Accessible Tools and Curricula for K-12 Computer Science Education
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How Modern Learning Resources Fail Conversational Programmers April Y
Mismatch of Expectations: How Modern Learning Resources Fail Conversational Programmers April Y. Wang1, Ryan Mitts1, Philip J. Guo2, and Parmit K. Chilana1 1Computing Science 2Design Lab Simon Fraser University UC San Diego Burnaby, BC Canada La Jolla, CA USA {ayw7, rmitts, pchilana}@sfu.ca [email protected] ABSTRACT Conversational programmers represent a class of learners variety of learners, such as computer science (CS) students who are not required to write any code, yet try to learn pro- [17,28,53], end-user programmers [14,15,30,32] and profes- gramming to improve their participation in technical con- sional programmers [1,3,13]. A large focus of these projects versations. We carried out interviews with 23 conversation- has been on improving learners’ understanding of program- al programmers to better understand the challenges they ming syntax and logic and facilitating interaction with fea- face in technical conversations, what resources they choose ture-rich programming environments as these are known to to learn programming, how they perceive the learning pro- present key challenges for new learners. cess, and to what extent learning programming actually Unfortunately, most of what we know about the programming helps them. Among our key findings, we found that conver- learning process and the challenges that learners face is based sational programmers often did not know where to even on studies of students in the classroom [53] or professionals in begin the learning process and ended up using formal and industry [1]. Only recently have we started seeing studies into informal learning resources that focus largely on program- informal learning processes among non-traditional popula- ming syntax and logic. -
The Computer Clubhouse: Helping Youth Develop Fluency with New Media
The Computer Clubhouse: Helping Youth Develop Fluency with New Media Mitchel Resnick The Media Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02140 [email protected] http://www.media.rnit.edu/~mres/ Natalie Rusk Science Museum of Minnesota St. Paul, MN55101 [email protected] Abstract: The gap between the technological haves and have-nots is widening, leading to dangerous economic and cultural riftsin our society. But access to technology alone is not enough to bridge this gap. This paper describes a new model of a learning community, called the Computer Clubhouse, that breaks away from the traditional computer lab. At the Clubhouse, inner-city youth become designers and creators-not just consumers-of computer-based products. The paper describes four core principles of the Clubhouse educational approach-and discusses how the Clubhouse helps prepare today's youth for life and work in tomorrow's world. Introduction Ever since the personal computer was invented in the late 1970s, there have been concerns about inequities in access to this new technology [Piller, 1992]. Over the years, the gap between the technological haves and have nots has widened, leading to dangerous economic and cultural rifts in our society. In an effort to narrow these rifts, some groups have worked to acquire computers for inner-city schools. Other groups have opened community-access centers, recognizing that schools are not the only (or necessarily the best) place for learning to occur. At these community-access centers, members of inner-city communities (youth and adults alike) can use computers at little or no charge. -
Adolescent Mothers' Meaning Making and Mindset I
MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD i “I Think Different Now”: Adolescent Mothers’ Meaning Making and Mindset in the Transition to Parenthood Dissertation submitted by Anne Bentley Waddoups, M.A. In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Child Study and Human Development Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development Tufts University August 2015 Dissertation Committee members: M. Ann Easterbrooks, Ph.D. (Chair) Jayanthi Mistry, Ph.D. Natalie Rusk, Ph.D. Gilda A. Morelli, Ph.D. MEANING MAKING AND MINDSET IN YOUNG MOTHERHOOD i Abstract Using a meaning making lens and a qualitative methodology, this dissertation study sought to explore transformative meaning making and implicit beliefs of parenting among a sample of 40 adolescent mothers participating in a home visiting program during their transition to parenthood. Given the high attrition rate for interventions serving adolescent moms, the study also explored the alignments between meaning making and home visiting program participation. Through iterative coding and theme analysis, this investigation revealed that participants’ beliefs about parenting evolve as they transition from pregnancy to parenting. They engage in meaning making throughout the process, which leads to scripts of change in three areas: improvements in relationships, changes in life outlook, and changes to self. Two groups emerged on either end of the spectrum of meaning making. High meaning-making transformers tended to remain actively enrolled in the intervention while the low meaning-making remainers all dropped out by the second year. An analysis of implicit beliefs about parenting, or meta-parenting mindset, identified three groups of participants: fixed theorists, incremental theorists, and mixed theorists. -
