing. I found the code, which is also in the Help Menu under something or another, but I couldn't find it easily. I recalled that Jimmie had told me that Blink is the first program you want to run.

I copied the code and pasted it into the script window. Then I had to figure out how to get it to the board. I hit the Compile window, which looks like a play button, and saw that it compiled. I tried changing a few things, and broke it.

Earlier, Stephanie had some basic problems as well, such as not spelling the variable names exactly the same throughout the code. Hand typed code is case sensitive, so it's important not to mess with it too much. When we were debugging her code, I put some comment marks ( // ) in front of the lines that were throwing the errors. Eventually, we figured out that the problem was capitalization.

After compiling, I had to save the file, and then download it to the board. I was very happy when I saw that one LED blink. After about a half a minute, I got bored, and started messing with the code. I tried changing the duration of the blink and pause, and then I made each of the four LEDs do thier blinky thing.

So now I have made an Arduino blink. There is so much more that can be done, but it all has to start someplace. This step for me has been a major block. For some reason, I haven't been able to get it going. But now it is going. Hopefully others may find this moment useful. If you do, let me know in the comments.

Makeit: open source kit idea

2008-11-23T14:22:00.011-05:00

Here is an idea that showed up recently:
It is handwritten because I needed to get it out quick.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/3051988828_15c04373e2_o_d.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/3052001508_e40c10b472_o_d.jpg

Here is a link to the set:
http://flickr.com/photos/connors934/sets/72157609759515238/

This was inspired by getting one of those cheapie battery operated fans that have plastic floppy blades. It cost a buck, had a nice little dc motor, a 2 AA battery pack with a switch, and a removable hub that holds the fan blade on. As I drove home, I couldn't believe what a great deal it was for the dollarfan. When I got back, I made a quick little video of the "what could you do if you had a lot of these little fans?" idea. I probably get a couple dozen at least of the fans. There are probably more than two or three in the house already. If prople could weigh in on project ideas, then others could try the project idea out with whatever stuff they have handy. They could then post it up and the open source project could be widened with reader commentary and documentation.

The larger idea: is to create a kit based on very cheap objects like the fan. Things that have incredibly good cost to features value, like the dollarfan. Things like the old cd drives I used for a workshop at the Duxbury Student Union a few weeks ago, and other electromechanical junk. Inside the kit could be supplies like coroplast, magnet wire, machine screws and nuts, some hardware, some tools, all very cheap, replaceable, upgradeable. Enough to get some things done, cheap enough to provide variety. This would give people a way to experiment with the Design Process in a collaborative and low stakes manner.

Included in the information side of the kit would be some project ideas, questions that could be answered with inventions, thought triggers on paper, and in digital form. All of the projects would be listed first on the web in a forums like place. People would show their products in flickr, youtube, and what ever other systems they wanted to use. If they used a consistent tag, then the products would be easier to find. Makekit would be a decent tag to use. This could even turn into a formal curriculum if that were an interesting idea to the right people.

If somebody could create a simple project that would work on say turning a cd drive into a small remote control car, or creating a mp3 speaker out of a water bottle or yogurt cup and some headphones, then that kind of thing would be enough to get the ball rolling. Probably a dozen or so sample projects would relieve some of the 'gettting started' anxiety. Then, as supplies run low in the kit from project use, people should be recognizing the junk around them and the potential it holds. Of course, some of the text based material would include possible resources for finding replenishment supplies. The kit is a starter, and it grows as the user gains experience.

To keep the thing rolling, people, organizations and schools could use a subscription model. Once a month, or at some other interval, a new package would arrive with a few suggestions of project ideas. Maybe a tool could be in the package, like a little screwdriver with phillips and straight tip or needle nose pliers with wire cutters. That would be the JunkOfTheMonth club model, as Perry Kaye put it.

This idea will run out in as open a fashion as possible. Ideally, it should get lots of feedback and inspire some people to be collaborators. There are a few to turn to at this time, but through the forums and comments, certainly more would come out. It would also be possible to have people add ideas from developing countries.

So anyway, what do you think? What should be the first device to deconstruct/morph/hack/mashup? CD drive, dollarfan, cassette player? If you want in, send me a message, or add info into the comments. Tag your product with kitjunk or Makeit to help us keep track of what each other are doing.

User reviewed cell coverage

2008-11-11T11:15:00.006-05:00

This is a neat visualization for cell coverage. It also has embedded into the maps the location of the call towers of various vendors. I know that it is not up to date at this writing because it doesn't show the cell antennae in First Parish Church in Duxbury.

