This week was very interesting for me. For starters, I had no idea what the essential question meant or what we were talking about. When Gerald, Daysha and I were planning the Twitter session and writing questions, I still didn’t understand the topic, and that’s after I had done some reading and watched the assigned videos. So the Twitter chat really helped me to understand this topic and to figure out what direction I wanted to take my research. The twitter hosting I think went very well this week. The conversation was a little slower paced, but I liked that. Questions were more succinct and the conversation felt more like a natural conversation to me than last week’s. And bottom line, I really had a deeper understand of electronic crafting and its potential classroom applications when the chat was over. I had also gathered some great links and resources in the process.
I also really enjoyed reading everyone’s blogs this week. While some of the information was repetitive, it was just the information I needed to get a more concrete understanding of the topic. I really appreciated how Jessica’s linked improved test scores with arts and music, and I also agreed with her comment about engaging girls in engineering through technology like LilyPad. I really liked Daysha’s comment, “It’s a product that is attractive to kids because it teaches electronics in a friendly non-threatening way. If you know how to use scissors and tape you can build a circuit.” That’s also why it’s attractive to me! Brian’s comment that “Electronics allows us to add an interactive, visual, or auditory component” really tied into research I’ve been doing on multimodal composition for authentic audiences, and Sara’s interpretation of e-textiles as permanent and relevant artefacts really tied into ideas of differentiation like relevance, connecting home and school, and producing products that are meaningful. Reading her blog reminded me of how many poster projects I throw away at the end of each year because students don’t want to keep them, and I thought her suggestion of wearable projects was ingenious. Specifically, I liked Aleta’s application of e-textiles in sewing Kuspuks- what a great link between culture and technology! Initially this topic seemed weird and unnecessary to me (electronic eye shadow- come on!) but I realized when I was reading Laura’s blog that the whole point of tech like this is to be hands-on, tinker, and create, so I think I am feeling the limitations of only reading/watching videos about it online. In conclusion, while I see the value in makerspaces, I do think it would be hard to start one without a fab lab with a special teacher, etc. However, projects that integrate electronic crafting genuinely bring the A in STEAM, and can be done with cheap materials in the regular content area classroom. I’m all for trying the Frankenstein unit next year, and I think this might be the emerging technology I will use for my proposal.
1 Comment
laura_educates
7/24/2016 08:49:49 am
I felt the exact same way about the essential question this week. When I first thought about "electronic crafting' I really went right back to MineCraft but once I started reading through the assigned reading I was quick to rapidly place my palm onto my forehead and say duh. My issue was I was just so one sided in my knowledge in crafting with electronic and that is why I spent my blog post dwelling on Paper Circuitry. I truthfully was not super impressed with the light up eyeshadow either but it is about thinking and doing what may have seemed impossible before, and these days we are seeing that we have the technology to do anything. Is that not the idea we (people) have always wanted to let everyone know. "Stay positive and anything can happen." "You can do anything you put your mind to." These were comments I remember growing up hearing and I was not introduced to computers until I was in 4th grade and that was still just to type a word document (Well I might have just dated myself.)
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August 2016
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