Visualizando El Aprendizaje En Resolución De Problemas Abiertos En Las Artes
Visualizando el Aprendizaje en Resolución de Problemas Abiertos en las Artes Visualizing Learning in Open-Ended Problem Solving in the Arts Walter Bender Sugar Labs. E.E.U.U. [email protected] Claudia Urrea MIT. E.E.U.U. [email protected] Resumen En su artículo, "Hacer el aprendizaje visible" (Urrea y Bender, 2012), los autores describen un marco que hace que los resultados de las iniciativas de reforma de educación a gran escala sean visibles, y comprensibles y aplicables a todos los públicos: administradores educativos, educadores, padres de familia, y los propios niños. En este trabajo, examinamos detalladamente los datos de un concurso de programación entre escuelas del proyecto "Conectándonos", una iniciativa de la computación uno a uno implementado en Costa Rica por la Fundación Quirós Tanzi y el Ministerio de Educación Pública. Aplicamos este marco a los proyectos de Bloques de la Tortuga de 45 niños. Se demuestra una correlación entre la aplicación de nuestro marco al trabajo de los niños y sus resultados de aprendizaje, evaluados subjetivamente. Argumentamos que al demostrar la eficacia de un mecanismo de evaluación de actividades de resolución de problemas abiertos, eliminamos un obstáculo para hacer las artes una parte más dominante de la educación primaria. Palabras Claves Construccionismo, Programación, Logo, Bloques de la Tortuga, Diseño y Métodos de Evaluación Abstract In their paper, “Making learning visible” (Urrea and Bender, 2012), the authors describe a framework that makes the outcomes of large-scale education reform initiatives visible to and understandable and actionable by all audiences: school administrators, teachers, parents, and the children themselves. -
Integrating Human and Machine Intelligence for Enhanced Curriculum Design
Integrating Human and Machine Intelligence for Enhanced Curriculum Design Shayan Doroudi CMU-CS-19-110 May 15, 2019 School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Thesis Committee: Emma Brunskill, Chair Vincent Aleven Ken Koedinger Chinmay Kulkarni Eric Horvitz (Microsoft Research) Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Copyright © 2019 Shayan Doroudi This research was sponsored by the PIER Fellowship, Microsoft, Google, the Air Force Research Laboratory under grant number F87501720152, and the Department of Education under grant numbers R305A130215 and R305B150008. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the author and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of any sponsoring institution, the U.S. government or any other entity. Keywords: curriculum design, learnersourcing, content creation, reinforcement learning, in- structional sequencing, student modeling, model misspecification, bias-variance tradeoff If there is any good in these pages, it is for Fatima and her father and her husband and her two sons, peace and blessings be upon them. iv Abstract From the mechanical teaching machines of the early twentieth century to the wave of massive open online courses in recent years, many have been motivated by the dream of delivering a personalized adaptive curriculum to each learner. To achieve this dream, many researchers have focused on rule-based systems that rely on extensive domain expertise and psychological theories. While this approach has led to the development of successful intelligent tutoring systems with high quality content, (1) developing such systems can be very costly and (2) these systems typ- ically employ a very limited form of adaptive instructional sequencing. -
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
Annual Report Academic Year 2016–2017 Contents I. Part One: Report of Activities .............................................................................................. 3 A. Summary of Academic Year: 2016–2017 ........................................................................ 3 1. Executive Summary ..................................................................................................... 3 2. Research, Scholarship and Project Activities ............................................................... 5 3. Contributions to HLS Teaching Program .....................................................................63 4. Participation of HLS Students in Program Activities ....................................................65 5. Faculty Participation ....................................................................................................65 6. Other Contributions to the HLS Community ................................................................66 7. Law Reform and Advocacy .........................................................................................66 8. Connections to the Profession ....................................................................................67 Research ...........................................................................................................................67 The Future of Digital Privacy ..............................................................................................67 Executive Education: Digital Security for Directors and Senior Executives -
Comprehension First: Evaluating a Novel Pedagogy and Tutoring System for Program Tracing in CS1
