KIDNET Seminar, September 20, London, UK Organizers: Marija Nicolic (SHARE) Rob van Kranenburg (Council, Internet of People, Sociotal) Ashley Hall (Innovation Design Engineering Programme, School of Design, RCA) Location Royal College of Art - Battersea 15-25 Howie St London SW11 4AS Maxcap is 25-30 Time 10: 1700 Agenda: 20 minutes presentations 10:00 10:15 introduction 10:15 10:40 Charalampos Doukas 10:40 11:05 Adrian McEwen 11:05 11:30 Miles Hodkinson 11:30 11:55 Serge de Beer 11:55 12:30 Discussion 12:30 13:30 Lunch 14:00 14:25 Rob van Kranenburg 14:25 14:50 Ajit Joakar 14:50 15:15 Gisele Legionet 15:15 15:40 Linda Keane 15:40 17:00 Discussion Goals for the day: To set up a working group on IoT and education that can react to proposals and set up projects. To make a kit - a suitcase of hardware, software, didactical and pedagogical material that can be a standalone tool kit for children anywhere.

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Co creating the Internet of Things with children Towards Changing the Paradigm Research has showed that due to inadequate educational system, kids rapidly deteriorate their capacity of creative thinking. Therefore, schools need to develop projects that are more intuitively interactive, open source and smart. Helping schools to become more flexible and up-to-date with technologies, but informative about privacy and security, means helping kids to better understand the context of the environment in which they learn and live. Also, implementation of peer learning approach in education at schools means nurturing kids’ creativity in learning process. The context The Internet of Things is a vision and an aim of the Commission to become the most ‘smart’ environment on the planet. In order to achieve this objective citizens must be educated into this ‘total connectivity’. In our current situation we are faced with the Trust Paradox. The EU is also funding up to 1.4 billion in FP7 Security projects that state that the environment is unsafe and cannot be trusted. Yet in order for location based services and IoT applications and devices to turn into a generic service layer it is vital that citizens do trust this very same ambient environment.

Nowadays, we are all more or less aware of necessity of changing the educational paradigm. As professionnals in the area of the innovation, Internet, technologies, software, we are all alert that there must be a creative implementation of sustainable change in education because the old system is making our schools as prisons for our kids, especially forcing the most creative to run after the average ones. This kind of initiative is opting to introduce and support the creative approach to education, approach where kids have their own influence on it. Our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period so far in the history of the mankind. They are being overwhelmed with information and parse their attention from every platform, computers, IPhones, IPads, advertising companies hundreds of television channels and video games. In this kind of environment, our school system is not proactive, on a contrary; we are getting out children through education by anaesthetizing them. This proposal aims at bridging the creative, artistic, and technological workshops with formal education. How can this be achieved?: o Concrete exercises for each formal subject matter. o Formats of specific workshops that are informed by key issues that are driving the Internet of Things: privacy and security on the Internet, coding, sharing, transparency… These formats are -ready to be used with online support for teachers. o An online platform, both web and apps, that support the teachers and the children, moderated on the specific topics mentioned by experts. o Hosted workshops in dedicated Conferences, like SHARE an Open World Forum, to raise awareness among the professionals that they should build interfaces to the younger generations, not assuming that the heavy use of smartphones, nearfield communication (in the relative future), gps maps, mashups, and location based social networking, equals real knowledge about these applications and services. o Creating a didactics and pedagogy for the learning environment the world itself can become in the Internet of Things. Image you have fifteen minutes on a train station and because you have distributed devices or applications on a smart phone that helps you to build trust relations you are able to ‘see’ that a fellow stranded person is very good at maths. You do a fifteen minute chat and you both go away wiser and possibly with some kind of credit, point, reward. (a Kennisnet scenario). The key issue here is validation, who can validate whom in a supportive but objective manner? Where does our proposal come from: SHARE is a conference which is regional epicenter of exchanging of progressive ideas and knowledge in the field of society, technology, Internet, music and new media which is held in Belgrade, Serbia (2011&2012). This year SHARE2 introduced Mini SHARE which was three-days free program organized for kids of all age (from 2 to 16). The aim of this programming was to bring kids and teenagers directly into the topics we find important talking about; Internet,

education and future in general. As kids are actually the real actors and creators of the future the only way to effectively involve them into the story is to work with them since beginning. Since the classical educational system makes them passive and lethargic, these kind of interactive and intuitive events are introducing them to the world of science, digital media, technologies and civil activism. They have equal rights to express themselves about the issues of privacy, hacking, technologies and Internet as adults. Mini SHARE was a space where kids had opportunity to hear and work with the keynote speakers and champions in the field who present their ideas and researches just as they were in the main program. The results of Mini SHARE were wonderful: 1. It gave us the grass-root experience on working with kids on these issues, 2. We targeted a group of kids, truly Internet and technology lovers and knowers, whose perception of Internet and technology can help us to improve the way how we talk to kids about these issues, 3. More than 120 children had opportunity to be part of Mini SHARE and to expend their knowledge about usage of Internet and digital media. 4. Not driven by economical imperative, Mini SHARE emphasized the importance of changing the relationship toward kids, with aim to build the platform to involve them as equal interlocutors into the sphere of creating the innovative policies.

