Understanding Computational Thinking in the Gameplay of the African \u3ci\u3eSongo\u3c/i\u3e Board Game

Computational thinking is a necessary skill for the 21st century. While previously examined in computer-rich settings, researchers are increasingly studying computational thinking in unplugged environments such as board games. Focusing on the African board game Songo, this study shows that computational thinking practices are embedded in Songo board gameplay and interact with the cultural context. The study also reveals a computing practice peculiar to Songo gameplay, songoputation. This paper suggests that researchers can benefit from exploring computational thinking and computing practices beyond board games in western contexts

Torino: A Tangible Programming Language Inclusive of Children with Visual Disabilities

© 2018, Copyright © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Across the world, policy initiatives are being developed to engage children with computer programming and computational thinking. Diversity and inclusion has been a strong force in this agenda, but children with disabilities have largely been omitted from the conversation. Currently, there are no age appropriate tools for teaching programming concepts and computational thinking to primary school children with visual disabilities. We address this gap through presenting the design and implementation of Torino, a tangible programming language for teaching programming concepts to children age 7–11 regardless of level of vision. In this paper, we: (1) describe the design process done in conjunction with children with visual disabilities; (2) articulate the design decisions made; and (3) report insights generated from an evaluation with 10 children with mixed visual abilities that considers how children are able to trace (read) and create (write) programs with Torino. We discuss key design trade-offs: (1) readability versus extensibility; and (2) size versus liveness. We conclude by reflecting upon how an inclusive design approach shaped the final result

Computationally-Mediated Interactions with Traditional Textile Crafts

Crafting is a fundamental part of humanity; it gives us purpose and satisfaction, and it produces items that are beautiful and functional. At the same time, our relationship to traditional physical crafts has seen a massive upheaval due to technological advancements. The freedom and support to create textile crafts for pleasure and passion rather than necessity has never been more widespread. Interdisciplinary explorations of computer science and textile crafts have been increasing due to more people being intrinsically motivated to craft, more forms of supportive technology constantly being built, and more interconnected communities growing via the internet. The work in this dissertation begins to coalesce these user-focused and craft-based experiences by presenting crafting as a series of interconnected and nested processes covering the design, manufacture, and experience of textile craft products. Within these processes, I examine how crafters experience physical and digital forms of agency, both high and low, as well as ludic engagement or the lack thereof, as a means of evaluating user perception of technology related to textiles. As exemplar artifacts, I present my own, as well as collaborative, research on design support software, a manufacturing machine appropriated as a game console, and a pair of electronic textile-based fidget toys. This research illustrates how many varied design choices affected audiences' agency and ludic engagement by examining crafters' perceptions and skill levels, as well as the craft domain interpretations by accompanying software and hardware. The interdisciplinary work presented in this dissertation crosses the boundaries of creativity support software, computational creativity, game studies, human-computer interaction, and crafting communities outside the realm of academia. More importantly, this research begins to explicitly join predominantly feminine craft and masculine technological communities across all ages for the enrichment of all those involved

“The Data Shuffle”: Using Playing Cards to Illustrate Data Management Concepts to a Broad Audience

Educators must constantly figure out engaging ways to teach data management and modeling concepts, especially to non-technical audiences. This paper introduces and describes an experiential learning activity using playing cards to teach a range of business and technical concepts. The paper is enriched by personal anecdotes and experiences from conducting this activity in both academic and professional settings. A repeated measures survey (pre-test, post-test, and follow-up one week later) is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the exercise. Participants reported enjoying the exercise, demonstrated improved understanding, felt confident about their new knowledge, and recalled important concepts a week later

Moveable objects, mobile code

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60).Kwindla Hultman Kramer.S.M

The Register, 1994-02-07

https://digital.library.ncat.edu/atregister/2181/thumbnail.jp

Culturally Responsive Computing for American Indian Youth: Making Activities With Electronic Textiles in the Native Studies Classroom

