Abstract

The introduction of maker technology and personal fabrication has radically changed how we learn, design and innovate. In recent years, a growing number of people have begun to use a broad range of these creative technologies. A common challenge in the use of these electronic technologies, particularly for students, is the difficulties that arise during circuit wiring prototyping. Today, few studies have highlighted the factors that cause errors among student during their electronic circuit learning activities. This research investigates the causes of wiring problems and troubleshooting strategies during the prototyping of electronic circuits by students. We conducted an ethnographic study of undergraduate students at a university design school who were involved in prototyping electronic circuits with creative technologies. We performed a microanalysis of the students’ interactions and dialogues following the distributed cognition framework. Our results show the significance of meaningful representations of information on circuit wiring tools, in addition to the importance of common knowledge among the students for reasoning about electronic circuit wiring and the detection and solving of wiring errors. This study highlights the relations between the types of wiring errors and the students’ troubleshooting strategies. In addition to informing educational practitioners, our conclusions highlight the need for further studies and the demand for a redesign of electronic wiring prototyping tools.