Ideation Elizabeth: Physicalizing documentation triggers I was initially focused on developing a documentation camera after Zach noted that it would be easy to develop from scratch. However, after consulting with Marti and Daragh, I realized more and more that I was falling into a rut. There were a few novel features, including automatic photo uploads to the student gallery and easy, student-based photo categorization. However, the resulting benefits seemed peripheral at best, as our initial interviews revealed that students had less trouble with documentation, but more trouble with learning about physical computing in the first place. As a result, I revisited the core student needs from the early storyboards: how might we improve student learning in physical computing? From this, I came to one key realization that I previously failed to consider: a singular documentation practice is unsuitable for all processes in a physical computing project. For instance, while the beginning of a project might require more pen and paper for ideation sketching, the middle might require a more digital notation, as students typically work directly on the Arduino editor. As such, a documentation camera is not the most flexible solution given the changing nature of a physical computing environment.
The next two ideas ultimately served as a foundation for the final prototype. First, student documentation posts include “modules” that students have to fill out, in which they list the parts and tools used in their whole project. (Similar to Bill of Materials, except the information, is fed back into the overall database about those parts.) Second, NFC tags are placed on various tools around the lab. After scanning those tags, students are not only able to learn more about those tools but also add automatically to their documentation posts. Zach saw the “tool scanner” to be useful in the context of the physical computing lab. While he found the documentation module to be too high reach for actual development, he noted that having a BoM was a fundamental aspect of building plans. Ideation Miranda: Learning by comparison of parts After contemplating many of my own learning experiences, I noticed how common it was to characterize things based on what they are and are not compared to another object. Although it’s obvious not to compare apples to oranges, what about… oranges to clementines? It made me realize how many of the parts available in the Phys Comp Lab overlap in function, which is often the most critical criteria for students, but smaller details are just as important and should be highlighted. I sought to build a device that would assist students as they sorted through small parts of alike function and signified their differences so students could build a greater knowledge base of electronics. In the first rounds of iteration, with feedback from Marti, Daragh, and Zach, this idea evolved from a physical tray to carry small devices to a scanner that ID'd parts to no physical carrier but simply an online tool for part comparison. This turn in direction is credited to Zach, who spoke of the tool in existence on its own, beyond the anchoring of the physical space. A student could access such a resource without needing to be physically in the room and with Elizabeth’s later integration with the Physical Computing inventory, students can know if a trip to the Lab is necessary. Prototypes Documentation → Inventory Feedback Loop To begin the prototypes, Elizabeth began with a student’s initial stage of their project process: looking for information about the parts they need for a project. Inspired by Miranda’s digital wireframes of the parts finder tool, Elizabeth looked to existing digital entry points that educate students about parts. The current method is through the IDeATe Quartermaster website, which holds both the IDeATe lending inventory, as well as the Physical Computing Lab inventory. Both inventories were not designed with a student’s priority in mind, as it is dense with text and difficult to navigate. However, Elizabeth recognized a high level of information maintenance would require much more effort than an inventory manager could offer. As such, Elizabeth decided to maintain the kinds of information inputted, but change the inventory’s interface to make it more usable for students that are trying to search for a part. In order to enrich student learning when navigating between different parts, Miranda and Elizabeth found that having student reviews about the parts within the inventory website would be helpful. This would not only allow students to learn detailed information about the parts but also see more creative uses of the parts that they may have not thought of before. After several iterations, the interface was developed to show that student documentation websites would be linked. Also, categories such as “Helpful Tutorials”, “Commonly Used With” and “Related Items ” were added.
Documentation → Part Finder Feedback Loop Moreover, student tagging would feed back to an overarching tagging system, such that electronic parts organized under the part finder can be found in a more natural way for students, that is by function. Miranda tried to reduce the overhead work required by Zach while still maintaining his presence and sharing his expertise via the tool. This resulted in having the home page populated by default categories determined by Zach and what he defines as essential tools to know.
Physical Entrypoint
One notable change when combining our projects was that: rather than having a separate “device” for students to learn more about certain tools within the lab, they would simply have to scan the appropriate NFC tags attached to the tools to access the above inventory website page. While Elizabeth had initially considered having multiple tags within the classroom, even for those items that are not in the physical computing lab, this was a much more elegant solution to reduce the amount of noise that is already present in the lab.
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