Digilab

Seun and Catarina in Digilab

Digilab came up on my radar when it launched in March - they have a good on-line presence and are inspiring and sharing so many amazing new technologies and practice.

I was lucky today - when I arrived Seun and the Digilab crew were getting ready for a group of 10 year old Tech Ambassadors from a nearby school whose mission was to learn about new technology and pass this on to their colleagues at school.

Twelve Tech Ambassadors met Seun on the grass outside Digilab where he talked to the children and introduced Digilab - the children seemed particularly keen on 3D printing their names and having a go at Virtual Reality. The children were all amazed when Seun told them that he would be scanning and making a 3D printed copy of one of them!

The children are organised into groups of three to circulate through Digilab  - here's what the lucky tech ambassadors got hands on with.

Virtual Reality.
On the grass outside Digilab there was a variety of Google Cardboard VR headsets to have a go with. VR always has a wow effect and no Tech Ambassador was disappointed ... I wasn't either -  I had a go using the VR headset to find giant insects - it was great fun.

3D Printing
Inside Digilab the Tech Ambassadors had a go at 3D printing in its most hands on form with 3D Printing Pens and learned how to write their names. 3D printing pens are a great hands on introduction to 3D printing - it helps you understand the process of 3D printing ... it also teaches you about patience and  perseverance :)

Programming and Robotics
I remember using Turtles to teach programming with Logo way back in the early 1980s and I was really interested to see Digilab using Ozobot for people to experience and learn about programming and robotics together. Programming the little Ozobot with coloured lines is a brilliant hands on way to experience programming ... it reminds me of  the way we used to have kids "program" each other to carry out moves before programming the Turtle - this teaches the fact that you have to solve the problem yourself before you can program a machine to do it. Programming the Ozobot with coloured lines makes it accessible and fun for everyone - its brilliant! A step up from "drawing code" is programming the Ozobot using OzoBlockly which is based on Google's visual programming method Google Blockly - again - this is so intuitive and easy to access - really brilliant!

Visiting Digilab was very inspiring - there is a real startup buzz.

Digilab is Inviting, Innovative and Inspiring.

Digilab is full of inspiring things and activities - it makes learning fun and exciting - it makes us want to learn rather than have to learn.

Makerspace like Digilab is the future of education

To find out more - check out the links below

Digilab on Twitter:  @digilab_
Digilab on Youtube:  DigiLab DigiLab
Digilab on Facebook: digilabhub

Seun Oshinaike talking to inspireNshare about Occuls Rift coming to Digilab
Seun Oshinaike talking to inspireNshare about "Digilab - The Next Three Years"