Oh The Places You’ll Go . . .

Two weeks ago, when we first unpacked the Makey Makeys, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. Ok, so we took a bunch of wires, Play Doh, tin foil, assorted fruit—some serious MacGyver stuff—and we played Pacman (and NotPackman) with bananas; after we spent time verifying that Adina is indeed alive and capable of interfacing to the Makey. But now what? And, more importantly, so what? So I can substitute a banana for an arrow key, or I can stomp on a piece of tinfoil and send a different keystroke to the computer. Who cares? The next day, I spent hours viewing Makey videos, tutorials, and project plans, but found myself disappointed in that everything seems geared to introducing computing to fifth graders.

I read Noah’s post and am envious because he’s “getting excited.” Where’s my excitement? Why can’t I feel what I think I’m supposed to be feeling here? Instead, I’m feeling somehow detached and wondering if I’m just dead inside; as if I have no soul.

After numerous back-and-forth email exchanges Adina, Courtney, and I decided to direct our Makey experience toward assistive technologies. Though much of our work I couldn’t quite rid myself of the feeling that everything we were doing was derivative and uninspired. Part of my feeling was a sense of frustration in that I wanted the Makey to do more than it does. On topic, I am so glad that Diana notes that “its functionality is limited and this can be annoying.” But as our team is thinking about assistive technologies and how Makey can play, and is playing, a role in making these technologies less expensive and more readily configurable than current market alternatives. It turns out that being simplistic, which, in turn translates to being less expensive, is a powerful feature of these devices. Furthermore, it is that simplicity that forces us to rethink how we go about solving problems. It speaks to how we can solve problems in different ways and find solutions that may possibly lead to other advances that we can’t yet even contemplate. Perhaps, this is part of the lesson. Perhaps we need to be taking a few steps back, stop trying to drive forward using the same tools, processes, and thought patterns that we are so accustomed, while rethinking the possibilities. Oh, the places we still might go . . .