The future of Clothing

Year 13 Design Class

Recently, I had the wonderful chance to work with the year 13 design students.  Last term, Sarah Coursey started this class off with an introductory course on papertronics.  The girls revisited their understanding of basic electrical circuits and created some simple switches and lighted circuits using paper as their base. 

Last week I followed up with some e-textiles.  The stick on LED lights from papertronics were replaced with light emitting diodes, the copper tape which conducts the electrical current was replaced with electronic thread and we used metal domes as our switch.  Both of these sessions have opened up the possibilities of adding some electronics into student design work.  Keen students may also want to extend on this, by adding light, touch, and sound sensors.  Further to this, are programmable sewable circuits such as the Gemma, and LilyPad.

RESOURCES:


Bridget McKendry Christchurch FabLab http://www.fablabchch.org.nz

Nice Gear https://nicegear.co.nz

Aliexpress http://www.aliexpress.com

Jaycar electronics http://www.jaycar.co.nz

Social Networks

I am still astounded at the number of children under the age of 13 years old who have social network accounts.  When I was a child, my parents guarded me against people who they thought might be harmful to me.  I was told off in public spaces when I misbehaved and had a tanty when I did not get my way.  Now that we have an online as well as face to face community, are you as parents looking out for your children in their online space?

Don't get me wrong, I see huge value in having access to social media but how are we teaching our young children and teens how to behave in this space?  In the past adults have been in the same physical space as children and we have reprimanded inappropriate behaviour.  In today's world, are you in the same cyberspace as your teens and children?  

How can we teach the concept of social media and the value it holds yet not expose our younger children to third party online lurkers?  

Aimie is teaching year 7 & 8 students in our Middle School and she has introduced one of her classes to how Twitter works.  This class has taken the concept of twitter and they have re-created a Twitter page on their classroom wall.  Aimie has cleverly modelled this on a book that the class is studying. Students use the limit of 140 characters to summarise a chapter from the book.  The tweets are there for all to see as the wall borders our break-out space so invokes lots of discussion too.

Future Job Environment

We are in a time when exponential change which means that what we plan for tomorrow will be outdated and obsolete extremely quickly.  When I left school the art of gaining knowledge through education, and being successful in attaining a tertiary qualification meant that job opportunities were more abundant. Today there is a shift where knowledge  Jobs of the future are likely to be short contracts that require a human interface working with others using awesome communication skills.   Have you thought about where these business have gone?

            Record and Music Shops?                 Supermarket Checkout Attendants?       Developers of Photographs?

In the not too distant future we will find that warehouses, transportation such as shipping, and jobs like banking, will start to disappear.  Taxi services will dwindle as driverless cars become more popular and individuals will no longer require garages to house their vehicles.

https://youtu.be/l4IQEbbiSGk

Can the job you are interested in be automated?

https://youtu.be/jP8XC6hmZX4

The video above presents 10 future jobs.  This job list may seem a far-fetched, however, I believe that jobs numbered 10 through to 5 are here now, but are not commonly wide spread yet.  

Are we ready and are we preparing students for future jobs?

How 3D printing is being used to support space exploration

Making 3D prototypes to test the mechanics of rovers on Mars. Watch the video on the link below.

Read more by visiting the following url  - Mars Rover

Co-curricular clubs begin

We welcome more students who might be interested in joining any of our clubs.  These are starting tomorrow (Thursday 18 February) and will continue to the end of Term 1.

Robotics Club - Monday p5 and Friday after school
Gadget Girls (3D printing for Y9 - 13) - Wednesday p5
Code Club - Thursdays after school
Internet of Things - Thursday after school

For more information please visit the specific Club pages and also complete the registration form.
Most of the clubs require little prior knowledge.  If you are unsure, come along and check it out over the next couple of weeks.

Co-Curricular Activities for 2016

It is my pleasure to announce that many of the clubs that were running last year will continue for 2016. I hope to add to this these options as the year unfolds.  If you are interested in joining a club for Term One please visit the Registration Form Page for more information.  Clubs will begin at the end of Week 4 and all clubs will be in operation in Week 5.