At the start of class on Wednesday, I did not have very high hopes for the day of working with the Makey Makey. I knew that it was a device of near limitless capabilities, but I did not believe that much could be realized in one day with them. My partner Nastassia and I spent the beginning half of class time on the Makey Makey website learning the ropes of the device, and hooking it up the example programs they have listed there.
Working with the device was a lot of fun, and it got even more fun when we merged our group with Eli and McKenzie’s group. Having them in the group allowed us to combine all of our ideas to come up with a much-improved design for what we were trying to create.
What we did end up creating was a tool that allowed the user to control a drawing app with a controller we made out of square sheets of metal. With these “buttons”, we were able to control the mouse, as well as click to select colors and tools.
I believe that this activity correlates to essay writing because when you are writing an essay, you can have just as much freedom in your writing as the Makey Makey offers you in building. Even if you are given a very specific essay prompt, how you work your way towards completing that prompt is completely up to you and the materials at your disposal. The topic of a paper is nothing compared to how one gets to the last sentence, and that is the aspect of writing that I enjoy the most.
For the purposes of this introductory activity, the materials we had to work with were satisfactory. They provided a good way for us to familiarize ourselves with the Makey Makey, for even simple objects provide near limitless potential for what can be accomplished. Getting a second day to work with the device would be a lot of fun, as I feel that I would be able to realize much more since I won’t have to go through the tutorial phase that took a lot of time out of the session last time.
Overall, I really loved being able to work with the Institute and their Makey Makeys, and I hope to get the chance to work with them again.
