research-article

One Size Fits All: Designing for Socialization in Physical Computing

Authors:

Gabriella Anton,

Uri WilenskyAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Pages 825 - 831

https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287423

Published: 22 February 2019 Publication History

Abstract

National and state educational initiatives are increasingly prioritizing computer science and computational thinking as valued sets of skills and practices. However, despite ongoing efforts to broaden participation in computing, the field faces increasing underrepresentation of women and other racial and ethnic groups. In this paper, we argue that physical computing can provide rich, varied entryways into computing practices, and that kits that support social or collaborative use may be more compelling for underrepresented groups. We present the design of a scaled-up physical computing kit, called StegaCircuits, which we created to foster more social, exploratory introductions to computing. We present preliminary data collected during user tests at a Maker Faire that suggest StegaCircuits supports social introductions to physical computing through multi-user interaction. Finally, we highlight promising facets of the design that may positively impact cognitive and emotional responses to computing fields.

References

[1]

Ayah Bdeir. 2009. Electronics as material: LittleBits. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, pp. 397--400. ACM.

Digital Library

[2]

Matthew Berland. 2016. Making, tinkering, and computational literacy. Makeology: Makers as learners 2: 196--205.

[3]

Paulo Blikstein. 2013. Digital fabrication and 'making' in education: The democratization of invention. FabLabs: Of machines, makers and inventors 4.

[4]

Paulo Blikstein. 2015. Computationally enhanced toolkits for children: historical review and a framework for future design. Foundations and Trends in Human--Computer Interaction 9, no. 1: 1--68.

Digital Library

[5]

Paulo Blikstein, and Uri Wilensky. 2007. Bifocal modeling: a framework for combining computer modeling, robotics and real-world sensing. In annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, USA.

[6]

Corey Brady, Kai Orton, Weintrop, Gabriella Anton, Sebastian Rodriguez, and Uri Wilensky. 2017. All roads lead to computing: Making, participatory simulations, and social computing as pathways to computer science. IEEE Transactions on Education 60: 59--66.

[7]

Leah Buechley, Mike Eisenberg, Jaime Catchen, and Ali Crockett. 2008.The LilyPad Arduino: using computational textiles to investigate engagement, aesthetics, and diversity in computer science education. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 423--432. ACM, 2008.

Digital Library

[8]

Leah Buechley, and Hannah Perner-Wilson. 2012. Crafting technology: Reimagining the processes, materials, and cultures of electronics. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 19, no. 3: 21.

Digital Library

[9]

Betsy DiSalvo. 2014. Graphical qualities of educational technology: Using drag-and-drop and text-based programs for introductory computer science. IEEE computer graphics and applications34, no. 6: 12--15.

[10]

Michael Eisenberg. 2003. Mindstuff: Educational technology beyond the computer. Convergence 9, no. 2: 29--53.

[11]

Shuchi Grover, Stephen Cooper, and Roy Pea. 2014. Assessing computational learning in K-12. In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education, pp. 57--62. ACM, 2014.

Digital Library

[12]

Yu Guo, Aditi Wagh, Corey Brady, Sharona T. Levy, Michael S. Horn, and Uri Wilensky. 2016. Frogs to Think with: Improving Students' Computational Thinking and Understanding of Evolution in A Code-First Learning Environment. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 246--254. ACM.

Digital Library

[13]

Michael S. Horn. 2013. The role of cultural forms in tangible interaction design. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, pp. 117--124. ACM.

Digital Library

[14]

Nathan Holbert. 2016. Leveraging cultural values and "ways of knowing" to increase diversity in maker activities. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 9: 33--39.

Digital Library

[15]

Yasmin B. Kafai, Eunkyoung Lee, Kristin Searle, Deborah Fields, Eliot Kaplan, and Debora Lui. 2014. A crafts-oriented approach to computing in high school: Introducing computational concepts, practices, and perspectives with electronic textiles. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 14, no. 1: 1.

Digital Library

[16]

Yasmin B. Kafai, and Mitchel Resnick. 1996. eds. Constructionism in practice: Designing, thinking, and learning in a digital world. Routledge.

[17]

Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher. 2003. Unlocking the clubhouse: Women in computing. MIT Press.

[18]

NSF. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. 2017. Retrieved January 05, 2018 from https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/static/downloads/nsf17310-digest.pdf

[19]

Seymour Papert. 1980. Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. Basic Books, Inc.

