Afternoon Discussion Summary
The meeting focused on the dissemination of e-textiles to new audiences. We started with reflections on workshops we've taught, in particular the ways in which the examples shown impact the work of the participants. Constrained exercises can focus the efforts of beginners while inspiring them to develop their own ideas. We also talked about the balance between providing people with materials and encouraging them to find their own and between showing them how to do something and letting them try it for themselves.

We're particularly interested in reaching middle- and high-school students and their teachers. This audience, as compared to adult hobbyists, poses particular challenges in terms of tool cost and complexity. We discussed the importance of enabling satisfying activities at various levels of difficulty as a way of leading people into the field. It can be useful, for example, to find satisfying examples that can be accomplished without programming. One advantage of e-textiles is that it fits well with interests of this age group (e.g. in fashion) in ways that other applications of technology may not.

We also talked about approaches to building online communities around e-textiles. It's not clear how best to frame and scope such a community, as it's important that it be inclusive but also coherent. A strong identity is key, but there are many possible features: forums, project repositories, tutorials, etc. This is an area of active investigation and development.

Finally, we discussed our own individual interests and perspectives on the future of e-textiles.

Detailed notes are below.

Afternoon Discussion, Detailed Notes
How do tools and examples affect the things we make?

Edith: tools are also about things you can do: images of what you can do with it (e.g. projected on the wall). (e.g. Froebel's gifts for children)
Leah: but do examples restrict people to copying the examples?
Maggie: teachers have to let kids be imaginative, but kids need an imagination too.
Edith: collecting a rich visual library, inspirational materials (visible while you're working) to suggest possibilities
Kate: can build structure / framework w/ portions to fill in
Becky: can use constraints that force you to do something other than the examples
Edith: a theme / constraint helps to inspire ideas
Yasmin: we've had people animate their names in Scratch (can be done quickly as a first example)
Edith: you need to combine interactive artifacts with a context where it generates engagement.
Edith: looking at other people's projects help (e.g. at the Exploratorium)
Maggie: are the kits too specific to a particular project (rather than open-ended)?

Should we create lesson plans / content to help other people teach these things?

Kylie: separate components: sewing, physics (equation for creating your own circuit), programming.
Kylie: different people will have knowledge in different areas
Kylie: people make mistakes, e.g. using a single piece of Scotch tape to insulate

How can we design tools to eliminate errors?

Leah: would we be better with fewer pins (simpler projects) but bigger spacing (less chance for mistakes) on the LilyPad?
Kylie: you need to learn how to work with the tools, maybe wait to see how students react after more experience

How do people use the kits / tools in a workshop?

Kylie: people got very ambitious quickly, they're creative
Maggie: people can be very concerned with cost, ownership of the box is important for the kids, but you need to know where to buy things
Yasmin: box is good for giving kids a sense of ownership
Leah: textiles are consumable, you don't take them apart (can be a cost problem)
Becky: could be nice to mix consumable and non-consumable (enough for more projects)
Maggie: it's important to include a place to buy more of whatever is in the kit
Becky: a kit can ensure everyone has a standard set of tools

What tools are currently available that enable people to construct electronic textiles or "e-textiles"?

LilyPad Arduino
Knitting machines
Becky's kit
http://www.makershed.com/
Smart Materials Kit: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MSSMK
SternLab LED Sewing Kit: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34063023
Learn to Solder Kit
Adafruit.com

How can we package and support tools / kits?

Becky: Limor Fried sells minimal kits w/ instructions online and a forum where people can get help
Becky: you can get engage your users to support other people (e.g. Becky for Hannah's work)
Becky: infrastructure is important for this
Maggie: this assumes you have a computer

How do we bridge the distance between DIY kits for adults and supplies for 2nd grade teachers?

