We have incorporated music into both MMM and AoC this week - from the chosen chimes that indicate an object was picked up in the virtual world, to the conductivity of guitar strings!
https://youtu.be/Q2NpEY4LWTk Today marked the final session of Marvellous Musical Machine at the Lydiard Park Academy ASC. This first cohort of six boys have been astoundingly capable and a total delight to work with. Keith and I will miss their enthusiasm and wonderful ideas.Here then is their finished work...
https://youtu.be/KNJh7TGm4yo As our first cohort near completion of their machine - here is a little clip featuring the use of MakeCode Arcade for musical composition.To see the whole Marvellous Musical Machine journey to date, please visit: www.flickernet.net/mmmThe grand premiere of their performance film will be on Monday 8th December. We will be moving on to the Ridgeway ASC early in the new year , where…
https://youtu.be/a7MM0x1TW10 After two months of development with the intrepid and inspiring Year 9 team from the ASC at Lydiard Park Academy (see www.flickernet.net/mmm) - today the machine itself began to take shape. It will incorporate many of the experimental elements that have been explored - today we added light sensing that is converted into sounds and sound waves.
Keith and I are working on a new project for shared computer control and coding. We will be creating a 3D environment in which the controller and the nature of what is controlled, will be open for pairs of pupils to develop together. We are calling it Rainbow Rebellion. More details to follow soon! For an interactive demo, please click here!
Coming soon - we hope - the WatchBox! This project-based-learning endeavour will offer children the opportunity to build, code and deploy, a wildlife monitoring system of their own. This will be a new way to connect with nature. For further details see here: www.flickernet.net/watchbox
Delighted to announce the start of RRC -with the ever-wonderful St Mary's Primary School! We are currently exploring which kit works best, and hoping to develop this new club in support of neurodivergent pupils soon. Thank you to Colm and the team for providing every opportunity to explore new technologies with his wonderful class - from Unity-built gaming to the upcoming WatchBox - these…
Our pupils at the School of Solutions have almost completed their Arts Award. The opportunity to explore and create a wide range of artistic pieces has seen them venture to Bath for a spine-chilling Gothic experience, record their shared responses, and then develop platform games inspired by what they have seen. Thank you Keith for leading on this project: sixteen children who were struggling…
It is with great excitement that we are launching a new project which brings together the common threads of Physical Computing, Project Based Learning and a desire to see technology put to use helping those who most need it. Along with my colleague Keith Phillips, founder of Digital Writes, I am exploring the possibility of creating a new charity, which would be called Tech…
Thank you Keith, Jeremy and the team for a fun evening at the MoC. We are fortunate to be partners with you in delivering coding sessions and are eager to resume in the Autumn with some extraordinary new physical computing interfaces.! 😉 The many guests in attendance clearly enjoyed their tours of the museum and chatting about the superb range of technology that was…
From climbing trees in the woods of Northern Ireland whilst clutching Raspberry Pi units, to helping children who were on the cusp of quitting school to build adventure game-books, this year has been a real eye-opener to me. It is a rare privilege to become free to teach what one chooses. I hadn't dared believe that it could happen, but now Flickernet is full…
Keith and I met with Ben, a Director of Digital Writes, and an inspiration. Ben is helping us to explore a new project: using physical computing to enable those with reduced mobility to create their own unique artworks. We aim to feature these artworks in both an online space and through an installation. We will work with Primary school pupils to analyse the need,…
This 30 second video clip shows the three step process that we undertook with both St Mary's and SoS pupils this week. Having drawn their game-book characters and shaded with crayon: 1. Stop motion animation; 2. Photoshop cutout; then 3. Adobe Character Animator - at which point they are sprites that can be included into any Unity game creation - in this case fitting…
Thanks to David, Judy, Barbara, Kaye and Kimberly for joining me and Keith this morning for a Starbucks-fuelled brainstorming session!The graphical look and feel of the book is now taking shape: think sepia -tinted, line-drawn paper edged animations that we hope will capture the imaginations of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupils.With such a wide range of contributions so far, and many…
http://www.flickernet.net/swlep Zjeremy has a booking for the 10th May at the Chippenham Business Cyber Centre as part of the ICE (Innovate, Collaborate, Educate) gathering. Looking forward to hearing what Zjeremy has to say.! Full details, including a video discussion featuring a brief overview of Zjeremy's role in support of physical computing are here: www.flickernet.net/swlep
Our Digital Writes trip to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein House in central Bath was scary fun! The SoS pupils managed the escape room with 30 seconds to spare. A steam-punk twist to the exhibits added just the right technological twist too!