The Integration of Computational Thinking in Mathematics Education: The Current State of Practices in School, Outreach, and Public Educational Settings

This study investigates the integration of computational thinking (CT) in mathematics education by examining current CT practices in school, community outreach, and public educational settings to seek insight into further affordances of CT. A qualitative content analysis through a mix of inductive and deductive approaches is used to analyze online CT resources and computational artifacts. I interpreted the data through Kafai et al.’s (2020) framings of CT and a combination of constructionism, social constructivism, and critical literacy theories of learning. This study revealed that cognitive framing of CT (acquisition) receives greater attention compared to situated framing (participation), whereas the affordances of CT from critical framing (action) receive insufficient emphasis. The findings illustrate that using CT concepts and tools when incorporating real-world problems into mathematics instruction can improve the affordances associated with these three framings. These results will contribute to improvements in the integration of CT in mathematics teaching and learning

“Los programadores debieron pensarse como dos veces”: Exploring the Intersections of Language, Power and Technology with Bi/Multilingual Students

Critical computing approaches to K-12 Computer Science (CS) education aim to promote justice in computing and the wider world. Despite being intertwined with inequitable power dynamics in computing, issues of linguistic (in)justice have received less attention in critical computing. In this article, I draw on theoretical ideas from sociolinguistics and critical computing to analyze qualitative data collected in computing and technology-integrated language and humanities classes serving emergent bi/multilingual middle school students. Conversations about language, technology, and power were close at hand in focal classrooms, and surfaced in moments when students acted as users and critics of, and tinkerers with digital tools. Students exercised agency in relation to both technology and language – using their budding understandings of language to question digital tools, and their engagements with tools to challenge traditional language ideologies. I build on past scholarship and the findings of this analysis to argue for the development of critical translingual computing education – an approach that would engage especially language-minoritized students in critical computing to build on and affirm their language practices and promote linguistic justice in CS education, fields, and tools

Evidence of the ISTE Standards for Educators Leading to Learning Gains

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) empirically designed and published educator standards to provide a roadmap for educators on effective technology integration. The purpose of this further study was to determine what empirical evidence demonstrates that the educator practices have a positive impact on student learning. Using a scoping review methodology, a transparent protocol was used for searching, identifying, and selecting articles that map to the practices within the ISTE Standards. The findings of this study reveal that all the practices in ISTE educator standards led to learning gains. This study is important for researchers, practitioners, funders, and policymakers as it provides empirical evidence that the technology practices within the ISTE Standards lead to student learning gains

New Opportunities for Interest-Driven Arts Learning in a Digital Age

Traditionally in the United States, schools and after-school programs have played a promi-nent part in teaching young people about the arts. Arts education has been waning in K-12 public schools in recent times, however. This is especially true in low-income communities, where public schools have often cut back on arts instruction so they can devote limited public education dollars to subjects such as writing and math that are the focus of high-stakes standardized tests.When we look outside of school, however, we see a strikingly different landscape, one full of promise for engaging young people in artistic activity. What makes this landscape possible is an eagerness to explore that springs from youths' own creative passions -- what we call "interest-driven arts learning" -- combined with the power of digital technology.This report is a step in trying to understand the new territory. It gives a rundown of scholarship in the areas of arts and out-of-school-hours learning; offers a framework for thinking about interest-driven arts learning in a digital age; examines young people's media consumption; provides a survey of youths' creative endeavors online and elsewhere, along with a look at the proliferation of technologies that young people are using in the arts; and concludes with thoughts about challenges and possibilities for the futur

Youth and the Participatory Promise

The emergence of digital technologies and the ways we have seen many youth engaging with the digital environment suggests that youth may no longer be just passive consumers of digital technologies but that — given the right circumstances — can become more active co-designers and co-shapers of the digital environment. This promise of enhanced participation is supported by two strands of research. First, from a purely descriptive perspective, my research shows increased participation when studying youth behavior in various areas, including privacy and news. Second, from an analytical and normative perspective, we can observe a trend — and should support the potential — of stronger youth engagement and an increase in opportunities for youth to participate as we shape the future of our digital society. The implementation of participatory research methods and the child rights discourse illustrate this participatory potential. Together, the two perspectives suggest a “participatory promise,” in which young people have an integral and constitutive role when embracing the benefits and addressing the challenges of the digital environment and shaping its future

Learning Analytics for the Formative Assessment of New Media Skills

Recent theories of education have shifted learning environments towards student-centred education. Also, the advancement of technology and the need for skilled individuals in different areas have led to the introduction of new media skills. Along with new pedagogies and content, these changes require new forms of assessment. However, assessment as the core of learning has not been modified as much as other educational aspects. Hence, much attention is required to develop assessment methods based on current educational requirements. To address this gap, we have implemented two data-driven systematic literature reviews to recognize the existing state of the field in the current literature. Chapter four of this thesis focus on a literature review of automatic assessment, named learning analytics. This chapter investigates the topics and challenges in developing new learning analytics tools. Chapter five studies all assessment types, including traditional and automatic forms, in computational thinking education. Computational thinking education, which refers to the teaching of problem-solving skills, is one of the new media skills introduced in the 21st century. The findings from these two literature reviews categorize the assessment methods and identify the key topics in the literature of learning analytics and computational thinking assessment. Studying the identified topics, their relations, and related studies, we pinpoint the challenges, requirements, and opportunities of using automatic assessment in education. The findings from these studies can be used as a guideline for future studies aiming to enhance assessment methods in education. Also, the literature review strategy in this thesis can be utilized by other researchers to develop systematic data-driven literature reviews in future studies

Documenting and Assessing Learning in Informal and Media-Rich Environments

An extensive review of the literature on learning assessment in informal settings, expert discussion of key issues, and a new model for good assessment practice. Today educational activities take place not only in school but also in after-school programs, community centers, museums, and online communities and forums. The success and expansion of these out-of-school initiatives depends on our ability to document and assess what works and what doesn't in informal learning, but learning outcomes in these settings are often unpredictable. Goals are open-ended; participation is voluntary; and relationships, means, and ends are complex. This report charts the state of the art for learning assessment in informal settings, offering an extensive review of the literature, expert discussion on key topics, a suggested model for comprehensive assessment, and recommendations for good assessment practices.Drawing on analysis of the literature and expert opinion, the proposed model, the Outcomes-by-Levels Model for Documentation and Assessment, identifies at least ten types of valued outcomes, to be assessed in terms of learning at the project, group, and individual levels. The cases described in the literature under review, which range from promoting girls' identification with STEM practices to providing online resources for learning programming and networking, illustrate the usefulness of the assessment model

Eye on Collaborative Creativity : Insights From Multiple-Person Mobile Gaze Tracking in the Context of Collaborative Design

Early Career WorkshopNon peer reviewe