Modeling in ethnocomputing: replacing bi-directional flows with recursive emergence

Ethnocomputing is the study of the intersections between culture and computing. In addition to cultural analysis of computing, it also utilizes computing to model artifacts or practices from a given culture. In this essay, we consider three modes of modeling. In the first mode, the knowledge flow is unidirectional: the researcher analyzes indigenous designs and provides a computing model. In the second mode, the knowledge flow is bidirectional with researchers bringing a technical etic (outsider) perspective and informants bringing a cultural emic (insider) perspective. In the third mode, knowledge flow is recursive; there are bidirectional flows nested within other bidirectional flows. Our case study begins with computer simulations of log curves in Adinkra symbols in Ghana. Thus, we show that there are nested flows between nature and the indigenous artisans who model nature’s growth patterns; between our own ethnocomputing simulations and the students and teachers in Ghanaian classrooms; and finally between the history of computing in the West and the implementation of educational technology. Our data indicates that a recursive model that can account for these nested flows better enables researchers to integrate social justice and sustainability with education and research in both social and technical domains

AI for a Generative Economy: The Role of Intelligent Systems in Sustaining Unalienated Labor, Environment, and Society

Extractive economies pull value from a system without restoring it. Unsustainable extraction of ecological value includes over-fishing, clear-cut logging, etc. Extraction of labor value is similarly objectionable: assembly line jobs for example increase the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, depression, suicide and other problems. Extraction of social value--vacuuming up online personal information, commodification of the public sphere, and so on-- constitutes a third form. But all three domains--ecological value, labor value, and social value--can thrive in unalienated forms if we can create a future of work that replaces extraction with generative cycles. AI is a key technology in developing these alternative economic forms. This paper describes some initial experiments with African, African American, and Native American artisans who were willing to experiment with the introduction of computational enhancements to their work. Following our report on these initial results, we map out a vision for how AI could scale up labor that sustains “heritage algorithms”, ecologically situated value chains and other hybrid forms that prevent value alienation while flourishing from its robust circulation.NSF grant DRL-1640014NSF grant DGE-0947980Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150647/1/FSS-19_paper_64.pdfDescription of FSS-19_paper_64.pdf : Preprint Versio

Automation for the Artisanal Economy: Enhancing the Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Crafting Professions with Human-Machine Collaboration

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to eliminate millions of jobs, from finance to truck driving. But artisanal products—(e.g. handmade textiles) are valued precisely because of their human origins, and thus have some inherent “immunity” from AI job loss. At the same time, artisanal labor, combined with technology, could potentially help to democratize the economy, allowing independent, small scale businesses to flourish. Could AI, robotics and related automation technologies enhance the economic viability and environmental sustainability of these beloved crafting professions, perhaps even expanding their niche to replace some job loss in other sectors? In this paper we compare the problems created by the current mass production economy, and potential solutions from an artisanal economy. In doing so, the paper details the possibilities of utilizing AI to support hybrid forms of human-machine production at the micro-scale; localized and sustainable value chains at the meso-scale; and networks of these localized and sustainable producers at the macro scale. In short, a wide range of automation technologies are potentially available for facilitating and empowering an artisanal economy. Ultimately, it is our hope that this paper will facilitate a discussion on a future vision for more “generative” economic forms in which labor value, ecological value and social value can circulate without extraction or alienation.National Science Foundation DRL-1640014National Science Foundation DGE-0947980Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150492/1/Eglash et al. accepted in 2019.pdfDescription of Eglash et al. accepted in 2019.pdf : Preprint Versio

TECHNO-VEGETAL COLLABORATIONS: PLANTS AS COLLABORATORS IN THE DESIGN OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Posthumanist educational methodologists, theorists, and researchers tend to reproduce zoocentrism by privileging animals over plants in their scholarship. This comes at a time when disciplines from across the academy are taking “plant turns” by attending to plants’ abilities to sense and communicate, as well as their material relationships, representational significance, and lively entanglements with non-plants. This amounts to a rejection of traditional Western science and philosophy that treat plants as passive forms of life. To encourage this plant turn in posthumanist educational scholarship, I turn toward Anishinaabe-gikendaasowin, plant science, and continental philosophy to help recognize the agencies and behaviors of plants that challenge human exceptionalism. I engage with these knowledge systems through multispecies storytelling about the collaborative design of a library computer science learning environment. Multispecies stories from these collaborations not only show how plants contributed to computer science learning, but also how they affected and were affected by humans, nonhumans, and technologies in the library. These findings have implications for posthumanist educational research and computer science educatio