Session1: Novice Programmer ICER’17, August 18–20, 2017, Tacoma, WA, USA Comprehension First: Evaluating a Novel Pedagogy and Tutoring System for Program Tracing in CS1 Greg L. Nelson Benjamin Xie Andrew J. Ko University of Washington University of Washington University of Washington Allen School, DUB Group e Information School, DUB Group e Information School, DUB Group Seale, Washington 98195 Seale, Washington 98195 Seale, Washington 98195 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT building writing [17, 39, 68] and visualization tools [29, 34, 34, What knowledge does learning programming require? Prior work 57, 81, 87, 91]. Pedagogy has also evolved, reordering [23, 61, 80, has focused on theorizing program writing and problem solving 84, 85] and changing what is taught [14, 50, 72], rening worked skills. We examine program comprehension and propose a formal examples [58], explicitly teaching problem solving [48, 61] and theory of program tracing knowledge based on control ow paths program design [27], and exploring a discovery pedagogy [46]. through an interpreter program’s source code. Because novices Most of these diverse approaches have been evaluated in a writ- cannot understand the interpreter’s programming language nota- ing-focused pedagogical context. People receive instruction on a tion, we transform it into causal relationships from code tokens to programming construct’s syntax and semantics, practice by writing instructions to machine state changes. To teach this knowledge, code, then advance to the next construct (roughly a spiral syn- we propose a comprehension-rst pedagogy based on causal infer- tax approach [76]). In contrast, lile prior work has explored a ence, by showing, explaining, and assessing each path by stepping comprehension-rst pedagogy, teaching program semantics—how through concrete examples within many example programs. -
Freshia Sackey
Jiradi: Reflective Documentation to Support Learning and Skills Development by Marian Mwikali Muthui B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Nairobi (2014) Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology May 2020 © Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. All rights reserved. Author ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Program in Media Arts and Sciences May 19, 2020 Certified by ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Mitchel Resnick LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research Program in Media Arts and Sciences Thesis Advisor Accepted by ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Tod Machover Academic Head, Program in Media Arts and Sciences 2 Jiradi: Reflective Documentation to Support Learning and Skills Development by Marian Mwikali Muthui Submitted to the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, School of Architecture and Planning, on May 19, 2020 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences Abstract In creative learning, reflection encourages learners to think critically about their experiences and helps to generate new ideas, insights, and outlooks. Maker practices recommend documentation, typically in the form of digital portfolios, as a method to encourage reflection. Documentation can serve two important roles: as a tool to support personal reflection about your learning experience and as a sharable record to showcase your skills development. Unfortunately, there are not currently any documentation tools that are optimized to support both personal reflection and skills development. In this thesis, I introduce “reflective documentation” -- a term that I use to describe digital documentation tools that adopt a process-oriented approach to support both personal reflection and skills development. -
Family Creative Learning: Designing Structures to Engage Kids and Parents As Computational Creators
Family Creative Learning: Designing Structures to Engage Kids and Parents as Computational Creators Ricarose Roque S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012) M.Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007) S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006) Submitted to the Department of Media Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2016 ©Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2016. All rights reserved. Author......................................................... Department of Media Arts and Sciences August 5, 2016 Certified by . Mitchel Resnick LEGO Papert Learning Professor Thesis Supervisor Accepted by . Pattie Maes Academic Head Family Creative Learning: Designing Structures to Engage Kids and Parents as Computational Creators Ricarose Roque Submitted to the Department of Media Arts and Sciences on August 5, 2016, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Arts and Sciences Abstract The ability to create, design, and express oneself with technology is an important fluency for full participation in today’s digitally medi- ated society. Social support can play a major role in engaging and deepening what young people can learn and do with technology. In particular, parents can play many roles, such as being collaborators, resource providers, and co-learners with their kids. In this dissertation, I explore the possibilities of engaging kids and their families as computational creators – people who can create things they care about with computing, see themselves as creators, and imag- ine the ways they can shape their world. I especially focus on families with limited access to resources and social support around comput- ing. -
Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society
Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society Mitchel Resnick MIT Media Laboratory In the 1980s, there was much talk about the transition from the Industrial Society to the Information Society. Then, in the 1990s, people began to talk about the Knowledge Society, noting that information is useful only when it is transformed into knowledge. But, as I see it, knowledge alone is not enough. In today’s rapidly-changing world, people must continually come up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. Success is based not only on what you know or how much we know, but on your ability to think and act creatively. In short, we are now living in the Creative Society. Unfortunately, few of today’s classrooms focus on helping students develop as creative thinkers. Even students who perform well in school are often unprepared for the challenges that they encounter after graduation, in their work lives as well as their personal lives. Many students learn to solve specific types of problems, but they are unable to adapt and improvise in response to the unexpected situations that inevitably arise in today’s fast-changing world. New technologies play a dual role in the Creative Society. On one hand, the proliferation of new technologies is quickening the pace of change, accentuating the need for creative thinking in all aspects of people’s lives. On the other hand, new technologies have the potential, if properly designed and used, to help people develop as creative thinkers, so that they are better prepared for life in the Creative Society. In this article, I discuss two technologies developed by my research group at the MIT Media Lab with the explicit goal of helping people develop as creative thinkers. -
The Research Network
THETHE CONNECTEDCONNECTED LEARNINGLEARNING CVCV RESEARCHRESEARCH NETWORKNETWORK ReflectionsReflections onon aa DecadeDecade ofof EngagedEngaged ScholarshipScholarship WrittenWritten by: by: MizukoMizuko Ito Ito RichardRichard Arum Arum DaltonDalton Conley Conley KrisKris Guttiérez Guttiérez BenBen Kirshner Kirshner SoniaSonia Livingstone Livingstone VeraVera Michalchik Michalchik WilliamWilliam Penuel Penuel KylieKylie Peppler Peppler NicholeNichole Pinkard Pinkard JeanJean Rhodes Rhodes KatieKatie Salen Salen Tekinbaş Tekinbaş JulietJuliet Schor Schor JulianJulian Sefton-Green Sefton-Green S.S. Craig Craig Watkins Watkins withwith contributions contributions from: from: AliciaAlicia Blum-Ross Blum-Ross LindseyLindsey “Luka” “Luka” Carfagna Carfagna CrystleCrystle Martin Martin R.R. Mishael Mishael Sedas Sedas NatNat Soti Soti This edition of The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Unported 3.0 License (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0/ ISBN-13: 978-0-9887255-6-0 Published by the Connected Learning Alliance. Irvine, CA. February 2020. Portions of this report were originally published in Ito et al. 2013. A full-text PDF of this report is available as a free download from https://clalliance.org/publications/ Cover art by Nat Soti Suggested citation: Ito, Mizuko, Richard Arum, Dalton Conley, Kris Gutiérrez, Ben Kirshner, Sonia Livingstone, Vera Michalchik, William Penuel, Kylie Peppler, Nichole Pinkard, Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen -
LEGO Mindstorms the Structure of an Engineering (R)Evolution
LEGO Mindstorms The Structure of an Engineering (R)evolution December 15, 2000 6.933J Structure of Engineering Revolutions Prof. David Mindell Christopher Beland Wesley Chan Dwaine Clarke Richard Park Michael Trupiano Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION......................................................................... 3 2.0 STRUCTURE OF AN ENGINEERING (R)EVOLUTION...... 6 3.0 THE EPISTEMOLOGY AND LEARNING GROUP............... 8 4.0 THE LEGO COMPANY............................................................ 23 5.0 THE MIT MEDIA LABORATORY: A FOSTERING ENVIRONMENT........................................................................ 31 6.0 SYNTHESIS ................................................................................ 38 7.0 APPENDIX: THE MEDIA LABORATORY AS A SOLUTION TO THE INNOVATOR’S DILEMMA............... 39 8.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................... 41 9.0 REFERENCES............................................................................ 42 LEGO Mindstorms: The Structure of an Engineering (R)evoloution 2 Introduction 1.0 Introduction In 1998, the LEGO Company released a new product called the LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Invention Kit that became an instant commercial success. Children and those young at heart could buy the $200 kit— consisting of 717 pieces including LEGO bricks, motors, gears, different sensors, and a “RCX Brick” with an embedded microprocessor—and construct and program various LEGO robotic creations. In fact, Mindstorms creations featured on the LEGO web site include an automated blackjack card dealer, a robot that crawls up walls, and even a robotic toilet bowl scrubber. Figure 1.1 The LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Invention Kit consists of 717 pieces, including LEGO blocks, motors, gears, various sensors, a RCX brick with an embedded microprocessor, and software for programming Mindstorms creations. Sold in toy stores across the world, the Mindstorms kit became one of the hottest selling Christmas gifts that year in the United States, selling 80,000 units in less than three months.