Abstract:

With today’s rapid development of technology, software research and development has examined various input modalities for interactive systems. Pervasive and Physical computing have a great demand in both the market and education. The need for creating interfaces that acquire data from users and their environment, has led to proliferation of interest in ubiquitous computing and more innovative solutions. In this paper, we describe the design and delivery of a training workshop that was developed for academics with Information Technology background; the key objective of this workshop’s training was to introduce them to concepts related to physical computing and spark their interest in broadening the scope of computing background for them and their students. The workshop features the Arduino UNO micro-controller since it is a cross platform, open source, and open hardware. Also, due to the fact it’s low-cost, flexibility, and simplicity. The sessions covered topics of how to build a circuit, program an Arduino, demonstrate the I2C protocol and establish a serial communication. Twenty two participants took part in the workshop sessions and two instructors were involved in running the sessions. Insights obtained from conducting the sessions and feedback from participants are synthesized and discussed. Implications for training related to introducing physical computing to IT contexts of learning are described.

Keywords:

Physical computing, pervasive computing, Arduino, micro-controller, Lab kit, workshop.