Youth, Technology, and DIY: Developing Participatory Competencies in Creative Media Production

Traditionally, educational researchers and practitioners have focused on the development of youths’ critical understanding of media as a key aspect of new media literacies. The 21st Century media landscape suggests an extension of this traditional notion of literacy – an extension that sees creative designs, ethical considerations, and technical skills as part of youth's expressive and intellectual engagement with media as participatory competencies. These engagements with media are also part of a growing Do-It-Yourself, or DIY, movement involving arts, crafts, and new technologies. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a framework and a language for understanding the multiple DIY practices in which youth engage while producing media. In the review, we will first provide a historical overview of the shifting perspectives of two related fields—new media literacies and computer literacy —before outlining the general trends in DIY media cultures that see youth moving towards becoming content creators. We then introduce how a single framework allows us to consider different participatory competencies in DIY under one umbrella. Special attention will be given to the digital practices of remixing, reworking, and repurposing popular media among disadvantaged youth. We will conclude with considerations of equity, access, and participation in after-school settings and possible implications for K-12 education

Conceptualizing Approaches to Critical Computing Education: Inquiry, Design and Reimagination

As several critical issues in computing such as algorithmic bias, discriminatory practices, and techno-solutionism have become more visible, numerous efforts are being proposed to integrate criticality in K-16 computing education. Yet, how exactly these efforts address criticality and translate it into classroom practice is not clear. In this conceptual paper, we first historicize how current efforts in critical computing education draw on previous work which has promoted learner empowerment through critical analysis and production. We then identify three emergent approaches: (1) inquiry, (2) design and (3) reimagination that build on and expand these critical traditions in computing education. Finally, we discuss how these approaches highlight issues to be addressed and provide directions for further computing education research

Understanding virtual epidemics: Children’s folk conceptions of a computer virus

Abstract: The recent interest in virtual worlds for studying epidemics has created promising educational opportunities. Our work investigates the annual outbreak of Whypox, a virtual epidemic in Whyville.net, a virtual world with over 1.2 million registered players ages 8-16. We examined online and classroom participants' understanding of a computer virus using surveys and design activities. Our analyses reveal that students have a mostly naïve understanding of a computer virus influenced by mythological or anthropomorphic perspectives; only few were able to describe computational elements. The 35 students who participated in a curricular intervention in addition to the virtual epidemic shared these naïve conceptions initially, but developed more sophisticated views after the intervention. The discussion addresses possible explanations for students' conceptions and implications for future instructional designs

Supporting and Sustaining Equitable STEAM Activities in High School Classrooms: Understanding Computer Science Teachers’ Needs and Practices When Implementing an E-Textiles Curriculum to Forge Connections Across Communities

While the last two decades have seen an increased interest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) in K-12 schools, few efforts have focused on the teachers and teaching practices necessary to support these interventions. Even fewer have considered the important work that teachers carry out not just inside classrooms but beyond the classroom walls to sustain such STEAM implementation efforts, from interacting with administrators to recruiting students and persuading parents about the importance of arts and computer science. In order to understand teachers’ needs and practices regarding STEAM implementation, in this paper, we focus on eight experienced computer science teachers’ reflections on implementing a STEAM unit using electronic textiles, which combine crafting, circuit design, and coding so as to make wearable artifacts. We use a broad lens to examine the practices high school teachers employed not only in their classrooms but also in their schools and communities to keep these equitable learning opportunities going, from communicating with other teachers and admins to building a computer science (CS) teacher community across district and state lines. We also analyzed these reflections to understand teachers’ own social and emotional needs—needs important to staying in the field of CS education—better, as they are relevant to engaging with learning new content, applying new pedagogical skills, and obtaining materials and endorsements from their organizations to bring STEAM into their classrooms. In the discussion, we contemplate what teachers’ reported practices and needs say about supporting and sustaining equitable STEAM in classrooms

The Ethics of Play and Participation in a Tween Virtual World: Cheating Practices and Perspectives in the Whyville Community