Software Design in the 'Construction Genre' of Learning Technology: Content Aware versus Content Agnostic

This article describes and critiques a phenomenon that we identify as content agnosticism in the ?construction genre? of educational software. Our thesis is that the content agnostic position ? the assumption that any technology which supports constructionist learning theories must act as a blank slate or empty container ? has been erroneously presented as the single trajectory towards the development and implementation of constructionist technologies. We survey some of the disadvantages to the content agnostic position, ranging from violent video game formats to ways in which consumption practices perform a corporate colonization of childhood. As an alternative framework we reconsider the constructionism ? instructionism continuum as just one of two orthogonal dimensions; here both content agnostic and content aware constructionist positions are possible. We review some successful content aware design in math and computing education, and finally provide a detailed case study of Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs), as an example of how constructionism can be combined with a content aware approach to math and computing software design

Adinkra Mathematics: A study of Ethnocomputing in Ghana

This paper details the development and evaluation of software that allows middle school students to explore the mathematical aspects of Ghanaian Adinkra symbols. We tested the effectiveness of this simulation in a Ghanaian junior high school by conducting a randomized quasi-experiment. We begin this paper by framing culturally responsive math education within the interventionist tradition of ethnomathematics. We draw this tradition together with an empirical exploration of the mathematics embedded in Adinkra symbols. We follow this with a methodological explanation for how we translated the mathematical significance of Adinkra into the design of our software, ?Culturally Situated Design Tools.? Finally, we describe the quasi-experimental evaluation of the software using a randomized assignment of students in control and intervention groups in Ghana. We found statistically significant improvement for students using the culture-based software in comparison to similar software with no cultural content

Matemáticas Adinkra: Un Estudio de Etnocomputación en Ghana

This paper details the development and evaluation of software that allows middle school students to explore the mathematical aspects of Ghanaian Adinkra symbols. We tested the effectiveness of this simulation in a Ghanaian junior high school by conducting a randomized quasi-experiment. We begin this paper by framing culturally responsive math education within the interventionist tradition of ethnomathematics. We draw this tradition together with an empirical exploration of the mathematics embedded in Adinkra symbols. We follow this with a methodological explanation for how we translated the mathematical significance of Adinkra into the design of our software, “Culturally Situated Design Tools.” Finally, we describe the quasi-experimental evaluation of the software using a randomized assignment of students in control and intervention groups in Ghana. We found statistically significant improvement for students using the culture-based software in comparison to similar software with no cultural content.Este artículo detalla el desarrollo y la evaluación de un software que permite a estudiantes de secundaria explorar los aspectos matemáticos de los símbolos Adinkra de Ghana. Se puso a prueba su eficacia en una escuela secundaria de Ghana mediante la realización de un casi-experimento aleatorizado. El artículo comienza enmarcando la educación matemática culturalmente responsable en la tradición intervencionista de las etnomatemáticas. Se combina esta tradición con una exploración empírica de las matemáticas presentes en los símbolos Adinkra. A continuación se explica cómo traducir el significado matemático de Adinkra en el diseño del software “Culturally Situated Design Tools”. Por último, se describe la evaluación cuasi-experimental del software usando una asignación aleatoria de estudiantes en grupos de control y grupos de intervención en Ghana. Se encuentra una mejoría estadísticamente significativa en los estudiantes que utilizan el software basado en la cultura, en comparación con un software similar sin contenido cultural

Generative Contexts: Generating value between community and educational settings

As educators and researchers, the authors of this paper participated, at different points in time, in a National Science Foundation funded research program to place culturally responsive education into generative justice frameworks. We discovered that the mechanisms to create generative contexts—contexts where value can possibly be returned to the community where the people generating that value live and work—in-school, after-school, and not-school were not uniform and required individual attention and care. One can think of generative contexts as the educational preconditions for generative justice. We aim to show how generative contexts are crucial to understanding a larger theory of generative justice. To do this we provide three examples of generative contexts. First is a generative context in-school, where a technology teacher brought a community hairstylist into her classroom to help teach computer programming through cornrow braiding; a skill relevant to her African American students. Next is a generative context after-school where a student demonstrates soldering skills that she learned from family members. The third is a not-school “E-Waste to Makerspace” workshop where students created garden-technology designs for low-income communities.

