Textile Messages: Dispatches From the World of E-Textiles and Education

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Discussions about digital media and learning focus largely on videogames, social networks, and other screen-based technologies. There is little recognition, if any, that digital media has moved from the screen and into our material world. This symposium focuses attention on the ways in which digital media have begun to be integrated with textiles—the soft fabrics that are part of our everyday lives—and how these integrations are reshaping education in surprising ways. This symposium brings together educational technologists, computer and learning scientists and media researchers involved in the design and study of e-textile construction kits, which allow youth to embed computation in clothing and other accessories. Opportunities for broadening participation in computing and engineering and challenges for designing and evaluating this work in- and out-of-school are discussed.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Advanced Technologies for Learning

Chair

• Kylie A. Peppler, Indiana University - Bloomington

Papers

• LilyPad Arduino: Rethinking the Materials and Cultures of Educational Technology - Leah Buechley, MIT Media Lab

• Making the Connections: Crafting, Circuitry, and Coding in High School E-Textile Workshops - Yasmin B. Kafai, University of Pennsylvania; Deborah A. Fields, Utah State University; Kristin Anne Searle, University of Pennsylvania

• Bringing E-Textiles Into Engineering Education - Michael Eisenberg, University of Colorado - Boulder; Ann Eisenberg, University of Colorado - Boulder; Yingdan Huang, University of Colorado - Boulder

• E-Textiles for Educators: Participatory Simulations With E-Puppetry - Kylie A. Peppler, Indiana University - Bloomington; Joshua Adam Danish, Indiana University; Diane Lynn Glosson, Indiana University

Discussant

• Michael S. Horn, Northwestern University