Makezine Education Blogging

2008-11-06T06:33:00.005-05:00

Over the past few years, I have been watching and informally contributing to Make Magazine's blog, Makezine.com. During a conversation with Phillip Torrone this year's Maker Faire, he suggested I blog for the site.

In talking with Phil and Dale Dougherty, we came to an agreement that my beat would be education. So my charge is to help bring together teachers and learners from across the world and help them find the best techniques and project resources.

Do you work with youth or adults, helping people to learn? Where do you get project ideas, supplies, community support or other resources? Do you have examples of incredibly good teachers? If you do, please share them with me so that we can all benefit. You can post to the comments of FussingWithStuff.com or the Make blog.

Here is my introductory post on the Make site: Link

Open Robo Baby

2008-11-04T14:46:00.006-05:00

In a school near you there is (hopefully) a program that teaches teens the issues of teen pregnancy. Babies are needy little beasties who want attention, care and feeding around the clock. While it is unwise and probably dangerous to send a fleet of fleshy babies out in the sometimes indifferent arms of our nation's teenagers, it is more practical to arm them with something a bit less animated.

Enter RoboBaby! For close to a thousand bucks, your school system can 'adopt' a glorified doll loaded with data logging circuitry.

Couldn't this be done for considerably less money? The one pictured here seems to have been dropped at least once too many. It may be an easy fix, but even after it is done, is it worth it for a school to spend so much on something like this?

So here, you can do your part to educate the seemingly all knowing, invincible and infertile teens of the world. How about OpenRoboBaby? What is out there that will work? How can schools produce their own?

Here are some photos to get you thinking: Link

Vibrobot workshop at Duxbury Student Union

2008-11-03T18:39:00.003-05:00

Calling all Tinkerers!

Do you enjoy tinkering with broken parts to make them work? Do you like knowing how motors and systems do what they do? If you are a girl or boy aged 12-18, you might like to make "The Vibrabot", a twitchy, bug-like robot with a toy motor and a mint tin. The project is featured on the cover and page 119 of Make Magazine #10 from O'Reilly Publications.

This introductory and experimental program is designed to develop curiosity, problem solving techniques and mesh the various mediums of documenting to build confidence and know-how for future projects. In the future, the Duxbury Student Union would like to create more workshops and experiences that help girls and boys take creative control over the systems and devices that they use every day.

This introductory session is offered free of charge this Friday, November 7th from 2.30pm - 5.00pm at the Duxbury Student Union. This workshop, led by Duxbury Technology and Engineering teacher Chris Connors, Alec Resnick from NubLabs.org and several collaborators will be documented with photography and video to be included on the Make Magazine website makezine.com.

To register, please call Sue Lawrence at 781.934.2290. Space may be limited to ensure that girls and boys have access to this workshop.

When trash talks to you: The educational value of junk

2008-11-02T14:21:00.001-05:00

When trash talks to you:
The educational value of junk

Intro:
As a teacher, tinkerer and curious person, I have learned a lot from junk. The discarded things and devices I have learned from have helped me to teach and learn about electronics, product design, mechanical devices and many other interesting ideas. Like many people picking through the discards of others, I have a few rules on what I will and will not gather. It should be useful when I pick it up, or fairly easy to make useful. I don't like dirty, moldy or otherwise noxious stuff. Obviously, if you are in relationship with others, those people may or may not be thrilled about a taste for trash. Spouses and neighbors, even city officials or neighborhood associations may have some opinions on what you can and cannot accumulate. Somehow, everybody has to be kept happy.

The value of emotionally unattached junk.
If somebody tossed it, you can do whatever you want to it. If you brick a device that came out of the trash, nobody will cry that they paid $400 for it five years ago. This is the most powerful concept of learning from trash. When I started working on a dumpscore computer, trying to turn it into a server for my classroom website, I realized that I could screw it up royally and nobody would be mad at me. That realization released me to be able to experiment without the fear of failure. It was trash. If I ruined it, I could put it back in the computer pile at the dump and nobody would know the difference. I made the computer into a server and used it effectively for years until I found another way of hosting websites.

What can you learn?
Electronics, mechanisms, product design, how things work, the history of technology, innovation, environmentalism,

How can trash talk?
Use your senses:
eyes - How does it look, does it have parts that are useful? What is written on it? What is the design of it?
ears - When you start it, use it, run it, does it make noises? Where are the noises from? When you pick it up, are there loose parts inside?
touch - What does it feel like, is it heavy, smooth? Can you feel the craftsmanship?
smell - Mostly, I give it a sniff test to see if it is musty. This is especially useful for books and computer that were used in basements.
taste - You probably shouldn't taste it, but some people don't have a problem with carefully found trash food.