Digital Library

[20]

Hannah Perner-Wilson, Leah Buechley, and Mika Satomi. 2011. Handcrafting textile interfaces from a kit-of-no-parts. In Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, pp. 61--68. ACM.

Digital Library

[21]

Barbara Rogoff, Ruth Paradise, Rebeca Mejia Arauz, Maricela Correa-Chávez, and Cathy Angelillo. 2003. Firsthand learning through intent participation. Annual review of psychology 54, no. 1: 175--203.

[22]

Shirin Vossoughi, and Bronwyn Bevan. 2014. Making and tinkering: A review of the literature. National Research Council Committee on Out of School Time STEM: 1--55.

[23]

David Weintrop, and Uri Wilensky. 2015. To block or not to block, that is the question: students' perceptions of blocks-based programming. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 199--208. ACM.

Digital Library

Cited By

Baberowski DLeonhardt TBergner N(2024)Digital Fabrication als Brücke zwischen Making und InformatikMedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung10.21240/mpaed/56/2024.02.05.X56(314-330)Online publication date: 5-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/56/2024.02.05.X
Love T(2023)Examining middle school students’ attitudes toward computing after participating in a physical computing unitInteractive Learning Environments10.1080/10494820.2023.219432632:8(3948-3967)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2023.2194326
Love TAsempapa R(2022)A screen-based or physical computing unit? Examining secondary students’ attitudes toward codingInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.10054334:COnline publication date: 1-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100543
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

One Size Fits All: Designing for Socialization in Physical Computing
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. K-12 education
  2. User characteristics
    1. Gender
    2. Race and ethnicity

Recommendations

Impact of Physical Computing on Learner Motivation
Koli Calling '18: Proceedings of the 18th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

Intrinsic motivation is a key element of successful and effective learning. In computer science lessons, some students lack this kind of motivation. Physical computing requires learner initiative and activity, places high demands on their skills for ...
Designing a Middle School Science Curriculum that Integrates Computational Thinking and Sensor Technology
SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

This experience report describes two iterations of a curriculum development process in which middle school teachers worked with our research team to collaboratively design and enact instructional units where students used sensors to investigate ...
Teaching with physical computing devices: the BBC micro:bit initiative
WiPSCE '17: Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education

There is a growing interest in small programmable devices that can be used in schools and in extra-curricular contexts to teach computer science. The BBC micro:bit is one such device; through a collaborative venture, micro:bits were recently distributed ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

February 2019

1364 pages

ISBN:9781450358903

DOI:10.1145/3287324

General Chairs:
Elizabeth K. Hawthorne
Union County College, USA
,
Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Sarah Heckman
North Carolina State University, USA
,
Jian Zhang
Texas Woman's University, USA

Copyright © 2019 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

Sponsors

SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 22 February 2019

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

SIGCSE '19

Sponsor:

SIGCSE

SIGCSE '19: The 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

February 27 - March 2, 2019

MN, Minneapolis, USA

Acceptance Rates

SIGCSE '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 169 of 526 submissions, 32%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

Upcoming Conference

SIGCSE Virtual 2024

Sponsor:
sigcse

1st ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference

December 5 - 8, 2024

Virtual Event , NC , USA

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

6
Total Citations
View Citations
211
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)11
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 19 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Baberowski DLeonhardt TBergner N(2024)Digital Fabrication als Brücke zwischen Making und InformatikMedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung10.21240/mpaed/56/2024.02.05.X56(314-330)Online publication date: 5-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/56/2024.02.05.X
Love T(2023)Examining middle school students’ attitudes toward computing after participating in a physical computing unitInteractive Learning Environments10.1080/10494820.2023.219432632:8(3948-3967)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2023.2194326
Love TAsempapa R(2022)A screen-based or physical computing unit? Examining secondary students’ attitudes toward codingInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.10054334:COnline publication date: 1-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100543
Chang RWang WChiang CWu TXu ZLuo JChen BYang XKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)AccessibleCircuits: Adaptive Add-On Circuit Components for People with Blindness or Low VisionProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445690(1-14)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445690
Brady C(2021)Patches as an expressive medium for exploratory multi‐agent modellingBritish Journal of Educational Technology10.1111/bjet.1308752:3(1024-1042)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2021
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13087
Chung CHsiao I(2020)Computational Thinking in Augmented Reality: An Investigation of Collaborative Debugging Practices2020 6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN)10.23919/iLRN47897.2020.9155152(54-61)Online publication date: Jun-2020
https://doi.org/10.23919/iLRN47897.2020.9155152

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents