Physical Computing in Education

What is physical computing, and what can it do for your school?

By: Eric Durrand

Traditionally, when a company set out to design a computer or a program, the engineers take over, basing the design on what types of hardware and software was available, and what they could do with it. The users, all of us, had to adapt to the demands of the hardware and software: We had to learn how to type on a keyboard, how to use a mouse, and how to open and close windows, save files, etc.

The vision of Physical Computing is set to change all that.

“Physical Computing,” explains Tom Igoe, a professor of physical computing at New York University, “is an approach to learning how humans communicate through computers that starts by considering how humans express themselves physically.”

Using voice, facial expressions, eye movement, and hand gestures to control your computer is one part of Physical computing. But that’s not all. "Physical Computing will not only change the way you use your computer," write Tom Igoe and Dan O’Sullivan in the introduction to their book Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, “it will change the way you think about your computer - how you view its capabilities, how you interact with it, and how you put it to work for you.” Computer usage in the near future, they explain, will not be limited to writing letters and saving files – but will influence everything, from how you start your car or open a door, to how you track the contents of your refrigerator.

In the field of education, the potential benefits of physical computing are enormous: In the exact sciences, or STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math), advanced physical computing systems can integrate physical experiments (a ball falling in physics class, for instance), with computer programs that analyze and interact with them (for instance – a program that measures the impact of the ball using a sensor, and gives a graph of the ball’s height, speed, and acceleration at every point).

In art, the advent of physical computing is opening an unprecedented opportunity for self-expression. Interactive and reactive art are the new keywords, with artists creating for the first time artworks that respond and react to the viewer, or invite him to participate in the creation process.

One fascinating example of this, is the IOBrush, developed at an MIT lab: a digital “brush” that can capture any still or video sample from its environment, and turn them into a form of digital ink. The “ink” is then used to paint on a big digital screen. Other fascinating applications of physical computing to art can be found at UCLA’s Physical Computing Algorithmic & Reactive Art page, and this fascinating blog with links to various interactive art projects.

The National Science Foundation has funded a physical computing program in New York City targeted at public high schools: Physical Computing for Teachers and Students. It is a collaboration between the Institute for Schools of the Future and Advanced Educational Systems at the New York University School of Medicine. The program offers a course to high school teachers, which focuses on teaching them how to utilize multimedia, interactive design, basic electronics and circuitry in order to create physical computing projects that will be relevant to their classroom subject areas.  Participating teachers imagine and develop, with staff experience and technical assistance, projects that correlate with several NYC Department of Education math, science and humanities standards.  The teachers will bring back their experiences and share their newfound knowledge with their students and respective schools.  The projects for Year 1 are still being completed, but projects from the pilot project, which included both teachers and students as learners, may be viewed at: http://aes.med.nyu.edu/research/physcomp/videodoc.html/

Whether you teach the exact sciences, the arts, or computers and technology – incorporating the latest physical computing technologies can help you achieve more. Using sensors, interactive presentations, and the right software, can help teachers and students interact with computers in new ways, making the learning process more intuitive and exciting!