Participants: 1. Charalampos Doukas <harry@iotango.com> Utilizing IoT and Open Source Technologies for Interactive Teaching: The Internet of Things provides technologies and services that enable the communication between users and objects. Sensors together with actuators and wireless interfaces are being integrated into everyday objects driving the interactivity into new levels. Open Source hardware and software have facilitated the development of prototypes and interactive devices even by non-experts. Hardware modules that enable remote control and communication have become much more affordable. Programming the communication and information exchange between smart interfaces (like smartphones and Tablets) has become easy even for novice users using graphical tools and community libraries. The talk aims to introduce teachers, tutors and other education stakeholders to the concept of IoT for interactive teaching. Tools like ArduBlock, Modkit and Scratch with Arduino-based platforms can be used to easily program interactivity between educative software and smart interfaces. Teddy-bears that talk and flash, funny messages texting, and social networking can be used to reward children and motivate them. Children can also be taught basic programming principles using such tools. Toy makes and entrepreneurs can also find out about new business markets: IoT-enabled educative toys and software. 2. Adrian McEwen <adrianm@mcqn.com> & Steve Sparrow The Team: MCQN, IMagication. Funded by Nesta, Mozilla & Nominet. : With a couple of my fellow residents here at DoES Liverpool, we're developing a kit which we'll use to teach children of around age 10 about the Internet of Things. It'll be based around the "Shrimp" bare-bones Arduino, and the first one will be able to make either a weather forecast display or environmental sensor (temperature, soil moisture, etc.) We don't have a lot to report right now, but by September will have run a number of workshops and so could probably present our experiences. "The Internet of Things schools project, based in Liverpool will open children up to the next stage of internet-connected technology. We'll introduce them to the idea of shrimping, building arduino based computers from bare components, and then to their first IOT project, an ambient weather station that shows weather conditions using servos and LED's, and uploads local conditions. We'll be rolling out the open-source plans designed for teachers and parents to pick them up and complete them with no previous experience."1 3. Miles Hodkinson miles@ciseco.co.uk: A general Framework

                                                                                                               1 http://doesliverpool.com/press-releases/press-release-bringing-internet-of-things-to-internet-world-2013/

What we want to make is something like a 21st century chemistry kit or the old crystal wireless kits. There's got to be more to tech than the XBox for kids, surely we just need to create it to engage them, the Pi has proven it's possible. We see that kids, students and hobbyists are the exciting catalyst for the IoT, especially in the early years and certainly where the wildest creativity will happen. My experience of industry so far, is that on the whole they are not ready to get into IoT, especially in these difficult financial times. Being open and the benefits it can bring is often so difficult to convince companies to do that I'm personally tired of trying, igniting passion is exciting, supplying electronics just isn't. If I can't get the worlds largest company to make £120m in extra margin by spending £8m then the IoT idea has a long way to go. Further down the size order the risk aversion increases until you find those who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's those people I want to help. A few examples of what we are doing: A school in Harris (small island off Scotland) has a problem, there's now no industry there. The kids either go to uni, then leave and never come back or pack fish. What they want (through us and others) is get 3 particular students (who have a passion for IoT type tech) to show they can make marketable products from off the shelf wireless hardware. It's to be tailored to extreme conditions, conservation and the environment. Our challenge is to make it possible for everyday people to make home-brew and cottage style industry within the IoT. This means not only does it have to be low cost but also FCC/ETSI certified so it can actually be sold as "products". Last Friday was the first day the SRF went in for testing, all went well :) Out of an idea from London Zoo we have collaborated on Arduino compatible bit of hardware plus the Raspberry Pi, to make an autonomous wireless camera system that takes photo's of endangered species. It sends the motion detected pictures first from each camera node to the Pi then via satellite back to the UK. Each camera node is built for less than £40 and was designed for kids to build when they visit the Zoo prior to shipment in Africa. We have just figured out we can build an Arduino based platform that could on 2 x AA's (if the batteries didn't leak and degrade) sleep for well over 1000 years. Our nearest competitor manages 2.5 years currently. It could mean children in a school lesson would be able to build battery less energy harvested devices. You'll probably both know that our company (me especially) fails to conform to the crowd, this is a direct consequence of how the education system didn't work for me. I was bored, destructive, and general pain in the ass at school, for most subjects because they didn't engage me. Tech for me, is like art to an artist, it's creative, passionate yet quite uniquely, ultimately practical so you get a real sense of achievement. Getting kids and their parents engaged with tech isn't impossible, the Pi has shown that but I want to go further, I know we can create futures for some of our children. 4. Gisele Legionnet gisele@legionnet.com: School of Making

