One of my goals for this maker journey is to complete a project that was submitted by a member of the Arduino community. The Arduino companies do a great job at getting people started with the tools, but the most creative and innovative projects are contributed by users within the communities. I feel that completing a project from a non-professional maker is a logical next step in my journey.
With tens of thousands of project tutorials online, how do you choose just one?
I am particularly interested in the ways that making can be used as a tool to foster learning through Project-Based Learning (PBL). PBL is a student-centered instructional method in which students learn by developing solutions to real-world problems. While brainstorming various directions to go with my first project, I tried to keep this idea in mind – what real-world problem can I address with the Arduino?
I also felt it was important to pursue a topic that was of interest to me. This would make the project more innately fun and help to keep me motivated. Therefore, I narrowed my search to projects that involved web development and/or Internet of Things (IoT). Not only is this an area that I find interesting, but since it also relates to my job, I thought it would be easier for me to be able to identify real-world issues to solve.
The final and most important factor in selecting a project was my skill level. I enjoy continuously challenging myself, but jumping into a more advanced project too early can be discouraging. I found that reflecting on my learning and being realistic about my skill level was a very important exercise to do throughout this journey. I learned this very quickly after attempting my first project.
First Project Attempt
After searching through projects on my usual sights, I found a tutorial on instructables.com for a project called Arduino Powered Lucky Cat as Physical Webcounter. The author of this project describes how he used a Gif with a fixed IP address as a web counter for his site. When someone visits the site, Arduino is notified, and triggers a servo motor to move. The servo motor in his example was connected to a Lucky Cat’s arm, so every time someone visited his website, the cat would wave its arm. I thought this was a very interesting concept so I gave it a try.
I very quickly ran into issues and realized I was not quite ready for this project. At this point I had yet to use the Arduino to connect to anything outside of the breadboard. I knew so little about connecting to the internet that I didn’t even know where to begin with trouble shooting.
Instead of creating a post in the Arduino forum asking for help, I decided I needed to take a step back and learn more about connecting to the internet before moving forward with this type of project. That night I ordered the Arduino Ethernet Shield. And began reading up on the things it could do.
Lessons Learned
As a beginner, I found it was very easy to get overly excited about starting a project and lose sight over what is realistic with my skill level. This excitement and willingness to try new things is what makes this community so special, but as a newbie it is important to find a balance so that frustrations from failed projects do not chip away at my drive to continue to learn the tool.
The maker mindset
A maker must be able to embrace failure and learn from their mistakes. Failure must be viewed as a vital part of the learning process, and not a sign of weakness. It is something that all makers at all skill levels face. Makers must also be adaptable both in their learning and their project development.
Sources
Janhimself. (2012). Arduino Powered Lucky Cat As Physical Webcounter. Instructables. Retrieved from http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-powered-Lucky-Cat-as-physical-Webcounter/