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The Effects of Providing Starter Projects in Open-Ended Scratch Activities
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Many efforts of curricula design have concentrated on expanding participation in K-12 CS education by introducing innovative approaches but few have focused on addressing longstanding equity issues through their choices of culturally relevant materials and activities. In this paper, we describe our efforts in using electronic textiles which include Arduino-based microcontrollers that are sewn with conductive thread on fabrics to connect actuators and sensors and create interactive wearables. We report on the implementation of an electronic textiles curricular unit in the Exploring Computer Science introductory computing course in 13 high schools involving 272 high school students largely from underrepresented groups in a major metropolitan school district. We examined two issues relevant to broadening equitable participation in CS: (1) students' changed perceptions of computing, and (2) students' depth of learning of computing, circuitry and crafting in the final project. Pre/post surveys on students' perceptions of computing showed positive, significant gains in students' self-confidence in solving CS problems, fascination with computing and ability to be creative with computing. Teacher evaluations of students' final projects revealed robust learning in the areas of basic programming and computational circuitry as well as strong learning across more challenging computational concepts, with room for growth. We discuss factors that impacted student outcomes and outline steps for further analysis.
More than twenty years ago, Turkle and Papert wrote about the lack of epistemological pluralism in computing and the resulting exclusivity in the field. Although research on what constitutes a personal epistemology has expanded since then, students continue to hold narrow views of computing that are disconnected from the field at large. To align with current research, we use the term "views" to encompass students' expectations of, attitudes towards, and beliefs about computing. We took a crafts-oriented approach to expanding students' views of computing and broadening participation in computer science by engaging high school students in a 10-week electronic textiles unit. Students were introduced to computational concepts and practices as they designed and programmed electronic artifacts. We found their views shifted from pre- To post-interviews in ways that allowed them to see computing as accessible, transparent, personal, and creative. We discuss how e-textiles materials and the design of classroom activities brought back a diversity of ways thinking about who can do computing, how to do it, and what computing can be.
Improving academic success and social development by merging computational thinking with cultural practices.
In this article, we examine the use of electronic textiles (e-textiles) for introducing key computational concepts and practices while broadening perceptions about computing. The starting point of our work was the design and implementation of a curriculum module using the LilyPad Arduino in a pre-AP high school computer science class. To understand students’ learning, we analyzed the structure and functionality of their circuits and program code as well as their design approaches to making and debugging their e-textile creations and their views of computing. We also studied students’ changing perceptions of computing. Our discussion addresses the need for and design of scaffolded challenges and the potential for using crafts materials and activities such as e-textiles for designing introductory courses that can broaden participation in computing.
Scratch is a visual programming environment that allows users (primarily ages 8 to 16) to learn computer programming while working on personally meaningful projects such as animated stories and games. A key design goal of Scratch is to support self-directed learning through tinkering and collaboration with peers. This article explores how the Scratch programming language and environment support this goal.
Computational thinking (CT) has been described as the use of abstraction, automation, and analysis in problem-solving [3]. We examine how these ways of thinking take shape for middle and high school youth in a set of NSF-supported programs. We discuss opportunities and challenges in both in-school and after-school contexts. Based on these observations, we present a "use-modify-create" framework, representing three phases of students' cognitive and practical activity in computational thinking. We recommend continued investment in the development of CT-rich learning environments, in educators who can facilitate their use, and in research on the broader value of computational thinking.
This study investigates the potential to introduce basic programming concepts to middle school children within the context of a classroom writing-workshop. In this paper we describe how students drafted, revised, and published their own digital stories using the introductory programming language Scratch and in the process learned fundamental CS concepts as well as the wider connection between programming and writing as interrelated processes of composition.
This paper describes Scratch, a visual, block-based programming language designed to facilitate media manipulation for novice programmers. We report on the Scratch programming experiences of urban youth ages 8-18 at a Computer Clubhouse—an after school center—over an 18-month period. Our analyses of 536 Scratch projects collected during this time documents the learning of key programming concepts even in the absence of instructional interventions or experienced mentors. We discuss the motivations of urban youth who choose to program in Scratch rather than using one of the many other software packages available to them and the implications for introducing programming at after school settings in underserved communities.
