BitBlox: Redesigning the Breadboard

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

BitBlox was a project creating a modular solderless breadboard that is easier for students to learn. It was designed to be used as a research probe to understand how to promote collaboration and learning in physical computing. The modularity of the BitBlox boards enables students to create their prototyping tool as they build their circuit; while the coloring, helps minimize the overhead for learning the tool (ie. designed to minimize the cognitive load). The development of BitBlox was our first exploration of the tools for physical computing.

Motivation

In our initial work with physical computing, we were using the Arduino Microcontroller and the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit because it provides a flexible environment for students to explore the electronics, computing, and design concepts embedded within all physical computing artifacts. However, from an educational standpoint working with the Arduino environment has steep learning curve with little scaffolding. This poses issues for novices of programming and electronics. One stumbling block that seemed unnecessary was the breadboard. Not wanting to black-box the electronics, we designed and built BitBlox in order to try and reduce the cognitive load for students working in an Arduino environment.

Design

BitBlox is similar to the standard breadboard in that it is still a solderless prototoyping tool allowing the user to create connections between wires and components by placing them into holes that are electrically connected. The standard breadboard has connection schemes as shown in the image below. The top and bottom sections have the entire row connected while the middle sections are connected in columns. The back of the breadboard shows the metal pieces that actually create the connections.

BitBlox bring visibility to where the connections actually are in the tool with the coloring. Each section of holes that are the same color are electrically connected. Below are images of the various types of BitBlox that we have created. These different types were created to allow a user to also use components with fixed width pins such as LCD screens, transistors, and IC chips.

We’ve piloted them with College students at Georgia Tech and Berry College, as well as with High School students. Here are some images of circuits the high school students made during one of our classroom studies. You can read about the comparative classroom study with high schoolers below along with a lab study that worked with novices across universities.

Research

Comparative Classroom Study with High School Students

The high school classroom study with BitBlox, we analyzed two 11th grade classes at a rural public high school that had a focus on tying the students’ education to the strong agricultural connections in their community. We worked with 44 novice students in two drafting classes where students often participated in project work designing and building objects. In this study, we used two classes to understand effect different prototyping tools had on the socio-technical environment. One class used the standard breadboard prototyping tool and one used BitBlox. During the class, students learned the basics about the Arduino, and then built a circuit to play the Simon Memory game using three buttons and three LEDs. The study highlighted three important effects the tools had in the learning environment:

The novice students learned about the utility of organizational affordances of the tools, such as the wire colors and the connections between the BitBlox modules, in order to minimize the errors they were making
BitBlox spread out the circuit, increasing the size of the tool, which improved students’ ability to collaborate and create a shared understanding with each other and the instructors
The identifiers such as color and symbols on the breadboards facilitated students in dialogue about their circuits, allowing them to reference parts of their circuit when troubleshooting and explaining their circuits

Laboratory Study with Novices

We wanted to understand more clearly what was happening as novices began working with the Arduino for the first time. In the study, we video recorded 31 novices working with the Breadboard and the BitBlox as they completed various tasks. Video and audio recordings captured participants’ actions and thoughts as they worked. The study provided three contributions:

A codebook of the common breakdowns faced by novices
Insight into the work processes of novices
An understanding of the ways that the tools can impact learners’ experiences

Exploring Information Visualization

After the pilot tests and the classroom study we wanted to understand how we could affect the dialogue in ways that could be productive for learning based on the information built into the tool. We began to experiment with including other types of information into the BitBlox. Below you can see one example visualizing the voltage in the circuit simply by using the breadboard voltage module. We are still experimenting with these ideas.

