I have read about ATTinys in a previous response post. I found them very interesting! Some things I have learned about them: (Without knowing it, we see ATtiny85s in many items such as alarm clocks, microwave ovens, washing machines, cameras, tablets, notebooks, mobile phones, and refrigerators. They are inexpensive, small, and powerful which makes them good for small, beginner maker projects in the classroom. An ATtiny85 is a microcontroller, which is a tiny computer designed to run small programs that can listen to or control electronic components that people connect to its “legs” (pins). There are two types, through-hole types with legs and tiny surface-mount types. They have flash memory and 5 useable pins that can be set up as inputs or outputs). This website is very helpful, what I like about it is that it discusses how to wire them into circuits and how to set them up with and code with Arduino.
How does this work with ATTinys relate to your prior knowledge of art and art education?
Before this class, I didn’t know anything about ATTinys. I learned that they can be used a lot in the classroom. Something I have learned about art education is how to bring technology into the art classroom. Before this class, I didn’t truly understand how to incorporate technology and making projects into the art classroom. But this class has taught me that there are so many ways to and the ATTinys are a good example of that. Another thing I learned is that you can bring technology into the classroom for cheap, it doesn’t have to be expensive. ATTinys are inexpensive which is important especially if the school or teacher has a budget.
How might you use ATTinys in your future classroom?
The website talks about a project using ATTinys to create kinetic sculptures that are inspired by Jeannine Huffman and Per-Ivar Kloen & Marten Hazelaar. They added 3D print diffusers for the LEDs. I think this is a creative project and students will learn a lot by using the ATTinys and LEDs. Students can also be creative by making whatever sculpture they want. Not only are they going to be tinkering with the ATTinys and LEDs, but they will also be able to create their own artistic sculpture. I think there are many good ideas to use ATTinys in the classroom, there are a lot of resources for these ideas. I am excited to use them in my future classroom when I become a teacher.