We describe Storytelling Alice, a programming environment that introduces middle school girls to computer programming as a means to the end of creating 3D animated stories. Storytelling Alice supports story creation by providing 1) a set of high-level animations, that support the use of social characters who can interact with one another, 2) a collection of 3D characters and scenery designed to spark story ideas, and 3) a tutorial that introduces users to writing Alice programs using story- based examples. In a study comparing girls' experiences learning to program using Storytelling Alice and a version of Alice without storytelling support (Generic Alice), we found that users of Storytelling Alice and Generic Alice were equally successful at learning basic programming constructs. Participants found Storytelling Alice and Generic Alice equally easy to use and entertaining. Users of Storytelling Alice were more motivated to program; they spent 42% more time programming, were more than 3 times as likely to sneak extra time to work on their programs, and expressed stronger interest in future use of Alice than users of Generic Alice. Author Keywords Alice, gender, children, motivation, programming, computer science education, programming environments
"Digital fluency" should mean designing, creating, and remixing, not just browsing, chatting, and interacting.
The paper addresses the problem of fragmentation of the communities involved in the design of digital media for education. It draws on the experience gained at the Educational Tech- nology Lab in the design of Logo-based microworlds with three different platforms respectively based on component computing, 3D game engines and D navigation with a GIS. In this paper I use the term half-baked to describe a microworld which is explicitly designed to engage its users with changing it as the main aspect of their activity. I discuss this kind of microworld as a tool for integrated design involving people with diverse expertise and/or roles to communicate. These kinds of microworlds implicitly exist within the community, but they can be explicitly designed mediated and put to use in the role of facilitators for integrated design and development to enable a growing communication amongst researchers, technicians, teachers and students. A template for presenting microworlds which was constructed through the experience with four such integrated communities is used to describe for each respective case the design principles, the affordances, the histories of development and the variety of emergent microworlds.
This paper maps out the different perspectives on creativity, and the teaching and learning of creativity, and brings together latest thinking in this field. It is a rich resource of examples of the way that technology is currently used to support creativity through encouraging learners to make connections, develop ideas, create meaning, collaborate and communicate. It also highlights some of the key questions concerning assessment and creativity.
Participatory design is an essential design strategy for creating artifacts and experiences that reflect the voices of the population being designed for and with. The participatory design process can serve not only to research resulting artifacts but also as an empowering activity for those who participate. This paper explores how participatory design can serve as a context for young participants to enact and voice their emerging identities and reveals how different participatory design activities have unique affordances for supporting this identity enactment. Focusing on a group of 12 and 13-year-old African American girls, this paper presents a case study showing how participatory design activities served as venues for the girls to reflect characteristics of their current identities, project future identities, and apply aspects of their identities to shape materials for others. In doing so, we contribute a case study showing how participatory design allows participants to enact their identities, helping researchers gain insight into characteristics of those they are designing with and for. This paper advances our understanding of participatory design as a design approach for youth, especially as it relates to issues of broadening participation, identity, and equity.
The underrepresentation of women and minorities in the field of computer science is well documented. Due to this lack of representation, efforts to broaden participation in computing abound. One manner with which to do this is through the development of culturally relevant curricula. Education literature encourages the use of culturally relevant techniques and topics to teach school content through the knowledge of diverse groups as well as teach about culturally diverse populations. In addition, partnering with the students who will learn with the curriculum is encouraged in order to co-develop ideas and learn more about students' interests and experiences. This poster describes the outcomes from a series of participatory design sessions with a diverse group of stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, and administrators) to design an intermediate computing curriculum for 5th - 7th grade students. Specifically, we examine the topics developed by the participants that are being utilized as themes for curricular units. Preliminary analysis shows that participants of all ages brainstormed and utilized themes related to both cultural heritage and contemporary culture, but more focus was placed on youth culture and pop culture topics. The poster will describe the design methods used during the participatory design sessions as well as the themes developed and an overall analysis of the categories from which the themes are drawn.
