Sociable Objects Workshop: Imagined Sociable Object

For my presentation on Thursday, 2 July, the definition of a “sociable object” was expanded to include “cool network thing.” My imagined cool network thing would actually be many cool network things.

The idea: have wireless devices laced with force–sensing resistors placed on each of my students' desks. If I asked my students, “did that make sense?” after presenting a topic and one or more students was too shy to answer “no,” because they didn't want to be embarassed in front of their classmates, for example, then they could discretely squeeze their wireless device, which would send data to my computer at the front of the classroom showing if one or more students was too shy to answer “no.”

During Q&A, my classmate Jonathan Nachum suggested a foot controller instead of a hand operated device — it would be more discreet.