dConstruct 2012 @ the dome in Brighton

dConstruct is a conference run during the Brighton Digital Festival, as they say….

‘dConstruct 2012 is a gathering of smart and entertaining people poking at the intersection of technology and culture.’

It’s hugely popular conference which I was lucky enough to attend this year and these are my highlights from the conference.

This years theme was ‘Playing with the future‘ although I have to say the theme was interpreted very loosely!

A full list of speakers can be found here but the highlights for me weren’t always about what the presenters were saying but more about the way they presented.

Jenn Lukas – ‘cure for the common code’ is a web developer who works for ‘Happy Cogg’ and who is keen to encourage more women into the industry as well as improve the adherance of web standards. She also delivers workshops for girls on web development and this was the bit that proved to be of particular interest.

Her tips for engaging learners

• Use Problem Based Learning to deliver the content –  Code can be a dry subject to deliver and she finds that this motivates her students to learn by giving them a sense of achievement when they succeed in achieving the task.
• Use excitement to educate…’enthuse and your students will engage’.
• To help students remember complex or technical detail she uses fun objects to replace detail…her example was types of cake
• Make it memorable by adding something unique to the session. In this conference each delegate was given an elastic band and told to ‘keep it safe’. Part way through her session we were taught a magic trick with the band. Details of the trick can be found on youtube.

Seb Lee-Delisle – ‘Pixels, People and Play’ is a Digital Artist who frequently works on large scale installations and events that involve people participation to succeed. He also ecourages others to have a go at coding for themselves.

His conference session reflected his work and was all about engagement and participation. Each delegate was given a glo stick, and here’s what happened: http://yfrog.com/nm2jlqyinpkqezdrzkhsfldsz

Examples of his work can be seen on Vimeo

Digital Fireworks in Brighton from Seb Lee-Delisle on Vimeo.

Papervision3D augmented reality wormhole from Seb Lee-Delisle on Vimeo.