Much attention has been paid to young people’s increased participation in digital publics and its potential impact on their development and learning. However, few studies have examined the ethics in online play and their interactions as a critical aspect in the development of youth digital culture. In this paper we turn to the issue of cheating, a widely accepted practice in many online communities, including Whyville.net, a virtual world with over 5.5 million registered players ages 8-16. Our analyses focused on culturally-relevant examples such as player-written articles on cheating and player-produced YouTube cheating videos associated with Whyville from 2000 to 2016. The findings reveal that cultural concepts like cheating are embedded and transformed in the context of youth digital interactions, productions, and reflections. In the discussion, we address implications of these findings for engaging youth with ethics in online gaming communities

STEAM Maker Education: Conceal/Reveal of Personal, Artistic and Computational Dimensions in High School Student Projects

Much of maker education’s expansion has focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning, leaving out equally promising opportunities for integrating arts learning. In this paper we share findings from a project in which high school students created electronic-textiles-based art representing features of a community important to them as a part of an elective high school computer science class. We addressed the following research questions: (1) What kinds of personal and community meanings did students convey through their maker projects? (2) How did students engage with artistic dimensions in their projects? (3) How did coding interactive features support students’ artwork? Drawing on daily observations, pre/post interviews, and documentation of students’ artifacts (photographs of in-process designs, design notebooks, and artist statements), we developed four case studies of students as they made art representing their communities using electronic-textiles as their primary medium. Our findings reveal how making became a means of personal, artistic expression with quite literal layering of coded meanings, and how maker activities can integrate art. In the discussion we consider the opportunities for authentic artistic expression in maker education by distinguishing the difference between craft and art in a maker education context. We consider the ways in which these ideas have implications for equity, pedagogy, and future research

Framing Computational Thinking for Computational Literacies in K-12 Education

The last decade has seen an increased interest in promoting computing education for all, focused on the idea of “computational thinking.” Currently, three framings for promoting computational thinking in K-12 education have been proposed, emphasizing either (1) skill and competency building, (2) creative expression and participation, or (3) social justice and reflection. While each of these emphases is valuable and needed, their narrow focus can obscure important issues and miss critical transformational opportunities for empowering students as competent, creative, and critical agents. We argue that these computational framings should be seen as literacies, thereby historicizing and situating computer science with respect to broader educational concerns and providing new directions for how schools can help students to actively participate in designing their digital futures

Connecting with Computer Science: Electronic Textile Portfolios as Ideational Identity Resources for High School Students

The development of student identities—their interests in computer science, perceptions of the discipline, and sense of belonging in the field—is critical for broadening participation of underrepresented groups in computing. This paper reports on the design of portfolios in which two classes of high school students reflected on the process of making electronic textile projects. We examine how students expressed self-authorship in relation to computer science and how the use of reflective portfolios shaped students’ perceptions of computer science. In the discussion we consider how reflective portfolios can serve as ideational resources for computer science identity construction

A programação de computadores regressa à escola

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Putting Making into High School Computer Science Classrooms: Promoting Equity in Teaching and Learning with Electronic Textiles in Exploring Computer Science

Recent discussions of making have focused on developing out-of-school makerspaces and activities to provide more equitable and enriching learning opportunities for youth. Yet school classrooms present a unique opportunity to help broaden access, diversify representation, and deepen participation in making. In turning to classrooms, we want to understand the crucial practices that teachers employ in broadening and deepening access to making. In this paper, we investigate two high school teachers’ approaches in implementing a novel eight-week, electronic textiles unit within the Exploring Computer Science curriculum, where students designed wearable electronic textile projects with microcontrollers, sensors, and LEDs. We share teachers’ emergent practices in transforming their classrooms into makerspaces, including valuing student expertise and promoting connections in personalized work. We discuss the ways these practices succeeded in broadening access to making while deepening participation in computing and establishing home-school connections