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Measuring the World¶
The course on data provided us with an in-depth understanding of data and how it can be collected, analyzed, and visualized. What is data? Who really owns data and who can access it? We gained critical insights into the generation and utilization of data in modern economies and infrastructures. More importantly, we understood that there is a critical difference between data and information. On its own, data can be useless or have no value, but when it is analyzed and interpreted, it generates information and insights. This is what really matters. As part of our group project for this seminar, we aimed to optimize the schedule of MDEF by analyzing classroom engagement levels.To achieve this, we created an LED necklace that would randomly blink throughout the class time, placed on our professor’s neck (thank you Victor). The blinking of the necklace was a way to attract the attention of students and provide an opportunity for them to assess their level of engagement. We also collected manual data from students to understand how engaged they were and if they were paying attention during class. We recognize that the tool has many biases that affect the efficiency of measuring engagement correctly, and that it would definitely not be perfect, since people can pay attention in different ways, and there are many factors that can influence whether or not people will actually see the blinking necklace. Yet, it was an interesting excercise that provided useful insights for the assignment in hand. During the data collection process, we realized the challenges of measuring engagement in the physical world compared to the digital realm. Our LED necklace was an attempt to bridge this gap and provide a visual cue for students to assess their engagement levels.We also explored with the use of Orange3 as a tool to play with and interpret data, which was exciting and insightful as it is a great tool to analyze and visualize the data. Our group appreciated the opportunity to study engagement in our local context and analyze it collectively during presentations, considering both data and personal insights from community members.
From a fabrication point of view, the coding aspect to this prototype was interesting as we managed to program the LED necklace to turn on randomly in different colors for every hour of classtime. This way, even ourselves that programmed the necklace would not know exactly when the lights were going to turn on and made us equal participants in the activity like the rest of our classmates. It was also interesting to see that such a prototype actually impacted our attention and made us engage with the necklace even more, perhaps, than the class itself. We were so attentive!
Here is the link for the coplete report on HackMD: https://hackmd.io/V5oxTmRXTGC1IJY0ac_oAw
Design by Antonio Heinemann