Making Crafts in A Digital Economy

Description

Making Crafts in A Digital Economy focuses on ways to bring crafts into digital learning spaces. Beyond the value of crafts as creative practice and art they provide a respite from the tyranny of the screen in learning environments where students primarily engage with computers to learn/make. From soft circuits to pen and paper drawing we will examine the ways educators can incorporate "working with your hands" into spaces of digital learning and why that is valuable to the creative process of code based education.

Timetable

10 minutes- Introductions, a group talking and remembering game 15 minutes- presentation about the types of crafts we can incorporate into digital learning 25 minutes - break out into groups with four different areas of focus- paper and pencil prototyping, paper circuits and fabric circuits and sensors. 25 - swap group and move to a new group to work. 15 - minutes share out projects and brainstorm possible uses in participants learning environments.

Interaction

The entire workshop will have a materials focus so that the participants can explore the possibilities and engage with them directly. The mere presence of specifically organized materials will focus and engage the group into the act of making and sharing with each other.

Takeaway

Participants will learn to a approaches to using materials based crafts. Participants will examine ways to bring craft into into spaces of digital learning Participants will expand their understanding of the creative process in code/screen based education.

Outcomes

I will document the session on a blog and put up the materials on my learning resource website so that the participants can use that as a resource when they return to teach. This process is part of a larger class I am developing at Gray Area as part of their Creative Code Immersive Program. This will inform that development.

Abstract

We live in a continually abstracted digital age. The ways in which people are learning and making within this economy, the SF Bay Area in particular, is changing rapidly. Along with formal design and tech focused MFA programs, code bootcamps, adult creative code learning programs, and high school code/making schools are proliferating. The problem with many of these programs is that they neglect the art and design elements of the process of learning and making. Beyond the value of crafts as creative practice and art they provide a respite from the tyranny of the screen in learning environments where students primarily engage with computers to learn/make. Moreover, incorporating this kind of learning into code based education helps bridge the communication between design, marketing, and code as the students move into the working world. We have an ever increasing demand for designers who understand code. Coders are using the Agile Development process, which is a version of the iterative process. While managers using design thinking to implement and distribute design solutions. All of these roles are fostered by learning some early stage prototyping and making tools.

Making Crafts in A Digital Economy focuses on ways to bring hand based crafts into these emerging digital learning spaces. From soft circuits to pen and paper drawing we will examine the ways educators can incorporate "working with your hands" into spaces of digital learning and why that is valuable to the creative process of code based education.