Kate: a big part is just convincing people that you can do it (detailed instructions can be intimidating)
Edith: hanging out vs. messing around vs. geeking out (detailed instructions can be great for the latter)
Maggie: big distinctions in tasks you're giving, age of kids, computer knowledge
Leah: I'm not trying to solve all problems in education
Yasmin: you can do satisfying things without any programming - activities are flexible
Becky: connections to game design: small, iterative successes
Edith: likes Tom Igoe's progression: making things, making things do things, making things communicate
Edith: stretching yarn (dimming LED) is already rewarding, then you can talk about programming as a way of controlling this behavior
Edith: talk about skills in terms of the pleasure you get or the things you can do
Maggie: solution is different depending on who we're addressing. Are we looking for an ideal? Or considering what we can do in this project?
Edith: would love to be part of a group that brings out a broader repertoire of things that have been done and pointers to doing similar things (website, exhibitions, workshops, tutorials, etc.)
Edith: the reflex of thinking like teachers can get in the way of good teaching
Edith: these things exist in a fragmented way
Leah: can we get people to coalesce around something?

How do we build communities around tools or kits?

Becky: branding is really important, buying into a community where you feel safe around a certain set of materials, building expectations, answering questions promptly is important.
Becky: e.g. Instructables community is somewhat self-regulating; people read comments before starting a project
Leah: there's a big difference between an academic research project and something that works in the world at large. It's not sustainable for me to support the LilyPad as an academic.
Maggie: there are structures (e.g. creating a non-profit, raising money)
Edith: as soon as you offer things to others to use, there are problems of robustness, flexibility, etc.
Edith: we (in Learning Studio) tried to create ephemeral objects, but created a quiet space (where people calm down when they enter)
Leah: DIY is good because you're not selling products, so people are understanding (e.g. when things break)
Becky: you can direct your feedback (explain what's unclear or in-progress or a problem)
Leah: it's exciting to get things into the real world (Edith: what's the real world?) and study how they're used
Yasmin: not many researchers run these communities. We can operate things on a small scale, and inspire further work.
Leah: we'd like to make a community for holding projects that people have made
Becky: have you heard of Ning (used for Fashionable Technology site)? we use it for people who present at Maker Faire.
Mike: we've used it for groups of about 30, does it scale?
Becky: you can install Ning on your own servers
Cristen: you need someone who is the champion (a face). more than a forum or repository, maybe you need a blog (to highlight other people's work)
Mike: which communities have done this well? e.g. there's no real canonical website for paper crafts.
Becky: people do workshops, but don't necessarily document it. how do we encourage that / give it a place?
Hannah: how do we document / collect information about workshops? schedules in advance.
Kate: what's the right center of gravity? is e-textiles specific enough?
Edith: to me, this is too specific: what about paper crafts, etc.
Maggie: e-fashion, electronic fashion might be good for kids

Are there communities we can use as a model?

What would robotics be if we did it?

Mike: my interests are in kids and math and science education. Not every kid is interested in robotics and it's mostly boys. There's also narrative and role models around these things. Also questions of who could I be?
Becky: there's also a cartoon around Limor (Citizen Engineer)
Edith: objects that look like things but act like people - inner space vs. outer space. not a mechanical metaphor but a biological metaphor.

What do you consider yourself and is it what you want to be (since we could be role models)?

Leah: "I want to make cools things and share them." I don't really care about education.
Cristen: there are many ways to get into these things. You can make things easy, but people also do things that are hard. You can subsume difficulties in motivation.
Cristen: I care about people being able to ask for help and get it. I'm upset when people think they're not able to find what they want.
Edith: I taught a class on children as builders of their own cognitive tools. There were many people from Harvard School of Ed. and many from MIT (e.g. Fred Martin). Harvard people could talk well, but made everything boring. Fred made an IAP class with lots of passionate people (e.g. Woody Flowers?): kids made robots for a performance. If you want to do anything in education, don't put together a bunch of educators; get people that are passionate about but mature enough to want to share.
Yasmin: I strive for a way to articulate the rich and deep engagement that we see. Evidence that this is valid.
Kate: I'm most interested in bodies as interface and physicality, reclaiming of technology (from laptop, etc. form-factors), senses. Interested in pushing beyond the basics to richer concepts.

