lowering the floor to nurture digital citizens and computational creators

✉️ thoughts from a post-doctoral fellow in cambridge

In your own experience, how has tech enable or hinder learning? 

• In personal journey & research: do not end up using as much digital tech as expected

• Research focuses on low floor

  • Concrete examples: others study VR in classrooms to learn different materials 

  • In classrooms that I work with: not enough computers in classrooms, forget passwords 

  • What can teachers can continue to do to continue their work, nurture digital citizens and computational creators and 

  • Not tied only to learning CS, and learning how to express yourself via the medium of computer science 

• How learning looks like - 

  • Inspired by Linda Berry’s work - art professor - studies how little kids think, and how adults can think creatively 

  • Thinking with your hands - what’s coming out of your pencil as a manifestation of what’s coming out of your brain 

  • Similar to Papert’s - constructing and making - looking at these things in shared realty of others 

  • AI hasn’t been a part of the workflow - although study how others use it 

    • Inspired by how others, but mostly resort to printing and writing 

• Moments of creativity and learning 

  • Grew up as a violinist - pivot into computer science and education research 

  • Lots of it around opportunities for stillness

  • In music: you build a certain amount of capacity and technique to make something interest to you 

  • Delight in things with no technique; fluency with a certain medium can afford something things, but there’s definitely value in tinkering with things with no skills 

• Evolution of access throughout course of research and tech 

  • Still continue to work with kids who don’t have access to computers

  • You def lose something when you don’t have a personal device - because limited to computers in schools 

  • Value in tinkering in your own time - sheer time with playing with computers, prescription of school activities 

  • Phone access - kids may not have computers at home, but may have phone access 

    • See that in kids’ form of digital expression - kids making tik Tok and videos at early ages , in unmoderated spaces 

• Different language - Octo-Studio (free app) released by LLK - block-based programming language 

  • Can do on phone, can do anywhere 

  • Taking photos early on 

  • Could be hung up on how new tech can change everything - with GenAI, why learn painting and photography? 

  • Same argument could be held with photography 

    • Camera feels objective - feels like anyone could take the same photo, but give 10-15 kids - but all photos will come out different 

    • Capacity for personal expression in phone

    • But people still pursue photography 

• Digital citizen definition 

STS - socio-technical studies, history of education and edtech trends - 

• Radio was going to change learning 

Productive - attempt at synthesis, curation/presentation of data - how to make connections for yourself; sensemaking