Hi [Marc], I do appreciate your vision. Indeed, I talked with [Alberto] some months ago about the involvement of students into the unMon project so I definitely agree with you. Tomorrow I’ll start contacting some teachers from high school and University too to share your idea and try to figure how which could be the way to realize it: when will you arrive in Matera? Do you think that they should work with from the beginning of your stay?
Let’s try to fix some date when you’re here and we can go together. I’ve already talked to Rossella about school and she definitely liked the idea.
Maybe [Marc] could write a paragraph describing how he envisages the project and we could translate it and publish it, in his name, onto the MT2019 online community. This would give us a link in Italian that could be circulated among students and teachers in Matera. What do you guys think?
I will be here the 1st of February (even maybe the day before in the afternoon). Yes I think the earlier they will be involved in the project the better it is. It will allow us to see quickly what they can do (will depend on their skills of course). That said it’s a technical project I hope we’ll find some students in that way.
This kind of project is typically a project students can work on.
I mean using the MT2019 online community is important tool to communicate in the first steps. And I want to suggest also to talk with guys of " Profumo di Svolta". They are very young, all students and interested in unmonastery project.
Writing a project description to work with students
Hi,
Yes in any case you are right @alberto, a project description should be written.
Basically the project can be subdivided in three parts which are obviously closely tied :
The material part : the motors and the structure supporting the solar panel. Though I will bring a prototype to Matera, the students could work at creating another one because it could validate the fact that it is reproductible. It is not that easy but the goal to achieve is well known and if you're good at DIY it should be feasible.
The software part : software and various boards that move the structure. It's the central part and I've been working on it for a long time. So I think it won't be productive to let them work on this.
Positionning system : components that will tell the system how the structure is oriented (horizontally and vertically). This is a crucial part of the global system but probably the most difficult one. I've been thinking about it for quite a long time, know what doesn't work, have ideas on what should be done but didn't find an acceptable solution yet. It could be an exciting challenge for the students to work on it.
So to summarize I think students could work on part 1 and/or 3. Of course it will strongly depend on their skills.
Thinking about it, students could also work on the software part, especially on the user interface (interface to set parameters of the solar tracker). May be we could see that with the proposal of programmed media course.
I think it starts by translating What Marc has to say here (except for the provision that students could also work on the software). Then you can upload it onto the MT2019 platform (ask [piersoft] to post it in Italian under Marc’s account). At this point we can all share the link in Italian onto social media, or send it to specific teachers in Matera.
Created a dedicated wiki for the projects for the student
Here is a dedicated wiki on the project page summarizing the tasks that could be proposed.
It is quite synthetical however I think it is important to discuss with the students about what they want to do, what they can do. Then we’ll adapt the tasks accordingly.
I will arrive in Matera the 1st of february. I’d like to get in touch with students as soon as possible so that the project can start quickly. Do you think we could have an appointment next week for example?
Hi [Marc], finally I got the name of a teacher who could help us. I’ll try to meet him between tomorrow and Saturday in order to fix an appointment for the next week with you. Does it work? I think that we should make a list of your project needs so that teachers can have a clear idea of how to organize with students. I still don’t have any news about a programming course for software development but I’ll go on searching.
A quick ping on this thread - as part of the residency I am very keen to teach courses on programming, and the use of media (including radio and video). For this I’d like to run a “Viral Academy” in matera on these skills - its called “viral” because it embeds p2p tutoring - where students pass on their knowledge in small groups. The courses would work onine and offline, and we’d definitely want to reach out to students and teach the skills needed to support any of the unMonastery projects.
Yes, [fortyfoxes], I think this would be a good move. I already heard words of appreciation from Matera for [Marc]'s initiative. Your point of contact is [Rita O] for now – though you unMonasterians are likely to develop your own network of connections in Matera in record time!
Hi! Yes, all of this sounds great - a viral academy with a particular attention to unMonastery projects.
[Marc] I see now that you mentioned the proposal I submitted detailing a Programming Media course. The proposal itself is mostly based on my previous experience, but I think, as per some brethen projects [elf Pavlik] brought to my attention, I’d like to approach the project as sort of breaking ground for an open, hopefully community-run school (thinking Open Tech School node). It would be awesome for all of us to combine forces on this and use unMon projects as focal points for skills.
I think we’re talking about the web site redesign tomorrow, so I’m not sure in the end where exactly it will reside, but yesterday I quickly put up my domain ourmachine.net, thinking it would be great to have an online space for examples, resources, materials, and sharing projects (many more TC on the site). Would be happy to give everyone admin privileges and compile more ideas.
I met yesterday a teacher of the aeronautics high school in Matera. He said he could propose the solar tracker project to students (especially students of the “Istituto Tecnico Commerciale e per Geometri Olivetti di Matera”).
So he wants a description / plan of the project but in italian. I feel quite confortable for every day speaking in italian but for such kind of presentation it should be perfect italian. So if somebody could help me translating this page I would be very happy.
This is urgent as it should be finished for tomorrow afternoon.