How can you use the junk?
use it as it is
fix it
take it apart
make something new
take parts from one to fix another
take systems from one thing and add it to another thing

What do do when you are done with it
Take it back to where it came from.
Use it.
Give it away.
Sell it.
Take pictures of it.
Get rid of it.
Use it for parts.
Try to get rid of it.
Eventually, you probably ought to get rid of it.

Where can you get trashed?
The trash can in the house/school/office/etc.
Swap pile at the town dump
Dumpster
Loading dock
Somebody's junk heap/pile/room/etc. But always get permission first, because they may have something in mind.
Yard sale
Flea market

Photos to illustrate the ideas
Here are a few pictures that might go along with it, though I have many more. I have been doing this for years, and have a habit of often photographing as I go.

http://flickr.com/search/?q=dumpscore&w=13559856%40N00

Here is a set of a project that I did a few years ago. I still have the radio, and may add to the project. http://flickr.com/photos/connors934/sets/72157607723190514/
It was fun to take the old radio apart, see what all the components did, how they were connected to the circuits of the other components and imagine how they could be reorganized into another device. I attached them to a scrap piece of plywood, and intended to add an mp3 player input where the cassette head was, and an FM transmitter to the output so that it could be used to transmit the input to other radios in the house.
Resources to help with the ideas
Duxbury, the town I live in, has an active picking pile at the dump. It is actually called the Duxbury Mall. I have been using it as a project supply resource for years. Many of my students use the dump for a lot of the points of this outlined topic. I can tap into the experiences those people ranging from kids to college students to adults. Many of the people who graduate from my program at Duxbury High School learned a lot of what they know using these techniques and are now studying or working in the engineering field. I know many other people in other places who share this mindset.

If you have projects that came from trash, let me know. What did you learn from the trash? What did you make? Where did you get it? How do you dispose of the tailings of your trashy life?

How I share my information

2008-11-01T03:35:00.004-04:00

In the past few weeks, I have been having discussions with people about how to share information online so that their interesting projects can find an audience. In one of these discussions, most of the text of this post came out as an email. I have referred to it enough times that the idea needs its own web address.

For online, I like free. I also like instant availability and worldwide access. I aspire to travel, sometimes I actually do. One thing I hope is that people in other parts of the world will see some of my work and that of the people around me and be inspired to think about it and maybe even try something similar.

Photos
Posting photos is much more useful than leaving them on a hard drive. I am using flickr for my photos. For a pro account it's $25 a year for unlimited uploads and storage (yes I have tried to find the limit). I started using it because of the Make Flickr Pool. Happy ever since. I put everything up, and it is basically a second place to store it in case something tragic happens to my hard drive. Another nice thing about it is that if I recall a photo, I can get at it no matter where I am or who I am working with. Sometimes it comes in handy as a way of illustrating a point. Sometimes it allows me to do something creative on short notice. Sometimes I just need to use it to move a picture from one computer to another without a flash drive. If it goes into my Flickr account, it is retrievable.

Video
Most digital cameras have video capability. many cellphones do as well. Since we have them with us most if not all the time, we should use them. Youtube is good as a place to put the videos, mostly because of the community and audience that it will reach. Vimeo has fewer ads, and the quality seems better. Flickr also has video, but it is new and the size and duration of the files is pretty limited.

Wiki
There are many other ways of making a wiki, I use pbwiki for most of my daily online text posting. Mediawiki is more powerful, but more like driving a manual shift car. There are probably better solutions, but the markup is incredibly easy, and again, its free. When I start a new project, I just make a new wiki and add it to my little wiki farm. I have a few dozen at this point, and see no reason to stop there. Each wiki gets about 10 megabytes of file storage. Certainly it is enough for text files, code and things like that.

Text and office documents
Open office should be the standard for hard drive based office type tools. Why should anybody pay for the software to make a text document or spreadsheet? If your document needs to be opened ofn MS Office, save it into that format. Free, open source software will help individuals and institutions save money and have more options.

Google docs seems useful, I have made a few text documents and that kind of thing. It is also possible for people to collaborate on a single document. The power is there, but not many people get it yet. It definitely is a good way of posting your work, like slideshows or spreadsheet so that other people can view it. A student of mine posted his presentation on electric cars vs. gas powered cars. I thought it was a nice way of sharing the info. The calendar is also useful, and linkable, other people can import it into their calendars and stuff like that. The main problem with google docs is that nobody seems to be in the habit of using it. google code looks useful, though I have not really set to using it. Gmail works for me, and being able to search through the messages for the info helps.

