Light-Up Notebooks
Use LED light stickers to illuminate student learning and imagination
By Paul Oh
tise and creative expression. It leverages
newly developed artifacts, such as LED
engineering. It’s used to capture an inspiration, as with an artist’s sketchbook
light stickers, along with commonly
found materials such as watch batteries
and a journal, or prototype a schematic, as with an engineer’s notebook.
and conductive copper tape. Instead of
making electric circuits the way I learned
In schools, however, notebooks have often been co-opted as vehicles
to—with ceramic bulb holders, clunky
for assignments, not necessarily—or even usually—powered by interest
nine-volt batteries, and plastic-coated
wires—you create them with sleek mateand imagination.
rials that stick to paper.
What if we were given the opportunity to reappropriate
These notebooks become pages with illuminated circuits
notebooks and the creativity they can foster? It might look overlaid by drawings, narratives, or designs—or any combinasomething like “Hack Your Notebook,” an effort to add illumi- tion of the three. Collectively, they leverage light and give new
nation—literally—to what you write or draw with a craft called dimensionality to creative aspirations.
paper circuitry. Picture tiny lights mounted beneath the page of
No longer are you making a circuit simply to make a circuit.
a notebook that can light up the eyes of a dragon illustration or You’re doing it to convey a message, to realize a self-directed
emphasize particular words of a written phrase.
purpose. To hack your notebook.
Paper circuitry lives at the intersection of technical experAt a recent professional development event in North Carolina,
educators at a “making” and
literacy institute were asked to
illuminate an “aha!” moment
in their personal notebooks.
Some added light to images—
of a campfire or an infographic, for instance—while
others lit up text, such as the
phrase “Maybe I shouldn’t
talk so often.” Their palettes
of words, pictures, and light
represented their thinking.
The epitome of the hacked
notebook may be a creation
by Natalie Freed, an educator at a San Francisco high
school and MIT Media Lab
graduate. Freed programmed
lights in her ocean-themed
sketchbook that match live
tidal data she pulls from the
National Oceanographic and
Natalie Freed’s
Atmospheric Administration
ocean-themed
(http://ow.ly/JPBez).
sketchbook.
Her notebook also includes
The notebook is a critical tool in so many disciplines, from writing to art to
Photo Courtesy of NEXMAP
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Pu Gong Ying Tu
(Dandelion Painting)
by Jie Qi.
made their own creations. Watching works by young
people unfold, we’ve witnessed the intersection of literacy, learning, and making.
Molly Adams, a NWP high school English
teacher outside of Dallas, used paper circuitry with
her students during a unit on the symbolism of
light in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Her
students crafted light creations alongside reflective
writing. They produced a 1920s-era car out of wood
that lit up to represent death; an eerie, light-strewn
wedding cake; and a broken Coney Island roller
coaster, among other objects.
Along with such sculpturelike projects, students
elsewhere developed cards that lit up and illuminated comic strips.
Photo courtesy of Jie Qi
Instilling “grit”
Notebook hacking engenders persistence, or what
these days has popularly been called “grit.” Without
fail, at an event or professional development session,
if someone hasn’t quite completed their circuit or resulting creation in the allotted time, they stay to finish. Never mind that the next session may be about
to begin. They want to realize their vision.
As with writing, paper circuitry invariably involves
failed attempts that lead to new iterations based on
greater understanding of what might work—prototyping and revision. This, in turn, leads to shout-outloud, “I did it!” moments. (http://ow.ly/KoyGK)
watercolors of driftwood and seashells, a poem, and tiny blue
Those engaged in notebook hacking tend to see the crossLEDs illuminating a shore. It’s a gorgeous testament to the power disciplinary connections among science, technology (even
of creativity unleashed by curiosity and creative tools.
engineering), language arts, and creativity. Many an English
LED light stickers were invented by artist Jie Qi, Freed’s MIT teacher from the NWP has admitted to “not being good” at
Media Lab colleague and a leading light (pardon the pun) and science prior to completing a complex circuit work.
pioneer in this movement. Jie’s interactive painting Pu Gong
“I liked that it made me think bigger than the classroom,”
Ying Tu (Dandelion Painting, http://ow.ly/
one of Adams’s students wrote about her
JEuA3) is an amazing example of paper
Gatsby project. “What I learned is a)
circuitry. When viewers blow on the dancool and b) actually applicable. I feel like
delions, their seeds, dots of light, disperse
we get too wrapped up in one subject at
(video: http://ow.ly/KoxwA).
school...so this was a nice change.”
You’ll find the resources you need at
When young people are asked to be
NEXMAP (http://ow.ly/KggI9)
Notebook hacking with students
designers and systems thinkers, they must
Inspired by Jie Qi, Bay Area educator and
understand the systemic nature of a circuit
• Materials lists and places to purprogram developer David Cole; NEXas well as their conceptual “system”: the
chase items like copper tape and
LED stickers
MAP, an organization dedicated to exinterplay among text, art, and technology.
perimental art; and the National Writing
To learn more, check out our archive of
• Step-by-step video demos
Project (NWP), supporting teachers of
Hack Your Notebook Day activities (http://
• Animated gif tutorials
writing (where I work), got together. We
ow.ly/JEuiQ) and take a look at the terrific
• Downloadable PDF notebook temare bringing paper circuitry and notebook
educator resources, including video tutoriplates that provide working spaces
hacking to schools, libraries, and muals, downloadable templates, and places to
and context for the work, including
connections to Common Core State
seums. With links to an open Google+
buy needed materials at NEXMAP.
Standards
community, the NEXMAP site engages
Start hacking your own notebook—
with Freed and others to explore their
and experience, as Cole calls it, your
For more support from notebook hackideas further (http://ow.ly/JPCks).
ing colleagues (who are also helpful
own lightbulb moment.
sounding boards), join the 21st Century
Through our efforts such as a “Hack
Notebooking Google Group (http://
Your Notebook Day” in July, educators and
Paul Oh is a senior associate at the Naow.ly/JEv3P).
young people from across the country have
tional Writing Project (nwp.org).
Interested in
paper circuitry?
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