Week 8: Maker Movement Ctd.

So I still wasn’t able to source the suggested reading "The Maker Movement Manifesto”, but Humbo gave us the following summary:

• People wanted to get expensive machinery to make things themselves.

• People did not have money to get expensive machinery by themselves, so they got together and used a hiring system to pay for it.

• People who know how to use the expensive machinery taught others to use the expensive machinery as applicable to their own projects, developing a community of skilled people!

• Then schools thought it was cool and wanted to do it.

So Humbo had prepared 9 stations of different sets of mildly-expensive music-related tech that could become student projects, or tools to achieve a students’ project. Then he set us loose for the hour. I stuck with David on the LittleBits, because I wanted to go a bit deeper into how they worked since I was still a bit hazy on what went before and after the oscillator, etc. We ended up playing with different sensor types, played my friend’s bridal song with the oscillator, and experimented with the morse-code attachment.

After having had an extended play with these, I really enjoyed the ability to use physical items to put together a “code” for an aim, and helps you practice the skills necessary to succeed in coding on a computer - specific orders matter, and mistakes WILL happen!