In this paper, we present our experience developing introductory coding environments called Scratch Microworlds. These interactive environments enable learners to get started with coding by creating projects, rather than solving puzzles. The primary educational goal of these microworlds is to engage learners (ages 8 to 14) who otherwise may not be drawn to coding. The microworlds are simplified versions of the Scratch coding environment that contain a small set of blocks and are designed to encourage exploration and experimentation. They are also interest-based, so learners can choose to work on a topic that is motivating to them (such as dance, music, or soccer). We present three main design principles and related challenges that we addressed through the iterative process of developing Scratch Microworlds: (1) how to simplify initial experiences while still supporting creativity, (2) how to provide scaffolding while maintaining learners' agency, and (3) how to provide starting points that spark rather than limit the imagination. We share observations and feedback from workshops with children and educators, which informed our iterative design process. We conclude by considering next steps for providing more entry points into coding that support children as creative thinkers.
STEAM education is an approach to engage students in STEM topics by prioritizing personal expression, creativity, and aesthetics. EarSketch, a collaborative and authentic learning tool, introduces students to programming through music remixing, has previously been shown to increase student engagement, and increases learner's intentions to persist in computing. The goal of EarSketch is to broaden participation in computing through a thickly authentic learning environment that has personal and real world relevance in both computational and music domains. This article reports a quasi-experimental study suggesting that an authentic learning environment predicts increased intentions to persist via identity/belongingness and creativity. We ran a path analysis that exposed the creativity subscales, and this analysis reveals that "sharing" is the one creativity sub-construct that predicts increased intention to persist. This work makes a significant contribution to computer science education by revealing how an authentic STEAM curriculum affects student attitudes and knowledge, by presenting scales to measure authenticity and personal creativity, and by discussing how identity/belongingness may affect student success.
As founder of the original Computer Science for All (CS4All) initiative in the Chicago Public Schools, Brenda Darden Wilkerson set the standard for integrating computer science classes into the curriculum for every student. Now, she's leading the charge to break down barriers for women and members of other underrepresented minorities in the tech industry. She argues that, while many administrators and community leaders see CS4All as merely a key component of a new core curriculum, CS educators are actually sowing the seeds of the next workplace revolution. In this inspirational keynote, Brenda will share the ways that educators on the front lines of this inclusive movement can expect to reap the fruits of their labor -- not just professionally, but personally -- in surprising ways. And she'll spotlight the historic role of women, and people of color, in technology and computer science, offering examples that will better allow us all to reclaim our rightful seats at the table.
This article presents EarSketch, a learning environment that combines computer programming with samplebased music production to create a computational remixing environment for learning introductory computing concepts. EarSketch has been employed in both formal and informal settings, yielding significant positive results in student content knowledge and attitudes toward computing as a discipline, especially in ethnic and gender populations that are currently underrepresented in computing fields. This article describes the rationale and components of EarSketch, the evaluation design, and lessons learned to apply to future environment design and development.
In this chapter, we argue that learning and teaching are fundamentally cultural processes (Cole, 1996; Lee, 2008; Lee, Spencer, & Harpalani, 2003; Nasir & Bang, 2012; Rogoff, 2003). The learning sciences have not yet adequately addressed the ways that culture is integral to learning. By culture, we mean the constellations of practices communities have historically developed and dynamically shaped in order to accomplish the purposes they value, including tools they use, social networks with which they are connected, ways they organize joint activity, and their ways of conceptualizing and engaging with the world. In this view, learning and development can be seen as the acquisition throughout the life course of diverse repertoires of overlapping, complementary, or even conflicting cultural practices. Diversity along multiple dimensions is a mainstay of human communities. National boundaries evolve and change, bringing together people from different groups that have different ethnicities, languages, worldviews, and cultural practices. Migration and transmigration are not new phenomena. However, technological advances have accelerated cross-national movement. In 2010, international migrants constituted 3.1 percent of the world population. The greatest concentrations of international migrants relative to the national populations are in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Canada, across Europe, and Oceania (largely New Zealand and Australia).