Blogs
Often a blog post will start as an email to a particular person and then get copied into the blog interface. Wordpress, Moveable Type and Blogger are the blogging tools that I have tried. Blogger is the one I use for fussingwithstuff.com It allows me to add some tracking code for Google Analytics, and I can change the css skin pretty easily. Everything lives on the server, no software on the hard drive. Web browser access means that you can update worldwide. It does take a bit of learning to get at what it can do, I am still trying to get better at it.

Cross publishing
Lately, I am trying to tie all of my media together. My facebook account seems to be the binder. I have it set so that it has plugins for twitter, youtube, delicous and flickr. Whenever I update one of those, it sends a message over to facebook, which adds it to my wall and alerts all my friends. It is also possible to post a link so when I make a new blog posting or find something good online, I can share it with people through my wall. I have been trying to assemble a good list of friends who are really interested in the same kinds of education and hacking projects that I am. I like the list so far, and each time I do a collaborative project I seem to find more clever people to add to the list.

Tags
Tags are essential in the modern web. By tagging EVERYTHING, I can find it myself, and so can the other people in the world. Search engines use tags to find what is out there on the web. If there is a project that is unique to me and the people I work with, I create a tag and start using it. duxtech is the handle that I use for my high school technology and engineering program. connors934 is the handle I use for most of my online presence. By searching for that, it will show many of my social media accounts. Through poking around in those and in the tags that I use on them, you can see what I am up to.

Hopefully you found this helpful. Each of these systems takes time and patience to figure out. Once you get into it, you will find that there are powerful things that can be done by sharing ideas online. By showing others what your projects and ideas are, you can help find and build community around the interesting work you do.

Bret Dickerson on using the Shopbot in school

2008-10-28T06:13:00.005-04:00

Brett has been using Shopbot in his classroom for over 22 years. He likes what he sees in the changes that his students have shown. He likes the way that his students have grown socially and intellectually through the projects they have done. He has had a great time learning alongside his students.

A conversation with Mitch Altman at Maker Faire

2008-10-26T14:42:00.006-04:00

Mitch Altman creates kits that inspire people to make things. "If we don't make things on our own, then we're stuck with what the corporations want to give us....If we make our own things, we can make whatever we want. If we can imagine it, we can make it."

Wikipedia profile: Link
TV-B-Gone Link
Brain Machine on Engadget Link
Mitch's profile on the Make site Link

Brain Machine Users at Maker Faire Austin

2008-10-25T20:22:00.005-04:00

The people in this video are using Mitch Altman's Brain machine. It uses a microcontroller to vary the blinky pattern of the leds and the sound through the headphones to match brain wave activities and give a terrific visual experience. The program runs 14 minutes and is quite exciting. Every person seems to have a different experience.

The article in Make: 10 Link
Video Podcast Link
Kit in the Maker Shed Link
Hack it into a tin Link
Notes on Mitch's visit to AS220 during of the summer of 2008 Link
Mitch also invented the TVBGone Link

Danny Brought his daughter to Maker Faire

2008-10-24T16:56:00.005-04:00

Danny and his daughter returned to Maker Faire for some excitement with building and experimenting. While she was learning to print with silkscreen, he was checking out the Shopbot and surveying the nublabs Fab Lab.

Patrick Built his own CNC machine

2008-10-24T16:33:00.004-04:00

Patrick from Buildyourcnc.com talks about making his own computer numeric controlled machines. He originally started the project to make parts for a hobby, but now uses his machine to cut parts that he sells as kits so others can make their own machines. It is the machine that can make its own replacement.

His website has lots of information for people looking to get started making machines that can be controlled by computers.

Site Link: buildyourcnc.com

Denise Made vinyl silkscreen stencils at the nublabs Fab Lab

2008-10-24T15:22:00.009-04:00

Denise is a chemistry teacher. She put on a contest for her students to design pictures for Mole Day. She brought the pictures to the nublabs FabLab where she used the vinyl cutter to make the stencils. Later that week, she printed the shirts with the students. The students then wore the shirts in schools bearing their custom designs. Limited edition ChemGeek shirts!

