Makey Makey

MaKey MaKey is a new product that has been crowd-funded over the past three years. The project was launched in May, 2012, and raised over $500 000. The kit is based on research that was conducted at MIT Media Lab and driven by Eric Rosenbaum (who has a Master’s degree in Technology in Education from Harvard University), and Jay Silver (an electrical engineering graduate with a master’s in Internet Technology from Cambridge University). MaKey MaKey is an “invention kit for the 2st century” which students can use for art, engineering and science. In the kit, people receive a MaKey MaKey, alligator clips and USB cables. This hardware allows you to transform any device that can transmit electricity into a keyboard. Students could use ketchup, fruits, plants, etc. and transform them into their newest keyboarding device. Not only could this be a great lesson for science class, but it could also allow teachers to limit the amount of expensive technology which they need to buy or continuously replace for their classes. As alligator clips and USB cables are very inexpensive, teachers can consistently reuse these materials, and hook them to different items depending on students’ age and interests, unlike keyboards which are constantly having keys popped off and broken by students. The kits are relatively inexpensive ($49.95) and they can run on a variety of different operating systems. These kits would be fantastic for students who have special needs, who enjoy sensory stimulation as they may be more interested in completing different learning tasks if they can use objects that are of interest to them rather than a traditional keyboard. It could also be used to simplify different tasks for elementary students, as having only four buttons would be much easier for students to understand and utilize effectively. In a middle years science class or computers courses, these kits could provide a great study tool or basis for an inquiry project when exploring electricity and circuits. By learning how electricity is able to travel through these systems, students can investigate different properties of electricity and conductivity. With new inventions like the MaKey MaKey, it makes me excited to think about where the future of technology is heading and the innumerable applications and connections that we as teachers can make with the help of it.