The screen shot is of a landing page for a microcontroller family we base our projects on in Robotics at school. The use of digital resources highlights the movement away from the traditional textbook and their growing irrelevance in the embedded technology field. In the robotics courses I teach, we no longer use a text as these are out of date before we could hope to get them in the hands of the students. The increasing availability of relevant technical data in a digital (and might I add free) format, allows for a much more flexible and ever-current resource base. Since learner projects are highly individualized, they must create their own resource library that fulfills their own specific knowledge base needs. The artifact package students hand in with their project includes the engineering booklet they assemble that details everything from pages they used for theoretical background, manufacturers’ technical data sheets, project design documentation, to a reflective journal on their journey. Basically creating their own course textbook.
This is my ninth MET course. Possibly three more to go (I know I only need ten, but what the hey). I’ve been a ‘practical technology’ teacher for twenty-seven years. Previously I worked in various trades (industrial painter, plumber, building construction, electrical maintenance) and technical areas (electrical engineering technologist). Currently I teach Construction (cabinet making mostly) and Robotics at the grade ten, eleven, and twelve levels in a high school in Calgary. Free time involves very low tech activities like cycling, camping, hockey, canoe tripping, and woodworking. My wife hasn’t lived in a finished house we have owned for longer than two months in the twenty-seven years we have been married. Come to think of it, our three grown kids had to move away from home to experience the completed home phenomenon on an extended basis.
Looking forward to meeting, working, and constructing knowledge with you all in ETEC540.
Alicia Lok-Malek
May 16, 2018 — 5:11 pm
Hi! Great comments about textbooks. I do some programming within my role and nothing is faster than looking up syntax on-line. The nature of the programming syntax part is well shared in the programming community. While some topics are evolving quickly and printing physical textbooks makes little sense, I wonder if there are some topics that must be more tightly controlled in terms of content. For example, “engineering – how to build a bridge”? Still pondering….looking forward to learning together!
EdPawliw
May 18, 2018 — 7:53 pm
Hi Alicia
Thanks for the comment and good observation. My other teaching assignment (and passion) is construction where we still teach techniques and theory that have stood the test of time. Innovations in the woodworking industry do not progress at near the speed of embedded tech and here printed reference is pertinent, even if that reference is 100 years old. One such example is a finish we use. We ran out of a beeswax/carnauba wax commercial product. To replace it, we would have to shell out over $200 for a gallon. We found a recipe to make our own for a fraction of the price from a traditional woodwork resource.
In terms of our distributed cognitive network, as you allude, it has grown exponentially with access to forums and the like relating to our specific needs. Due to the individualized nature of the projects the students undertake, we rely heavily on these networks in Robotics for both programming and application data when designing our systems.