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Video from OSHUG #34 — Teaching

The May 2014 Open Source Hardware User Group meeting featured talks on experiences of using the LilyPad Arduino to teach basic electronics and coding, using the Raspberry Pi as an education tool, and MzTEK, a non-profit organisation that aims to redress the imbalance of women artists working in the fields of new media, computer arts, electronics and technology.

Teaching with the LilyPad Arduino

Rain Ashford designs and constructs wearable technology, e-textiles and interactive artworks. She is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, where she's investigating the possibility that wearable technology can be used to augment new forms of non-verbal communication, particularly in the areas of body language and emotion, by the amplifying and visualising of physiological data.

Rain started off by providing an introduction to the LilyPad Arduino and some of the basic components used in wearable technology projects, before going on to briefly explain her research focus and covering some of her own projects.

Next Rain then took us through a few of the wearable tech workshops that she has organised with various groups, highlighting some of the key considerations that need to be taken into account in terms of preparation and organisation on the day etc.

Raspberry Pi in education

Matt Venn has run hundreds of creative science workshops for thousands of children and adults around the world. For the last year, he has been working with teachers in preparation for the computer science curriculum changes; creating and leading courses, workshops and projects.

Matt's talk got off to a start via a whistle-stop tour of a number of very cool open source-based projects that he's been involved with. He then went on to talk about some of the challenges of teaching Raspberry Pi in schools, and the benefits of using open source in education.

MzTEK: festivals, workshops and take away technologies

Shauna Concannon is an interdisciplinary researcher interested in communication spaces and constructive disagreement. She has been working with MzTEK for the past few years, developing and facilitating workshops in Processing, Arduino and wearable electronics. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Media and Arts Technology at Queen Mary University of London.

Shauna introduced MzTEK and explained why the initiative is focused solely on working with women. She talked about just a few of the many workshops they have organised at both festivals and in more traditional settings, alongside group exhibitions hosted at venues such as the prestigious Victoria & Albert Museum, the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design.

Andrew Back

Open source (hardware and software!) advocate, Treasurer and Director of the Free and Open Source Silicon Foundation, organiser of Wuthering Bytes technology festival and founder of the Open Source Hardware User Group.
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