Publications

DesPortes, K., Anupam, A., Pathak, N., & DiSalvo, B. (2016). BitBlox: A Redesign of the Breadboard. Proceedings of the The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, (pp. 255–261). ACM. [Download]

DesPortes, K., & DiSalvo, B. (2019, July). Trials and tribulations of novices working with the arduino. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (pp. 219-227). [Download]

Research Team

Neeti Pathak - MS in Computer Science @ Georgia Tech
Aditya Anupam - PhD in Digital Media @ Georgia Tech
Dr. Kayla DesPortes - Assistant Professor of HCI and the Learning Sciences @ NYU
Dr. Betsy DiSalvo - Associate Professor @ Georgia Tech

Note: this was done as part of my PhD work @ Georgia Tech under the advisement of Betsy.

Spectrum of Modularity

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

This project examines what aspects of the hardware for physical computing can be designed in ways to create glass-box (instead of black-box) scaffolding that fades as the learner gains expertise. The project began with examining the electrical components that can be connected to a microcontroller to lay the foundation of how we could explore the scaffolding throughout the hardware tools.

Motivation

Circuit components for physical computing come in a variety of different forms. They can be highly plug-and-play, like in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robotics kit, or they can come as individual components leaving the user to figure out how they might create a circuit. Unfortunately, there are not many tools that fit in between these two extremes, or tools that are designed to facilitate learning through scaffolding that can fade. This project was designed to try and understand what tools with that capability might look like. We examined the tools based on their transparency (what the learner can see), and affordances for interaction (how the learner manipulates components within the tools).

Design

The first prototypes for the spectrum of modularity were designed using circuit boards and off-the-shelf components. We explored, six levels of modularity that could exist in the tools. Below is an outline of the various levels.

LEVEL 1: Plug-and-Play Circuits w/ Static Electronic Components

LEVEL 2: Plug-and-Play Circuits w/ Static and Variable Electronic Components<

LEVEL 3: Plug-and-Play Circuits w/ Variable Electronic Components

LEVEL 4: Static Single Electronic Component Modules

LEVEL 5: Variable Single Electronic Component Modules

LEVEL 6: Open Circuit Modules

You can read more about the levels and the rationale behind the spectrum in the publication below. The idea of this work was to draw attention to the design choices in these tools that could facilitate learning. This is not necessarily the only or best way to conceptualize the spectrum, but one attempt. While we used circuit boards for these protoypes, the same concepts can be explored experimenting with the materiality of the boards and components.

Research

Currently we are conducting a lab study comparing students using the standard breadboard, BitBlox, and a set of circuit modules as they learn about the Arduino for the first time. Some of the students will be completing a think-aloud protocol as they learn about the Arduino for the first time. The research questions in this work explore the cognitive and work processes of novices, and how they are affected by the tool design.

RQ1. How can the tools be designed to facilitate students in learning about physical computing?
RQ2. What are the common misconceptions and errors that students make when learning about the Arduino?
RQ3. How do the hardware tools students use affect their self-efficacy with physical computing?

While this study will provide insight into what the students are thinking, it does not give us an understanding of how the tools will affect the socio-technical learning environment in a real-world context. Future studies will be designed to understand research questions in that situation, enabling us to build a deeper understanding of the tools.

Publications

DesPortes, K., & DiSalvo, B. (2017). Where are the Glass-Boxes? Examining the Spectrum of Modularity in Physical Computing Hardware Tools. Proceedings of the the 16th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 292-297). ACM. [Download]

DesPortes, K., & DiSalvo, B. (2019). Trials and Tribulations of Novices Working with the Arduino. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research, pp. 219-227. 2019. [Download]

Research Team

Dr. Kayla DesPortes - Assistant Professor of HCI and the Learning Sciences @ NYU
Dr. Betsy DiSalvo - Associate Professor @ Georgia Tech

**Note: The initial work was done as part of my PhD work @ Georgia Tech under the advisement of Betsy and has carried into my work at NYU. **

Tool Design | Dr. Kayla DesPortes

BitBlox: Redesigning the Breadboard

Overview

Motivation

Design

Research

Comparative Classroom Study with High School Students

Laboratory Study with Novices

Exploring Information Visualization

Publications

Research Team

Spectrum of Modularity

Overview

Motivation

Design

Research

Publications

Research Team