By providing access to hands-on activities and the physical and digital tools necessary to complete them, maker activities encourage cross-disciplinary, interest-driven learning and problem solving in schools. However, maker movement efforts to broaden participation into computer science have largely ignored Indigenous populations. In this dissertation, I examine how electronic textiles (e-textiles) materials connects to the heritage craft practices found in many Indigenous communities. By design, e-textiles materials combine low-tech craft practices like sewing with high-tech engineering and programming. Framing learning computing within these two distinct but overlapping cultural contexts provides youth will a familiar context in which to learn something new (programming), promotes positive identity development, and fosters connections across multiple dimensions of youth’s lives. At the core of this work is design-based research into the development and implementation of a three-week electronic textiles unit in gender-segregated Native Studies class with American Indian youth (12-14 years old) at a charter school located on tribal lands in the Southwest. This unit was implemented four times over the course of the school year. Findings highlight how different groups of students (American Indian girls and American Indian boys) engaged with e-textiles activities and how their perspectives on computing developed through participation in the unit. In addition, the teacher’s perspective on integrating digital technologies in the Native Studies classroom is explored within the context of contemporary Federal Indian educational policy and practice. This work makes three significant contributions to ethnography, computing education, and American Indian education. First, it proposes a new methodology through the integration of ethnography with design-based research and critical Indigenous research approaches. Second, it contributes to the emerging field of culturally responsive computing by exploring what happens when computing moves beyond the screen and into the tangible realm. Third, it furthers our understandings of the role of digital technologies in American Indian education, with a particular focus on how making activities might contribute to increased educational sovereignty for Indigenous peoples throughout the United States

Culturally Responsive Computing for American Indian Youth: Making Activities With Electronic Textiles in the Native Studies Classroom

By providing access to hands-on activities and the physical and digital tools necessary to complete them, maker activities encourage cross-disciplinary, interest-driven learning and problem solving in schools. However, maker movement efforts to broaden participation into computer science have largely ignored Indigenous populations. In this dissertation, I examine how electronic textiles (e-textiles) materials connects to the heritage craft practices found in many Indigenous communities. By design, e-textiles materials combine low-tech craft practices like sewing with high-tech engineering and programming. Framing learning computing within these two distinct but overlapping cultural contexts provides youth will a familiar context in which to learn something new (programming), promotes positive identity development, and fosters connections across multiple dimensions of youth’s lives. At the core of this work is design-based research into the development and implementation of a three-week electronic textiles unit in gender-segregated Native Studies class with American Indian youth (12-14 years old) at a charter school located on tribal lands in the Southwest. This unit was implemented four times over the course of the school year. Findings highlight how different groups of students (American Indian girls and American Indian boys) engaged with e-textiles activities and how their perspectives on computing developed through participation in the unit. In addition, the teacher’s perspective on integrating digital technologies in the Native Studies classroom is explored within the context of contemporary Federal Indian educational policy and practice. This work makes three significant contributions to ethnography, computing education, and American Indian education. First, it proposes a new methodology through the integration of ethnography with design-based research and critical Indigenous research approaches. Second, it contributes to the emerging field of culturally responsive computing by exploring what happens when computing moves beyond the screen and into the tangible realm. Third, it furthers our understandings of the role of digital technologies in American Indian education, with a particular focus on how making activities might contribute to increased educational sovereignty for Indigenous peoples throughout the United States

Combinatorial number theory through diagramming and gesture

Within combinatorial number theory, we study a variety of problems about whole numbers that include enumerative, diagrammatic, or computational elements. We present results motivated by two different areas within combinatorial number theory: the study of partitions and the study of digital representations of integers. We take the perspective that mathematics research is mathematics learning; existing research from mathematics education on mathematics learning and problem solving can be applied to mathematics research. We illustrate this by focusing on the concept of diagramming and gesture as mathematical practice. The mathematics presented is viewed through this lens throughout the document. Joint with H. E. Burson and A. Straub, motivated by recent results working toward classifying $(s, t)$-core partitions into distinct parts, we present results on certain abaci diagrams. We give a recurrence (on $s$) for generating polynomials for $s$-core abaci diagrams with spacing $d$ and maximum position strictly less than $ms-r$ for positive integers $s$, $d$, $m$, and $r$. In the case $r =1$, this implies a recurrence for $(s, ms-1)$-core partitions into $d$-distinct parts, generalizing several recent results. We introduce the sets $Q(b;\{d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_k\})$ to be integers that can be represented as quotients of integers that can be written in base $b$ using only digits from the set $\{d_1, \ldots, d_k\}$. We explore in detail the sets $Q(b;\{d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_k\})$ where $d_1 = 0$ and the remaining digits form proper subsets of the set $\{1, 2, \ldots, b-1\}$ for the cases $b =3$, $b=4$ and $b=5$. We introduce modified multiplication transducers as a computational tool for studying these sets. We conclude with discussion of $Q(b; \{d_1, \ldots d_k\})$ for general $b$ and digit sets including $\{-1, 0, 1\}$. Sections of this dissertation are written for a nontraditional audience (outside of the academic mathematics research community)