How do we get people into this? What feels true to the psychology of what children are about?

Mike: this fits in well with what kids like to do (e.g. dress up, show off, etc.) in a way that many things don't.
Mike: fits well with other subcultures, too: Halloween parades, mermaid parade, sports / fan uniforms, cheerleading
Cristen: I've known about this for a long time, but haven't found something to do with it
Maggie: that's a problem with the field
Kate: e-textiles may not be better, just a different pathway in to technology
Leah: we need more polished tools
Maggie: age group makes a big difference, technological literacy makes a big difference (having your own laptop). don't start with the programming. for middle school kids, it's probably not reasonable to expect them to find things online.
Kate: sometimes the students don't know how to use a computer

What are the age groups we target?

Becky: Make: print is older (30-50), online is younger (20-35)
Mike: this is still older
Yasmin: but kids go online
Leah: it seems kids need to be 11 or 12 or so to be able to do this in a workshop (attention span, coordination, etc)
Mike: kids rooms aren't really workshops
Edith: kids don't make the same distinctions between craft and design, boys also like to carry things around with them. I hope they will rethink what hands-on and tinkering mean; you engage with things differently when you feel you can repair or modify them.

What about gender and empowerment?

Maggie: show something to a guy (e.g. businessman or a male architect) and his reaction will tell you if its craft or design
Maggie: this can help more girls play with technology (which can be a disadvantage for female MIT students, for example)
Leah: we can teach the same things as a robotics workshop, but get a totally different audience
Kate: it's important for people to have a sense of technological literacy so they're not scared of the technology in their lives
Emily: halfway through my CS class, lots of the women left - so it's good if there's at least a female teacher to talk to

What are the qualities we care about?

Edith: epistemological questions are not that far from questions of identity. maybe try describing the evocative powers of various projects (build narratives around creations).
Leah: some things don't have a narrative component, but an engagement with the process
Edith: interpretations (crit) can provide a more layered understanding of an object. it's part of the process of making sense of things.

Are there ways we can tailor the resources to the situations that will arise in a classroom situation (or for middle- and high-school interactions)? How do people want to share and show off?

Cristen: there are different audiences that can show appreciation in different ways. For middle-school, you probably have to restrict the audience (e.g. no Hackaday). Teachers don't want to let kids go online in class.
Kate: in this age group (e.g. 17, 18 year olds), there's a lot of commenting in supportive way ("cool", "nice job").
Cristen: what are people talking about? what are they doing together?
Maggie: you learn a lot from what other people do given the same constraints / assignments. also by age of people doing it.

What is the state of the field (your field) and its future?
What's happening in the field and with the technology?

Maggie: e-textiles: passive, non-linear circuits (antennas, car seats), lots of signal processing, proprietary connectors, private applications, some DARPA research (but not enough for real breakthroughs), lots of growth from ground up (artists). Industrial textiles companies don't see e-textiles as a big market. Lots of fashion companies call me, but I don't work with many. They don't care about the technology. Fashion companies don't get capitalization / investment. Not a fundamental barrier, just lots of practical problems (investment vs. return). Compare with eInk (millions of dollars of investment). Old MEMS researchers are now doing interesting work in flexible circuits, etc. State of the field is good for kids. Somebody sometime will find a killer application. (But I've been doing it a long time and I'm jaded.)
Kate: field seems young.

How do you tailor things for a workshop (smaller group with access to a larger group)?

How can we share our projects?

What would we want in a basic workshop kit for kids (middle-school to high-school)?

What are the difficulties / obstacles in existing tools?

What things work well in existing tools?

What additional tools are needed/desirable?

What are the best digital formats for documenting and conveying crafting techniques?

What are the differences between adult and youth DIY communities?

How can we build DIY e-textile communities targeted specifically at youth (and adults that work with youth)?

Also more conceptually (not just practice oriented).

Is this only adapting tools for contexts like schools, or also other contexts? Can be schools (classroom), but also after-school activities, etc.