A couple of weeks ago, I facilitated a ‘Digital Art in the Wild’ workshop at the TEGV conference virtually held in Turkey. We had about seventy-five teachers who experimented with the Scratch programming language to make digital art and explore the video sensing functions. The workshop goals were to experiment with physical/digital projects as a learner, share our work with each other and reflect about our process and think about next steps for our students.

For the initial project we opened up scratch and added the pen extension blocks to the menu. I shared a couple examples and after a few moments the educators started to make their own designs. After about 15 minutes of working we shared our projects on a communal padlet page. After the activity we reflected on what was surprising and challenging about the activity. Here are some of the responses from the participants:

“Working independently, outside of the mold aroused my interest.”
“It was hard but fun to try.”
”It is not boring and the applications are endless.”
“I had a hard time trying it for the first time, but as I took the time, I had the feeling that a very fun and limitless door would open. It was a very different experience for me. I had so much fun”
“After the event is over, I would love to learn the system more comprehensively and try new designs.”

Later on after a short break, we tried out the scratch video sensing blocks extension to add to the art making (https://resources.scratch.mit.edu/www/guides/en/VideoGuide.pdf). It was a little challenging to show this over zoom because only one application (zoom or the web browser) could use the camera at one time. However, once again we saw a lot of cool designs on the padlet page. We didn’t have enough time to really explore the parts, but I did mention that all of these elements are really complicated and that this workshop was just a first taste to get started experimenting.

At the end of the entire session, we had a small recap of some of the learning goals and values of a tinkering approach and then participants made comments and asked questions. I wanted to share my answers to a few of them:

“My idea is to teach geometry, symmetry, and punctuation with Scratch. How much can we achieve permanent learning with this method?

I think that when we think about learning we should keep in mind that authentic learning is non-linear and non-terminal. Even if we ‘learn’ something we may still need to practice, go back and examine from new angles.

“What ingredients do I need when tinkering”

In terms of materials there’s a really endless supply of ideas. Some favorites are cardboard, recycled containers, marbles, googly eyes and wire. You could create a collection of things that make light and shadow sculptures or focus on digital tools like lights, motors and microcontrollers.

Really the most important thing is a curious and playful attitude.

“How can we learn more and use tinkering in the classroom? What are some websites or books you can offer?”

I recommended the following books:

The Art of Tinkering, Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich

Invent to Learn, Gary Stager and Slyvia Martinez

Lifelong Kindergarten, Mitchel Resnick

“Is there any difference between STEAM and tinkering”

To me, STEAM (science, tech, engineering, art, math) is a collection of subjects and tinkering is a way to approach teaching and learning. You could explore STEAM with many different approaches and the tinkering method is based on learners own ideas, playfulness and collaboration.

“What can we do when we reach a dead end at the point of thinking, that is, if we cannot move forward in thought”

When I’m in a place where I don’t know what to do next I will look at ideas from tinkerers and artists online, ask for help from my community of practice on social media and borrow, remix and steal ideas from other educators.

It was really fun to work with this group of dedicated teachers from Turkey and I’m looking forward to the next chance to collaborate either virtually or in-person.

Digital Art in the Wild with TEGV