What’s happening in Week 2

Welcome to Week 2! We hope Week 1 was really helpful for you and you have a good idea about what physical computing is, its history, the hardware and software involved and the ethical issues behind it.

If you need to refresh yourself on some of that material, feel free to return to Week 1. The content is still there for you as well as the discussions and comments. If you haven’t already done so, read through some of the discussions and add your opinion to a topic that interests you. Engaging with other learners on the course will make it even more stimulating.

This week, we’re moving on to look at creative uses of physical computing, as well as looking at possible career pathways. We’ll finish the week looking at a potential next step in the evolution of physical computing: the Internet of Things.

Creative physical computing

By its definition physical computing is creative. We’ve focused mainly on practical examples in last week’s steps, but this week we’ll explore some creative uses of physical computing. We’ll start with a fashion show and then move on to examples of creative physical computing in the world. We’ve gathered a list of our favourite examples, but you’ll get a chance to add your favourites in the Discussions.

Career pathways

While the term ‘physical computing’ is widely used in the workplace, there are no job titles directly related to it: you won’t find job titles such as ‘physical computing engineer/designer/project manager’ (yet!) But we’ve highlighted some pathways you could take to guide you towards a career in physical computing. We’ve interviewed people who work in that area right now, both in academia and industry. You’ll hear about their journeys into physical computing and they will share their thoughts about the skills you need to succeed.

Internet of Things

Physical computing is, inevitably, going to keep evolving. One way that we’ve seen this happening recently is in the effect the Internet of Things has had on physical computing. We’ll look at exactly what the Internet of Things is and talk to a panel of experts about their thoughts on developments in this area, and how the Internet of Things is different to the Internet as we know it.

Finally

At the end of the course, we’ll challenge you with a quick quiz to check how much you’ve learnt over the last two weeks. You’ll then learn where to go next: what different avenues, courses and pathways you could explore to further extend your knowledge of physical computing.

Over to you

What was your favourite part of Week 1? What are you looking forward to this week? Is there anything that you think is missing?

Share your thoughts with others in the Comments.