I don't have a specific topic ready, so also happy to collaborate / contribute on something already in the making. I am currently preparing a School of Making in Düsseldorf, Germany, as part of my curriculum at THNK (www.thnk.org). I come from a mobile design, business and teaching background. 5. Serge de Beer sdbeer@lentiz.nl : History of Objects History of Objects: A concept for learning with IoT: Learning can happen everywhere and anytime. But what if this learning takes places at a certain location or needs special equipment? Students and teachers won't all ways be able to be at the same location, at the same time. Specially when students have a internship, the physical distance between student and teacher can be big. History of Objects is a concept to make this gap smaller. When locations and equipment can store the students activity in The Cloud, teacher are able to monitor the learning process and give coaching based on detailed information. 6. Rob van Kranenburg kranenbu@xs4all.nl: data testifying to a rise in mental illness The argument is that our data-information-knowledge-wisdom model that is deemed to be ‘normal’ is shifting but is not acknowledged yet by public institutions. This leads to a growth in perceived mental ‘illness’ that may become clinical not because it is abnormal but because it is not recognized as normal behaviour in the network. The European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), an international network of experts, estimates that 18.4 million Europeans suffer from depression. “Rates of serious mental illness among university students are drastically rising, and universities are struggling with how to respond to students who show symptoms.”2 “Mental illness is one of the biggest challenges facing the welfare state, and one which we've only really begun to explore….The numbers who can't work because of mental health problems (1.1 million) are not much off the total number claiming unemployment benefits (1.5 million), and the mental health charity mind argue that it mental health problems cost the economy £77 billion per year in England alone….”3…. “With mental illness ranked as the number one cause of adult disability in America, affecting 1 in 5 adults, the mission of IMHRO (International Mental Health Research Organization) is to

                                                                                                               2 Volume 60, Issue 1, 2012 of the Journal of American College Healthincludes publication of the first ever feasibility study on Psychiatric Advance Directives (PADs) for college students. PADs allow students who are living with serious mental illnesses to plan ahead with a support person, creating and documenting an intervention strategy to be used in the event of a psychiatric crisis. The study entitled "University Students' Views on the Utility of Psychiatric Advance Directives" was conducted by Anna M. Scheyett, PhD and Adrienne Rooks, MSW. 3 The remarkable rise of mental illness in Britain By Neil O'Brien Politics Last updated: October 30th, 2012

alleviate human suffering from mental illness by funding scientific research into causes, prevention and new treatments.”4…. “Most common mental disorders can get better, and the employment chances be improved, with adequate treatment. But health systems in most countries are narrowly focused on treating people with severe disorders, such as schizophrenia, who make up only one-fourth of sufferers. Taking more common disorders more seriously would boost the chances for people to stay in, or return to, work. Today, almost 50% of those with a severe mental disorder and over 70% of those with a moderate mental disorder do not receive any treatment for their illness.”5 7. Ajit Joakar ajit.jaokar@futuretext.com: A book and system that gives your child a head start in Computational Thinking, Computer Science and Programming Based on trials and pilots we have conducted with early adopter schools, we are developing a set of unique techniques to accelerate the learning of programming, computer science and computational thinking among young people. We focus on young people (10 – 17) but the techniques apply to anyone who is interested. Encapsulated in a book form, our kickstarter product/project is a methodology which we are creating using collaborative/ open-source principles. Three trials of our methodology are already running in schools and education institutions (London, Liverpool and Amsterdam). 8. Linda Keane, AIA , NCARB (lkeane@NEXT.cc), NEXT.cc Eco WEB of DESIGN Opportunities (www.NEXT.cc) Access to learning anywhere anytime demands a criticality for informal eLearning. Our 12-14 year time in primary school is traditionally a time of directed learning. Yet this is actually a very small part of our learning as informal learning, or that tacit unorganized, unsystematic and even unintentional learning that happens with who we are, where we live, the people we meet, the books we read, the movies we watch, the places we visit. Education is charged with connecting the energy and power of informal learning through student led inquiry to support and nurture pleasure in directed learning in school and to motivate active life long learning. NEXT.cc is an Eco Web that introduces what design is, what design does and why design is important across nine connected scales-nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region and world. Building STEAM by Design!

                                                                                                               4 https://www.imhro.org/about 5 Employment: mental health issues rising in workplace, says OECD 12/12/2011 - Mental illness is a growing problem in society and is increasingly affecting productivity and well-being in the workplace, according to a new OECD report. More information about Sick on the Job at www.oecd.org/els/disability