The use of microcontrollers for non-programmers: a review on the state of the art

• Autor(a) principal: Rito, P. N.
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/6578
• topic: Open hardware; Non-programmers; Narrative; Exploratory learning; Ict

The open hardware is defined as any hardware whose design is publicly available for anyone to study, modify, distribute, sell or build to another drawing or as hardware-based original design. The hardware Arduino is an open hardware that was developed by Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino and David Mellis. Presented to the public in 2005, this microcontroller allows the communications establishment between tangible objects and digital objects. This communication is established between the two environments and is called physical computing. The environments that trigger this type of communication are related to two worlds, the digital world and the physical world (real). The physical computing therefore translates the sending of information in the digital world into the real world and from the real world into the digital world. The information transmission can be observed at a lower level, resulting in a conversion of physical energy to electrical energy, which is understood by computers. This energy conversion is called transduction. Apart from teachers, it is important for students to identify the meaning of programming and use of tangible objects. An object that is not familiar to them creates a chain of reactions that leads them to explore, familiarize and eventually realize through a repeating sequence which they might get more elaborate designs on the properties (size, texture, shape) of the physical world. These lead them to reflect and express what they are thinking. With the incorporation of technology in such objects it opens a new door that allows them to provide other environments. It is therefore important to develop and utilize technological resources that allows a tangible approach to constructive and exploratory learning. The construction of tangible objects using open hardware like microcontrollers and software to create a technology alliance will facilitate the diffusion of use and enable students to explore new forms of narrative, usually associated with other students. So the purpose of this article is to present a case study related with the use of a microcontroller in a classroom with Arts students and their involvement in this kind of project.