Engaging Young Women in Electronics and Programming: Lilypad workshop w/ Modkit Japanese version

A while ago, we wrote about an unofficial Japanese version of Modkit, created by an educator named Manabu Sugiura from Tsuda College in Japan.  He recently got in touch and shared some pictures from a Lilypad/Modkit workshop designed to engage high school girls in electronic design and programming. 

The Lilypad toolkit was created by Leah Buechley who heads the High-Low Tech research group at the MIT Media Lab.  Leah was my adviser at the Media Lab before I decided to take time off to focus on Modkit full time.  A number of the High-Low Tech group's research projects are centered around diversifying access to programming and electronic design through tools like Lilypad and Modkit and we're excited that this important work is being adapted by our colleagues accross the world.

We know that many educators are running their own Modkit workshops or using Modkit in the classroom and we'd love to hear about your work.  Leave us a comment about what you're doing with Modkit and maybe we'll feature you and your students in an upcoming post.  In the meantime, there are too many photos from the workshop to post them all here, so check out the slideshow on Youtube.