Contextos Generativos: gerando valor entre a comunidade e os ambientes educacionais

As educators and researchers, the authors of this paper participated, at different points in time, in a National Science Foundation funded research program to place culturally responsive education into generative justice frameworks. We discovered that the mechanisms to create generative contexts—contexts where value can possibly be returned to the community where the people generating that value live and work—in-school, after-school, and not-school were not uniform and required individual attention and care. One can think of generative contexts as the educational preconditions for generative justice. We aim to show how generative contexts are crucial to understanding a larger theory of generative justice. To do this we provide three examples of generative contexts. First is a generative context in-school, where a technology teacher brought a community hairstylist into her classroom to help teach computer programming through cornrow braiding; a skill relevant to her African American students. Next is a generative context after-school where a student demonstrates soldering skills that she learned from family members. The third is a not-school “E-Waste to Makerspace” workshop where students created garden-technology designs for low-income communities. Participamos, na qualidade de educadores e pesquisadores, em diferentes momentos, de um programa de pesquisa financiado pela National Science Foundation para colocar a educação sensível à diversidade cultural nos moldes da justiça generativa. Descobrimos que os mecanismos para criar contextos generativos – contextos em que o valor pode ser restituido à comunidade onde as pessoas que o geram vivem e trabalham – escolar, extra-escolar e não escolar, não eram uniformes e requeriam atenção e cuidado individuais. Pode-se pensar em contextos generativos como pré-condições educacionais para a justiça generativa. Pretendemos mostrar como os contextos generativos são cruciais para entender uma justiça generativa em sentido mais amplo. Para isso fornecemos três exemplos de contextos generativos. O primeiro é escolar: uma professora de tecnologia trouxe à sua sala de aula uma comunidade de cabeleireiros para ajuda-la a ensinar programação computacional através da feitura de tranças – uma habilidade relevante para seus estudantes afro-americanos. O segundo é extra-escolar: uma estudante demonstra habilidades de soldadora (prática que aprendeu com familiares). E o terceiro contexto é não escolar: o “E-Waste to Makerspace”; oficina na qual os estudantes projetaram um jardim tecnológico para comunidades de baixa renda

Generative Contexts: Generating value between community and educational settings

As educators and researchers, the authors of this paper participated, at different points in time, in a National Science Foundation funded research program to place culturally responsive education into generative justice frameworks. We discovered that the mechanisms to create generative contexts—contexts where value can possibly be returned to the community where the people generating that value live and work—in-school, after-school, and not-school were not uniform and required individual attention and care. One can think of generative contexts as the educational preconditions for generative justice. We aim to show how generative contexts are crucial to understanding a larger theory of generative justice. To do this we provide three examples of generative contexts. First is a generative context in-school, where a technology teacher brought a community hairstylist into her classroom to help teach computer programming through cornrow braiding; a skill relevant to her African American students. Next is a generative context after-school where a student demonstrates soldering skills that she learned from family members. The third is a not-school “E-Waste to Makerspace” workshop where students created garden-technology designs for low-income communities. Participamos, na qualidade de educadores e pesquisadores, em diferentes momentos, de um programa de pesquisa financiado pela National Science Foundation para colocar a educação sensível à diversidade cultural nos moldes da justiça generativa. Descobrimos que os mecanismos para criar contextos generativos – contextos em que o valor pode ser restituido à comunidade onde as pessoas que o geram vivem e trabalham – escolar, extra-escolar e não escolar, não eram uniformes e requeriam atenção e cuidado individuais. Pode-se pensar em contextos generativos como pré-condições educacionais para a justiça generativa. Pretendemos mostrar como os contextos generativos são cruciais para entender uma justiça generativa em sentido mais amplo. Para isso fornecemos três exemplos de contextos generativos. O primeiro é escolar: uma professora de tecnologia trouxe à sua sala de aula uma comunidade de cabeleireiros para ajuda-la a ensinar programação computacional através da feitura de tranças – uma habilidade relevante para seus estudantes afro-americanos. O segundo é extra-escolar: uma estudante demonstra habilidades de soldadora (prática que aprendeu com familiares). E o terceiro contexto é não escolar: o “E-Waste to Makerspace”; oficina na qual os estudantes projetaram um jardim tecnológico para comunidades de baixa renda