Connected Learning Summit 2018

Connected Learning: Exploratory Programming in the Classroom
Angela Chang

Exploratory programming is an open-ended approach to learning how to program. The goal of this approach is to use coding as a tool for humanistic studies. Sixty-six students at a liberal arts college used this approach in a class titled Code, Culture, and Practice, to learn creative coding within a cultural context. In one semester, students learned enough basic programming skills to allow them to independently extend their knowledge. They took advantage of freely available, open-source code and online learning resources to quickly create, modify, and refine surprisingly complex experiences.

Innovations that Help People: A Secondary School Computer Science Curriculum
Florence Sullivan, Ricardo Poza, Carol Cohen, Ali Soken

In this paper, we report preliminary results of our case study analysis of a new computer science (CS) curriculum we have developed. Our curriculum seeks to foster girl’s interest in computer science by appealing to what Diekman et al., (2010) describe as communal goals. In our “Innovations that Help People” curriculum we present real-life problems that require CS (and STEM) skills in order to be solved. Using a problem based learning (PBL) framework, students are presented with practical problems and situations and then are guided through a process of discovery and identification of possible solutions, until a workable solution is achieved. Our curriculum features an ethical component (consequences and benefits of innovation) for students to consider and discuss as part of the “helping” focus. Our research is currently taking place at a small high school in New England, during a science class with 7 student participants. Preliminary results are reported.