CoTinker - A Toolkit for Supporting Computational Thinking and Collaboration in High School Education

TY - ABST

T1 - CoTinker - A Toolkit for Supporting Computational Thinking and Collaboration in High School Education

AU - Musaeus, Line Have

AU - Petersen, Marianne Graves

AU - Klokmose, Clemens Nylandsted

AU - Iversen, Ole Sejer

PY - 2022/3

Y1 - 2022/3

N2 - Computational thinking (CT) has been recognized as an important part of K-12 education in many countries and is often described in term relating to computer science both in concepts and context. However, the unique practice of computer scientists collaborating on problem solving is often overlooked in CT education in high school. We believe that collaboration is a key aspect of modern computing, and propose to integrate collaborative CT activities into existing high school education. The aim is to prepare students better for exploring computational approaches to high school disciplines as they are practiced in the professional world. Our research question is: how can we design tools for supporting students' collaboration while teaching CT in high school? A new computational environment, CoTinker, has been developed. The tool uses a cross-device approach and foster students' verbal communication and collaboration in groups. The tool was tested in a Biology class. Students' computational thinking (CT) was assessed through learning activities and students' communication was analyzed by audio recordings, of students, imbedded in CoTinker and by focus group interviews with students. Preliminary findings showed students being able to collaborate and solve CT tasks in groups independent of teacher or researchers. Results also indicated that students were able to use, navigate, and critically reflect upon the CoTinker environment.

AB - Computational thinking (CT) has been recognized as an important part of K-12 education in many countries and is often described in term relating to computer science both in concepts and context. However, the unique practice of computer scientists collaborating on problem solving is often overlooked in CT education in high school. We believe that collaboration is a key aspect of modern computing, and propose to integrate collaborative CT activities into existing high school education. The aim is to prepare students better for exploring computational approaches to high school disciplines as they are practiced in the professional world. Our research question is: how can we design tools for supporting students' collaboration while teaching CT in high school? A new computational environment, CoTinker, has been developed. The tool uses a cross-device approach and foster students' verbal communication and collaboration in groups. The tool was tested in a Biology class. Students' computational thinking (CT) was assessed through learning activities and students' communication was analyzed by audio recordings, of students, imbedded in CoTinker and by focus group interviews with students. Preliminary findings showed students being able to collaborate and solve CT tasks in groups independent of teacher or researchers. Results also indicated that students were able to use, navigate, and critically reflect upon the CoTinker environment.

KW - HCI research

KW - Computational Thinking

KW - interactive technology

KW - #CCTD

KW - CCTD

KW - Collaboration

KW - Computational Thinking

KW - Toolkit

U2 - 10.1145/3478432.3499234

DO - 10.1145/3478432.3499234

M3 - Conference abstract in proceedings

SN - 9781450390712

VL - 2

SP - 1025

BT - SIGCSE 2022

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - SIGCSE 2022: Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Y2 - 2 March 2022 through 5 March 2022

ER -