In this article, Ladson-Billings reflects on the history of her theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and the ways it has been used and misused since its inception. She argues for the importance of dynamic scholarship and suggests that it is time for a "remix" of her original theory: culturally sustaining pedagogy, as proposed by Paris (2012). Ladson-Billings discusses her work with the hip-hop and spoken word program First Wave as an example of how culturally sustaining pedagogy allows for a fluid understanding of culture, and a teaching practice that explicitly engages questions of equity and justice. Influenced by her experience with the First Wave program, Ladson-Billings welcomes the burgeoning literature on culturally sustaining pedagogy as a way to push forward her original goals of engaging critically in the cultural landscapes of classrooms and teacher education programs.
Seventeen years ago Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) published the landmark article “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I, like countless teachers and university-based researchers, have been inspired by what it means to make teaching and learning relevant and responsive to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference and (in)equality. Recently, however, I have begun to question if the terms “relevant” and “responsive” are really descriptive of much of the teaching and research founded upon them and, more importantly, if they go far enough in their orientation to the languages and literacies and other cultural practices of communities marginalized by systemic inequalities to ensure the valuing and maintenance of our multiethnic and multilingual society. In this essay, I offer the term and stance of culturally sustaining pedagogy as an alternative that, I believe, embodies some of the best research and practice in the resource pedagogy tradition and as a term that supports the value of our multiethnic and multilingual present and future. Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling. In the face of current policies and practices that have the explicit goal of creating a monocultural and monolingual society, research and practice need equally explicit resistances that embrace cultural pluralism and cultural equality.
Drag-and-drop learning environments like Alice (alice.org) and Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) eliminate syntax errors, making them attractive as ways to introduce programming concepts to students. Alice is closely associated with storytelling, Scratch was designed for creating music videos, and both can be used to create games. Having had students create each kind of project, we began to wonder: Do students learn different things creating games compared to music videos or stories? What programming constructs do students actually use (and hence learn well enough to be able to apply)? To answer these questions, we conducted a quantitative analysis of a collection of over 300 different student projects created using these tools. In examining different kinds of projects, we found significant differences in how frequently the students creating those projects used variables, if statements, loops, and dialog constructs.
The Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS) is based on a theoretical model which conceptualizes three dimensions of product attributes: Novelty, Resolution, and Elaboration and Synthesis. The revision of the CPSS is described in the present article. Study 1 confirmed that the instrument could detect differences in the level of Novelty of three commercially available household products varying in unusualness. Study 2 was designed to validate the three dimensions of product attributes by testing whether or not the rankings of experts would agree with those of lay judges. Results indicated that judgments of Novelty made by naive judges were consistent with those of experts. The validity of Novelty, and to a lesser degree, that of Elaboration and Synthesis, were verified by Study 2. The validity of Resolution is yet to be established (no significant differences among products were observed). In both studies, Novelty and Resolution were independent, but Elaboration and Synthesis subscales migrated between loading with Novelty and Resolution.
Using the Storytelling Alice programming environment to create computer-animated movies inspires middle school girls' interest in learning to program computers.
This paper presents a general statistical methodology for the analysis of multivariate categorical data involving agreement among more than two observers. Since these situations give rise to very large contingency tables in which most of the observed cell frequencies are zero, procedures based on indicator variables of the raw data for individual subjects are used to generate first-order margins and main diagonal sums from the conceptual multidimensional contingency table. From these quantities, estimates are generated to reflect the strength of an internal majority decision on each subject. Moreover, a subset of observers who demonstrate a high level of interobserver agreement can be identified by using pairwise agreement statistics between each observer and the internal majority standard opinion on each subject. These procedures are all illustrated within the context of a clinical diagnosis example involving seven pathologists.
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