She used the techniques for Silkscreen Print With Vinyl described here
nublabs operated the Fab Lab at Maker Faire Austin 2008

Matthew Dalton in the Maker's Shed Kit Building Area

2008-10-24T15:01:00.005-04:00

Matthew Dalton worked Maker Faire in the Kit Building Area of Maker Faire Austin. He showed people how to solder, and helped them through the process of building the kits that they bought at Maker Faire. By helping people get familiar with the tools of electronics, he's teaching them so that they can work on electronics at their home doing the projects they want to do.

Steve Davee Shows His Maker Notebook Projects

2008-10-24T08:19:00.008-04:00

Steve Davee came to the nublabs Fab Lab at Austin Maker Faire 2008. He has been working on his Maker's Notebook, and shows some of the way he has modded the book and how he has used it as a way of storing and developing his ideas. He also talks about his experiences in education and how he is able to inspire kids to do amazing things. Steve is a teacher at the Opal Charter School in Portland Oregon.

Distributed Manufacturing and Disaster Revovery

2008-09-15T06:25:00.018-04:00

Another weather update today: Hurricane heading for the Gulf Coast. It's the third time this month we have heard this announced. In the news report that triggered this writing, we hear that the contractors working on rebuilding from Hurricane Gustav are being asked to ramp up their 30 day contracts to repair damage so that the work can be done in a week or so. As this is being prepared for posting, we are hearing of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and the destruction of Galvaston.

Three years ago, New Orleans was hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The population of the Gulf Coast was scattered all over the country because the government was not ready to quickly house the people and rebuild the area's housing stock. In the years since, we have heard of the problems with 'FEMA Trailers' and the environmental hazards the represent. Once people move out of these trailers, where are the trailers to go? Stockpile them for the next emergency?

In the days after Katrina, I remember hearing that there was a sentiment that "Americans don't live in tents". Our people should not have cloth houses for even a while (unless there is hunting involved).

So we have a problem and an opportunity.

The problem is that we have large populations around the world that are located in high density areas, and these areas are subject to a variety of natural disasters. We have heard this year of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires and tornadoes to name a few. Whenever these areas are wiped out, housing needs to be replaced, quickly and safely.

The opportunity lies in how the housing is replaced. What if we had a system to rapidly manufacture housing that is safe, sturdy, attractive and can be used for permanent or temporary use? This housing would not be built using traditional methods developed a hundred years or more ago, it would be an opportunity to reinvent housing design, construction and use.
Distributed manufacturing of architecture
With computer controlled tools like those found in the Fab Lab system and manufactured by ShopBot, we could create a network, locally, nationally and globally to provide good, safe, rapidly assembled housing. There are hundreds or thousands of tools around the United States and world that could be used on relatively short notice.

The parts of the houses could be shipped to a distribution point, then trucked or trained in to the disaster zone. Once on location, the parts, which would have been cut to consistent specifications on similar materials. Obviously, some allowances would have to be made in the design to ensure that the parts would assemble properly. Assembly could occur with relatively simple tools like rubber mallets. The site would need to be prepped, a cement slab or some other foundation.

Each set of parts from a distributed manufacture would have markings that would help with quality control. It would be possible to check the numbers carved into every part and tell which machine it came from, and from there tell which material was used, and other data that the tool owner/operator would keep track of. This would help in the design process by allowing the testing of materials and techniques.

As the crisis is resolved, people in the emergency zone could continue to live in the housing, or they could turn it back for other housing. Since it is possible to build the house entirely with mortise and tenon, pressure fit, tab and slot techniques, the housing could be assembled with little or no hardware fasteners. If there is a surplus of these distributed manufactured housing units, they could be sold, moved or even cut up and chipped. Will it blend? Yes it will. But can we Watch it Shred? Yeah, that too.

In preparation for the next emergency, a number of these housing units could be stored warehouse style, maybe in shipping containers that could be put on trucks or trains. When the next hurricane/tornado/flood/fire/earthquake comes, pop the houses into the transportation system and get people into safe housing quickly. These stockpiled kits would be from manufacturers who had been properly proven as having good quality control, since these would be the first to hit the disaster zone. In days, or maybe even hours, it would be possible to get roofs over the heads of the people who recently lost their houses to mother nature.

This would change the way we make houses. Instead of just making the housing faster, we would be reinventing the system of housing design, manufacture and construction. It would encourage collaboration and open source design. It would release the manufacture of the house from the local area, and support open source manufacturing. It would create a viable solution to the rapid and safe rebuilding of housing in areas where there are vulnerable displaced populations.

