Engaging young female students in digital technology programs: Part one

This report is part of a larger project commissioned by CSIRO and designed to highlight the enablers and barriers to young female students engaging with digital technology. By addressing this function, the report will thereby aid CSIRO to increase the participation of young female students in the digital technology programs offered by CSIRO’s Education and Outreach (CEdO) unit. CSIRO’s Digital Careers team have developed activities and resources to enhance and extend students’ computational thinking skills and to develop other integral skills such as teamwork, critical and creative thinking, and problem solving. In collaboration with industry partners, CEdO are responsible for running programs for primary and/or secondary students, including CyberTaipan, Microsoft FarmBeats and Bebras. The overall goal of Digital Careers is to support both teachers and students by developing resources aligned with the Australian Curriculum, and design challenges and learning experiences to enrich students’ understanding of digital technologies and prepare them for the ever-changing requirements of the workforce

KNITTING CODE: EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KNITTING AND COMPUTATIONAL THINKING SKILLS USING THE NEXUS OF PRACTICE

Due to the rise of careers in STEM-related fields, there is a growing need for schools to produce people to fill these positions. One area of STEM that is growing is computer science/coding. Due to this demand, schools need to be intentional about exposing students to computer science/coding. There are a variety of new tools to introduce students to this field. One growing belief is that knitting can teach computer science/coding to students. The goal of this study was to see if knitting can serve as an introduction to teach students computation skills. Kitting has historically been used to code information, and numerous statements have been made that knitting can teach computer coding. The rationale behind this thought is that both fields have similar components and can serve to make coding more accessible to a broader audience. Suppose students that generally would not identify with computer science/coding due to perceived social norms develop an interest in knitting. In that case, they could use what they learned as a foundation to develop an interest in computer coding. This is based on Scollon\u27s Nexus of Practice (2001), which studies how practices are linked together. This theory believes that combining different practices makes a possible crossover from one practice to another. As a result, what may not have been accessible at first due to biases or identity, may become more accessible. This study will focus on whether knitting can teach students computational skills and change students’ identity towards computer science/coding. There is limited research on the relationship between knitting and coding. This case study attempted to determine if knitting could teach coding. The research was conducted during two three-week summer enrichment programs. Results revealed that teaching computer coding through knitting was comparable to traditional instruction. While not necessarily better, this shows that knitting can teach computation skills and improve identity. This could be important for encouraging students that would not typically study computer science/coding to enter the field

Including neurodiversity in computational thinking

IntroductionThe foundational practices of Computational Thinking (CT) present an interesting overlap with neurodiversity, specifically with differences in executive function (EF). An analysis of CT teaching and learning materials designed for differentiation and support of EF show promise to reveal problem-solving strengths of neurodivergent learners.MethodsTo examine this potential, studies were conducted using a computer-supported, inclusive, and highly interactive learning program named INFACT that was designed with the hypothesis that all students, including neurodivergent learners, will excel in problem solving when it is structured through a variety of CT activities (including games, puzzles, robotics, coding, and physical activities) and supported with EF scaffolds. The INFACT materials were used in 12 treatment classrooms in grades 3–5 for at least 10  h of implementation. Pre-post assessments of CT were administered to treatment classes as well as 12 comparison classes that used 10  h of other CT teaching and learning materials. EF screeners were also used with all classes to disaggregate student results by quartile of EF.FindingsStudents using INFACT materials showed a significant improvement in CT learning as compared to comparison classes. Students with EF scores in the lower third of the sample showed the greatest improvement.DiscussionThis study shows promising evidence that differentiated activities with EF scaffolds situated across several contexts (e.g., games, puzzles, physical activities, robotics, coding) promote effective CT learning in grades 3–5

OnCreate and the virtual teammate: an analysis of online creative processes and remote collaboration

This paper explores research undertaken by a consortium of 10 universities from across Europe as part of an EU Erasmus Strategic Partnership project called OnCreate. Recent research and experiences prove the importance of the design and implementation of online courses that are learner-centred, include collaboration and integrate rich use of media in authentic environments. The OnCreate project explores the specific challenges of creative processes in such environments. The first research phase comprises a comparative qualitative analysis of collaboration practices in design-related study programmes at the ten participating universities. A key outcome of this research was in identifying the shortcomings of the hierarchical role models of established Learning Management Systems (such as Moodle or Blackboard) and the tendency towards evolving 'mash-up' environments to support creative online collaboration

Drivers for the development of computational thinking in Costa Rican students

Este estudio proporciona evidencia sobre factores que facilitan el desarrollo del pensamiento computacional (PC) en estudiantes costarricenses de primaria, incluyendo el aporte de la propuesta de LIE++ que aborda conocimientos y prácticas del PC mediante proyectos de programación y computación física. Se utilizó un diseño cuasiexperimental para comparar un grupo de estudiantes de LIE++ con un grupo de estudiantes de otra propuesta llamada LIEGuías que enfatiza aprendizajes con tecnologías digitales. En el estudio participaron 14.795 estudiantes, respondiendo voluntariamente una prueba en línea que se construyó y validó para estimar los puntajes alcanzados en PC. Los resultados mostraron que los estudiantes participantes de LIE++ obtuvieron mejores puntajes en comparación con el grupo de LIEGuías y mediante un modelo de regresión multinivel se identificaron que variables personales y sociales de los estudiantes y de la misma ejecución de la propuesta inciden en el favorecimiento de estos aprendizajes. Esta investigación es un primer acercamiento al tema en este contexto, que se refiere a la importancia de brindar oportunidades educativas que apunten a conocimientos y habilidades más avanzadas de la computación, así como a la relevancia de seguir desarrollando herramientas y metodologías que ayuden a generar evidencias sobre el PC en el ámbito educativo y así mejorar las intervenciones educativasThis study provides evidence about factors that facilitate the development of computational thinking (CT) in Costa Rican elementary school students, including the description of the contribution of the LIE++ proposal that addresses CT knowledge and practices through programming and physical computing projects. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare a group of students from the LIE++ educational proposal with a group of students from another proposal called LIE-Guides, which emphasizes learning with digital technologies. The study sample comprised 14,795 voluntary students, who answered an online test that was constructed and validated to estimate the scores achieved in CT. The results showed that the students participating in the LIE++ proposal obtained better scores compared to the LIE-Guides group. A multilevel regression model demonstrated that students’ personal and social variables, as well as the proposal’s execution scheme, positively affected student learning in CT. This research is a first approach to the subject in this context. It refers to the importance of providing educational opportunities that focus on more advanced computing knowledge and skills, as well as the relevance of continuing to develop tools and methodologies that help generate evidence about CT in education in order to improve educational intervention

Designing a Programming Game to Improve Children’s Procedural Abstraction Skills in Scratch

© The Author(s) 2020. The recent shift in compulsory education from ICT-focused computing curricula to informatics, digital literacy and computer science, has resulted in children being taught computing using block-based programming tools such as Scratch, with teaching that is often limited by school resources and teacher expertise. Even without these limitations, Scratch users often produce code with ‘code smells’ such as duplicate blocks and long scripts which impact how they understand and debug projects. These code smells can be removed using procedural abstraction, an important concept in computer science rarely taught to this age group. This article describes the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which concentrates on how procedural abstraction is introduced and reinforced. The article then reports an extended evaluation to measure the game’s efficacy with children aged 10 and 11, finding that children who played the game were then able to use procedural abstraction in Scratch. The article then uses game analytics to explore why the game was effective and gives three recommendations for educational game design based on this research: using learning trajectories and restrictive success conditions to introduce complex content, increasing learner investment through customisable avatars and suggestions for improving the evaluations of educational games