In August I read an article in Wired Magazine titled The Dream Factory where the author designed his own guitar, sent the design to a “fab lab” and for about $1000 received his own guitar back in the mail. Very intriguing in the possibilities!

Of course I’m always thinking of the videoconferencing possibilities! Wouldn’t it be neat to somehow find around $500 for two classes to work together to solve a problem with an invention. You could have one of the classes be a class in New Jersey close to the fab lab mentioned in the article so they could go pick it up and avoid shipping costs. A middle school technology/computer class would work, as well as a high school design/manufacturing class. If the two classes met at the same time, they could easily connect to each other. The two classes could decide together on a program and/or design the problem together. Then they could have teams of students design solutions. A panel of student judges from both classes could pick the winning design. After they send it in, the class in NJ could pick it up, get a tour of the “fab lab” and make an iMovie about it to share with the other class. Maybe they could then ship the “invention” to the partner class?

Just some wild ideas that I thought of when reading that article….

Metablog (thinking about blogging): The cool thing about a blog is you have a place to keep your wild and crazy ideas!