Computational Participation

Yasmin B. Kafai concludes “From Computational Thinking to Computational Participation in K–12 Education,” by stating “reading code is about reading the world. It is needed to understand, change, and remake the digital world in which we live” (27). From my own learning experience, just like other topics we learn, coding and programming needs to feel relevant to be meaningful. I went to high school in the early 2000s and took computer classes from grade 8 to 12 (back in those days, the course was called “Information Technology”). The course content surveyed many tech topics- we dabbled in Photoshop, created videos, word processed, learned Microsoft Office suite, and did basic HTML and Java. I still remember creating a simple “Hello World” script. However, because I was not a student who was interested in gaming or apps, literally all I remember from Java is the phrase, “Hello World.” On the other hand, other things I learned felt very relevant. For example, I still remember a lot of basic HTML and have used it solve simple design issues on my old teacher blog as well as this one, and I still know how to edit videos quickly because of that class. So, I think that getting students curious and interested in how specific technology skills can be applied and getting involved in computational participation activities will bring meaning and relevance. 

In my secondary school, a lot of the computational participation that Kafai describes in her article is taking place in computer science and robotics courses, but I do not see it transferring out into the other classes. Game and App design is a popular elective course at our school- I overhear my students speaking excitedly about what they have learned. There is a group of students that hangs out in one of the computer labs at lunch- they are helping one another create games almost as often as they are playing existing games. As the coordinator for the grade 10 IB Personal Project (a grade 10 wide project that allows students to pursue an independent inquiry of their choice), I see students create very sophisticated games, interesting apps, and interactive digital models. They share their work with other students in a school-wide showcase. Again, in this example, it is the students with a pre-existing interest in coding who are pursuing their passion. This leads me to my first question, at the secondary school level, how do we help students who are not already interested in coding or programming to become interested in how these skills can help them connect with others and be creative in new ways?

As a secondary school Social studies teacher, I find myself being pulled in so many directions- from teaching citation, emphasizing digital literacy, academic writing, SEL, on top of the traditional content, it feels like a lot to add programming too! Sometimes I feel held back because of fear of a lot of planning for a disappointing result. For example, though not a programming example, my Human Geography students spent a lot of time building an interactive neighbourhood map using ArcGIS software (powerful digital mapping software used by cities, engineers, etc for civic planning). Unfortunately, it took a huge amount of class time to get started and we ran into some JSON issues with the software that took me and one of the education ambassadors from ArcGIS hours to fix. The situation made me wary of further collaborative technology use in class. So, another question I have is, how can subject teachers be better supported so that they can incorporate computational participation opportunities in their classes? It’s not that I do not want to put in the effort, I just want a guaranteed “payoff.” ;)

Reference:

Kafai, Yasmin B. "From Computational Thinking to Computational Participation in K-12 Education." Communications of the ACM, Vol. 59, No. 8, Aug. 2016, p. 26–27. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.queensu.ca/10.1145/2955114. Accessed 10 May 2022.