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Reintroducing ourselves and introducing the Maker{Futures} team
Reintroducing ourselves and introducing the Maker{Futures} team
In our first workshop, we took some time to explain what our session would involve and to reintroduce our research project (including the activities of our first workshops detailed here).
Our first activity- to get to know each other - invited us to share our name, something we had made that we were proud of and something we find difficult and need help with. Our Maker{futures} team explained their roles and shared some of the things they had made. As a group, we talked about things we had made that we were proud of such as baked goods, badges, clothes, bracelets, pottery and technology. We all shared things we struggled with or things we felt we weren't very good at - such as maths, coding, writing, household chores, being patient or working in big groups.
Robots rules!
Robots rules!
In our workshops, we all agreed to follow what the maker{futures} team termed our 'robots rules'. These capture the spirit of team work, recognising all contributions, asking critical questions and the importance of us being dependent upon each other when we might need help.
We think our 'robots rules' are particularly valuable because:
they are affirmative and capacity focused from the start of the process.
position young people as active, competent and reflexive makers.
they align with makerspaces and principles of co-production and disability research.
Our traffic lights lollipop alert system!
Our traffic lights lollipop alert system!
In the spirit of teamwork and the importance of being able to ask for help when we need it, we also introduced a traffic light lollipop alert system. On each table, we had a pile of lollipops - a selection of red, amber and green lollies.
These acted as a reminder that we could all be helpers, all need a helping hand and can roll in to assist one another. These are important for principles of disability studies and co-production methods as the challenge hierarchies of who 'helps' and who 'supports' - recognising we all do it together and we depend upon, and care for, each other.
Image description: Presentation slide with title, ‘How do we let someone know when we need help?’ A list of the three coloured traffic lights included:
Green: ‘I'm rocking this and doing just fine!’
Amber: ‘I’m ok but ask me again in a few minutes’
Red: ‘Please help. I’m totally stuck’
Creating our research names
Creating our research names
Our next activity was making our research name. Our university research team members explained some of the principles of research and ethics and the importance of names or keeping our names a secret so people can’t identify us if we don’t want them to. We set up the activity where students could pick two categories from the following list and assemble their research name. These were:
Pet name
Favourite colour
Favourite animal
Favourite fictional character (TV, film, cartoon)
Favourite car
We explained that as they were co-researchers in this project, they could also write this as a part of their badge. Our activity of badge making had a dual purpose in its work as:
1) naming our co-researchers and its role in co-pro/participatory work.
2) the physical making and building as part of this which set up and built up to more makerspaces work.
Our badge making meant that our student co-researchers could talk creatively about ideas they had for their badges and research names based on things they liked (e.g. Minecraft) as well as names of their pets. Sometimes it took a little longer to decide on a name and so we worked together to think of a name and write it down.
Students were supported by the maker{futures} team to make their badges using the kit (including adaptations to ensure all students could have a go at pulling the badge lever to create their own badge).
After everyone had created their badges, we assembled them into a circle with a ‘maker futures’ badge in the centre and took a picture. The students wore their badges for the duration of the session and most of the students took their badges away with them.
As a research team, we think it is important that items made from the research can be kept hold of - this is a theme of our research. We think this a key methodological reflection for co-production and the participatory principles and values of maker{futures} work. We value the making of material entities.
The importance of play
The importance of play
It was safe to say that being allowed to take time to have a try and play with robots was lots of fun! However, it is important to remember:
everyone takes to different robots and technologies in different ways and might enjoy them at varying levels.
it is important that everyone is able to experience all robots and technology available in the sessions.
the importance of the robot rules and being a team!
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