Makey Makey (And Other Fun Technology)

It's the end of March, which means the end of a great 3 weeks in class experiencing the excitement of Makerspaces. Last week we got to play (excuse me, learn) with 3 new technologies: Makey Makey, Little Bits, and Leap Motion. I loved the experience because we weren't told explicitly how they work or what to do with them, it was up to us to figure it out for ourselves. All 3 stations were interesting, but my favorite was definitely the Makey Makeys. My group used them to make a piano out of various fruits. We also created a way to play Tetris by using other people's hands as the directional keys. This was something I had never seen or heard of before, and it was fascinating to learn about what this technology could do.

The time we spent experimenting with and learning about these technologies was, in my opinion, definitely valuable; however, I'm not sure exactly how I could use them in my future practice. One connection my group thought of was using Makey Makeys for people with limitations in their fine motor skills. It may be impossible for people with certain disabilities to press the small button on a laptop, but maybe instead they could instead tap on a fun object connected to a Makey Makey. In this way, more people could have an experience of playing a certain game on the computer or other applications that they might not have been able to do otherwise.

This week has inspired me to give more thought to how the idea of Makerspaces could be applied to my future field of speech pathology. It is a question I will hopefully have more answers to as I continue my education!