This group has now merged with the Artspirators Art Group.
We are an informal group with diverse backgrounds. There are teachers, students, artists and IT engineers and technicians. We are interested in exploring the use of the Arduino/Genuino in our respective fields of activity or even just for fun. We strive to embrace people with minimal or no experience in physical computing, and introduce them to the functionality and versatility of the Arduino/Genuino. Once basic understanding of the platform is achieved, people with excellent teaching, artistic and other skills can cooperate more effectively with techologically savvy people to produce great projects.
We believe Arduino/Genuino is an excellent education tool. This goes well beyond the obvious field of digital technology. It can be used to demystify technology for people who are aprehensive to it. It can also be used for using theoretical knowledege of physical sciences in applied situations thus enhancing understanding of the principles. It can be used as a basis for cooperastive projects, promoting unerstanding of the value of teamwork, and the exploitation of people's diverse skills. In making an interactive installation, for example, the artistic designer is as important as the programmer and the electronics designer. Not to mention the need of somenone who can give effective solutions for the mechanical functionality of the installation.
So far we have completed (last year) an introductory workshop for 24 primary education teachers. The workshop was supported by the Primary Education Directorate of the perfecture of Magnesia. They provided us with space in a school and the use of computers. The teachers were introduced to the basics of programming and circuit building. As they had no prior experience we had to start from zero.
There is a running project by a group of student of the Musical Gymnasium of Volos for an interactive installation to be placed in the school's premises. The project is run on the cooperation principles mentioned above. There is an artistic team, also working on the mechanical requirements and solutions. There os also an electronics and programming team working on the arduino side of the project. Naturally the teams have to cooperate in a continuous exchenge of requirements, limitations rethinking and redesign.