Larry Sass of MIT has been working on developing a system very similar to this. His focus is on the building itself. His designs and those like his could form the base of the system. But between where we are now and having trailers loaded and ready to ship to the disaster zone, we would need to have several intermediate projects of lower stakes to prove out the system.

The test part is an important step in the design process of the project.. A whole set of test parts with calibration fitting points could be made on one machine that has a known calibration and a history of accurately cutting the project parts. These tester parts could then be shipped out to the project participants who would then make sure their machine can make parts that fit into the tester's calibration areas. It would have some mortise and tenons and holes and rectangles, and probably some more than that. The part would likely be no more than an 8th if a sheet of plywood. When the machine user can make similar parts that are compatible with the tester, then the machine is calibrated to the international standard. The machine user may just want to know the machine is set right.

At that point, they can make an example duplicate of the tester and ship it back to a quality control group. If the part passes a test, then the machine is official. The official part would be optional unless the machine would be used on long distance group projects where intermachine compatibility is essential. The certification process could be done by shopbot, or some other group of trusted individuals.

As far as proving the system, it would be absolutely essential to test it out on some low stakes projects first. This would allow the manufacturing team to go through the design process as many times as needed to get the system working accurately and effectively. If the project had a number of intermediate projects and goals to build up to the biggie of fabbing houses that would sit in shipping containers waiting for a disaster. When you get to that point, everybody involved has to completely trust the system with good data behind its' testing.

Intermediate level projects could be the manufacture of something pretty simple but at least a bit complex like rubber band cars or a toy paddle boat or a simple chair/table/organizer/other piece of furniture.

As the project progresses, the manufactured projects get more complex or made of larger runs of parts. The rules governing the design get more precise, so then you can get into items that can meet national or international standards for manufactured goods.

Ultimately the project gets to make structures, maybe starting with a dog house design or storage shed or car port. When that system is working well, then the project tries out some even more complex designs

Links
Shopbot Tools - http://www.shopbottools.com/
Blend Tech - http://www.willitblend.com/
SSI - http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/watch-en.htm

Educators' Maker Faire Proposal

2008-09-14T11:10:00.008-04:00

If you were an educator or learner and going to Maker Faire, what would you want to find out? If you couldn't go, what would you want other people to find out? How could you learn more about what happened at Maker Faire long after the physical event ended?

Here is a link to the Educators' Maker Faire proposal: Link

These are supporting documents that will help inform our thinking about the project:

A Community of Learners Link Cultivating the Joy of Learning - Link Facts, Frustration and Fun Link

Cultivating the Joy of Learning

2008-08-29T21:57:00.007-04:00

Lately I have been thinking, both on and off the clock, about the school year ahead. As we go into the last weekend before school starts, I am mostly wondering "How Can I Cultivate the Joy of Learning?" The information that has been delivered to me has mostly been facts about what needs to be done, how it needs to be done and what the lawyers need me to know. Most of this information has been delivered lecture style. There was some discussion about 21st Century Skills, how to become critical thinkers and effective problem solvers. That was the good stuff, and unfortunately was over within ten minutes. Most of the rest of the days were filled with smart people at the front of the room telling the audience what they needed to know.

When I go to a conference about a topic I find fascinating and important, I sit up front. When I go to a concert, I see the audience crush the stage. When I go to a meeting, I see empty rows in front of the room. In a classroom with optional seating arrangements, I see students with interest sitting in the front and goof offs in the back. What is it that causes these differences in seating arrangements? What causes the conference members to crush the speaker while the meeting attendees and students crush the back wall?

While I don't know the answers to these questions, I am very interested in helping people learn. As a person who dislikes lecture format information delivery as both a student or teacher, it is always important to me that other styles of teaching and learning have a chance.

Back when I was being trained as a teacher, we talked about the Teacher/Learner. It was expected of us that we knew some things and that we were committed to finding out more. We were trained to believe that our students knew about things that we didn't. We were not encouraged to always be The Smart Person at the Front of The Room. It was our responsibility to uncover the possibilities within our students and ourselves. As our students learned, so did we. We were facilitators in the construction of knowledge. The class that just left the room would have a different personality and set of interests than the one that was about to come in. Last semester would be different than next semester.

As I have taught, I have learned a great deal about the subjects in my classes. Often I have had, like I will this year, five completely different subjects in a semester. Eight different subjects in one year may be the greatest number, but even when I have had multiple classes of the same subject, the unique qualities of each collection of students brings out differences in the same subject.

So the school year looms large at the other end of this weekend. How can a mere mortal teach five different subjects, have each course contain meaningful learning experiences and be fun for both students and teacher?

