Abstract
Much of maker education’s expansion has focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning, leaving out equally promising opportunities for integrating arts learning. In this paper we share findings from a project in which high school students created electronic-textiles-based art representing features of a community important to them as a part of an elective high school computer science class. We addressed the following research questions: 1) What kinds of personal and community meanings did students convey through their maker projects? 2) How did students engage with artistic dimensions in their projects? 3) How did coding interactive features support students’ artwork? Drawing on daily observations, pre/post interviews, and documentation of students’ artifacts (photographs of in-process designs, design notebooks, and artist statements), we developed four case studies of students as they made art representing their communities using electronic-textiles as their primary medium. Our findings reveal how making became a means of personal, artistic expression with quite literal layering of coded meanings, and how maker activities can integrate art. In the discussion we consider the opportunities for authentic artistic expression in maker education by distinguishing the difference between craft and art in a maker education context. We consider the ways in which these ideas have implications for equity, pedagogy, and future research.
Highlights
Much of the popularity of the maker movement has been fueled by its promise of preparing the generation of innovators by turning students from consumers into designers of technology (Honey and Kanter, 2013)
There have been few examples (e.g., Litts et al, 2019) that illustrate the potential of STEM + Art or STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) (Maeda, 2013) approaches for K-12 maker education
Interviews, and artifacts, we developed four case studies of students as maker-artists to address the following research questions: (1) What kinds of personal and community meanings did students convey in their maker artifact? (2) In what ways were the artifacts created by the students computational art? (3) How did the medium of electronic textiles, and the process of “making” inherent in creating e-textiles, support students’ artwork? Our findings reveal how making became a means of personal expression with quite literal layering of coded meanings, how this e-textilesbased maker activity integrated elements of art, and how the computational medium of e-textiles helped to produce expressive computer science artifacts which were personally relevant, and rich in computational content and communication
Summary
Much of the popularity of the maker movement has been fueled by its promise of preparing the generation of innovators by turning students from consumers into designers of technology (Honey and Kanter, 2013). Started initially in out-of-school spaces such as community centers, public libraries, and science museums (Sheridan et al, 2014), there is a growing interest in bringing maker spaces and activities into K-12 classrooms (Peppler et al, 2016a,b). This transition into schools comes with considerable challenges as maker education has promoted interest-driven. The maker movement at its core is driven by people making artifacts This can be motivated by a wide variety of impulses including the pursuit of curiosity, engagement, pleasure, or an interest in creating objects with particular functions. The maker movement, initially popularized by hobbyists in their homes, or maker studios in informal learning environments, has begun to move into more formal school settings, with the hopes of promoting interest-driven, openended learning in formal classrooms
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