Each class is filled with a group of individuals who most likely chose to be enrolled in this elective class. Since they chose, and since the class is an elective,unlike their math, social studies or English class, the people should be able to buy into working with the subject. Every person has interests, and every person knows of some issues that need to be addressed in the community.

Here is one recipe for making this work:
Build a Community of Learners
People need to get to know each other. People need to treat each other respectfully. We need to be committed to learning and sharing our knowledge with each other.

Assess the topic
We need to look widely at the topic and examine its components. For example, what is robotics? What is computer programming? What is building and repairing computers? How can a computer be used effectively and creatively? Making a publicly visible statement of the topic as the group understands it and working from there will give a good base.

Determine our level of understanding
Each group will come into the subject with unique perspectives and experiences. It is worth determining some of what we know and don't know as we embark on the learning experience.

Identify our interests in the subject
Each person will come into a subject with personal desires and agendas. Having these known up front to the group as much as possible will help the individuals move forward in the group community. In this area, it is worth noting that some people do not feel confident in speaking up about this part of the topic, and sometimes find themselves working on a project that they did not really buy in to. When group decisions are made, it is important that people not look back in unproductive regret on the choices of the group.

Name the public/external expectations of us as a community of learners
The learning group may have been given an expectation in the form of course description, behavior code, state curriculum frameworks, or other Fact based expectations. Name them early, and the group needs to commit that they will be adhered to. What are the facts that we will be expected to demonstrate at the end of this experience?

Create the base of knowledge we will need
Every time the learning group meets, the members of the group needs to build its base of knowledge. Each person needs to commit to learning about the subject in meaningful ways. This may involve there being a teacher from the ranks of the group who delivers information, or it may involve people working collaboratively helping and assisting each other. It may also involve independent study and work on projects.

Collaborate to make an enduring public artifact to represent our learning and promote the work we have done together
During the larger time frame of the learning environment, the group and its individuals need to collaborate to create some thing or collection of things that will help demonstrate what was learned. The external community needs to see and recognize the learning and achievement that has occurred within the learning environment. It is important that the learner's peers see what they have done. The elders in their community need to see and recognize and support what they have done and created.

This enduring public artifact should be documented and archived in easily retrievable ways such as web pages, online photos and video. The learners should present their work publicly in front of the people of their community. After the presentation of their work, the evidence of the work should remain so that their learning can continue to affect the interest and inspire the learning of others.

So this could work. Personally, I have been involved in each part of this process before, but not so much as a comprehensive whole learning approach. It may be that by using this approach, it could be refined and repeated in other communities of learners.

Why Do Cyberthieves Steal?

2008-08-25T17:09:00.008-04:00

A few months ago my debit card was compromised by cyberthieves who intercepted the data coming from my transaction at the local Hannaford's supermarket. They bought about $800 worth of stuff in Kuala Lampur. Fortunately, my credit union noticed that I was buying things locally and thought that the Malaysian purchases might not be legit. It took several months for the money to get credited back to my account because of delays in getting the police report done. The whole thing was at least mildly disruptive to my finances.

This has gotten me thinking. Why is it that people steal through online networks? Why do people hack systems? What separates the regular 'hacking for the fun of it' people from the 'hacking for the profit of it' cybercriminals?

As I have read through some of this information, I realize that I and many of my students may be considered Hackers. We like exploring systems and making them better for our own purposes. Personally, I have no real interest in exploiting these experiences for profit, my goal is to gather information about how things work and how to make them more capable.

There are many misunderstandings about Hackers. These misunderstandings come at least in part from the actions of people like those who stole my debit card information, and others who choose to cause chaos on our computer networks. I can't say I understand why people do this kind of thing much better now than I did before, but I do know that there is a lot of good to be done with Ethical and Productive Hacking.

Here are some links that I found on my quest for more information:

How to become a Hacker: The Cathedral and the Bazaar Link

The Five Principles of the Hacker Mindset (from Eric S. Raymond): Link

The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond online at Link published by O'Reilly in book form as well.

Why I love hackers by Tim O'Reilly (presentation): Link

Defcon is an influential event in the Hacker community: Link
MIT/MBTA fare dispute discussion at The Tech: Link
- on Yelp: Link
- at Information Week: Link
- on The Bostonist: Link

Hackers by Steven Levy: Link

Cloud Collaborating, virtual worlds and the hacker mindset: Link
The Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen: Link
Old and New Hacker Ethic by Steven Mizrach: Link

Hacker Manifesto on Wikipedia: Link
Chaos Computer Club on Wikipedia: Link
Timeline of Computer Security Hacker History on Wikipedia: Link
It is useful to note that there are a variety of interpretations to the word "Hack": Link
The Happy Hacker: Link

Facts, Frustration and Fun

2008-08-19T09:05:00.011-04:00

In learning, there is a balance between Facts, Frustration and Fun. In order to have it all work in favor of the learner and learning environment, the education experience should be enjoyable, informative and relatively free of barriers between the two.

Facts:
To get true command of any subject, the learner must master at least some facts. They can get the facts by being told them or pointed to them, or they can get the facts by finding them as they need them. In standardized education, some authority above the teacher and learner dictates what the facts to be learned must be, and the teacher has to make sure that the learners have an equal chance to gather, integrate and master the use of these facts. It seems a lot of the time, educators spend an undue amount of time on 'covering the facts'.

Frustration:
Frustration can be very helpful in an appropriate amount. By getting frustrated, the learner actually has something at stake in learning the material. If success comes too easy, then the prize of achievement is a hollow victory. If the whole experience is too hard and filled with blocks to success, the learner gives up too soon. Some students will slog on 'just because that's what we were told to do' and will recall the experience with dread.

Fun:
Most people do things because they are worthwhile. Adults seem to be focused on getting things done because they have to. Money is a strong motivator, especially for adults. But in learning environments, especially with young learners, Fun can be the strongest motivator. What is the value of this experience? Just doing it because they have to isn't going to be enough. Is there laughter as people explore the topic? Does the experience lead to a desire for more knowledge? Does the Fun increase the desire for more Facts? Does the Fun minimize the effects of the Frustration? Eventually, the students will reflect on their experience and judge it to be either Fun or Boring. Too many Boring experiences and things don't go well.

The more Fun the experience is, the more useful the Facts are, the fewer major Frustrations between the Facts and the Fun, the more successful the learning environment will be.

Breadboard Western

2008-08-19T07:46:00.004-04:00

Capacitors ride the posse on their resistor steeds. Disc and electrolytic duel it out in the electron saloon. Aliens anyone?

From Star at Miters - Link

Engineering the Future - Boston Museum of Science

2008-08-09T11:46:00.003-04:00

Engineering the Future

Students should be learning how to solve problems using tools and ideas. They need to have a working knowledge of the Design Process. Just about the only curriculum that addresses this issue directly is the Engineering the Future project originating from the Museum of Science in Boston MA.

People who know how systems work and how to solve problems methodically make better citizens.

Here is a link to one of the segments of video about the curriculum. It was filmed in the Technology and Engineering classrooms at Duxbury High School.

Video: Link

Duxbury High School Technology and Engineering Wiki: Link

Learning Styles and Teaching Styles

2008-07-19T09:06:00.005-04:00

Today I saw the need for different learning styles and teaching styles in action. I thought it was interesting how they voiced a need for a different style out of me, and I was able to do what I could to accomodate it.

In the world of MCAS, No Child Left Behind and centralized testing of curriculum outcomes, the learning objectives come from the top and get delivered to the people below, whether the people below are teachers or students.

What I am seeing with Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn, there is little of the top/bottom hierarchy in the structure. "We want to learn it by doing it, not by hearing it". That works for me, but it does make for a tricky situation of making sure that "everybody gets It" Who defines the 'It' that they are getting?

If people demand not to have hardly any lecture based delivery of information and then start side conversations and other off topic activities, then it is probably not about learning styles and teaching styles, its probably more about control of the situation and other behavior issues. If a goal is framed, but not worked towards effectively, then what is the problem? Is the search for information not being treated seriously, or is there a problem with learning tools and techniques? Is it not okay for participants to ask the questions they need to get the results they have framed as goals?

In a lot of public school learning situations, the emphasis has really become 'results based learning'. Some call it teaching to the test. Students should know this that and the other thing, and here is how they will get there. In the l2t/t2l environment, the learners are framing a lot of the goals. This can be a messy, exciting business. With everybody heading to the goal in their own direction, they all can learn creatively and come up with novel solutions to the problems they face.

In this technique and process, some people can fall or slip through the cracks. They may not understand the goals (fall), or they may not agree with them (slip). In either case, it is possible for them to quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) dodge the goal and not get it done, or get it done poorly, or let their groupmates do it for them.

I would be very interested in getting your feedback on this. I am also looking for the right place to park this type of written work online. I would rather have a community of writers than a solo effort. Care to join me?