Coding at a Crossroads

In this episode I unpack Resnick and Rusk’s (2020) publication titled “Coding at a crossroads” which discusses challenges in CS and coding education, and summarizes the four guiding principles that educators can use when engaging in coding practices in their classroom.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast

    my name is jared o'leary in this week's

    episode i am unpacking some scholarship

    the last couple of months i was

    unpacking the book pedagogy of the

    oppressed by paulo freyri however today

    i'm going to unpack a short article

    by mitch resnick and natalie rusk the

    article is titled coding at a crossroads

    and it is available for free for anybody

    to read

    if you visit the link in the show notes

    you will find a link to the author's

    google scholar

    profiles as well as a direct link to the

    paper itself so you can read it

    on acm's website alright so there is no

    abstract for this particular paper

    however if i were to summarize this

    paper into a single sentence i would say

    that this short article

    discusses some of the challenges in cs

    and coding education

    and summarizes four guiding principles

    educators can use

    when engaging in coding practices in

    their classroom

    alright so at the start of this

    particular article the authors mentioned

    that schools and policy makers are

    actually starting to embrace coding in

    the class and computer science

    and acknowledging that this should be

    something that is available to all

    students

    however despite the success of cs and

    coding in the schools

    resnick and rusk point out that we still

    have a lot of work to do

    quote if we do not think carefully about

    the educational strategies and

    pedagogies for introducing coding

    there is a major risk of disappointment

    and backlash end quote from page 120.

    now this is something that really

    resonates with me and is actually

    something that i talk about in an

    interview with gt roble

    which the interview has not released yet

    i believe it will come out on december

    so stay tuned for more on that

    particular discussion

    the authors of this paper point out that

    the skills people use when

    they are coding are not just useful for

    a career

    in coding or computer science quote but

    also for personal fulfillment and civic

    engagement

    end quote that's from page 120 and these

    skills

    specifically are thinking creatively

    reasoning systematically and working

    collaboratively

    the authors describe some ways people

    are using the platform scratch to engage

    in civic engagement

    such as creating projects around how

    technology could transform society

    supporting movements like black lives

    matter or projects about the threat of

    climate change

    so in this introduction they're

    basically saying hey we've made a lot of

    ground

    we've done some great things with

    computer science and coding and made it

    so that a lot of people

    are much more aware of what's going on

    however we as a field

    need to start having a conversation

    about the ways that we teach

    and the rest of this article talks about

    the potential direction that we can go

    as a field

    okay so the next section of the paper is

    titled opportunities and challenges

    so the authors point out that kids are

    not just learning coding for the sake of

    learning coding

    so instead they are engaging in coding

    in order to learn something

    quote they are not only learning

    important mathematical and computational

    concepts

    they are also deepening their

    understanding of ideas in other

    disciplines and developing a broad range

    of problem solving

    design collaboration and communication

    skills

    unquote from page 121 however the ways

    in which we teach or facilitate coding

    classes

    has an impact or at least can have an

    impact on not only how well

    kids understand coding concepts and

    practices but whether coding itself is

    viewed as an expressive act that kids

    can engage in

    all right so there are four main

    challenges that are presented here one

    is decontextualized learning the next

    one is replication

    next one is not enough time and the last

    one is automated assessments

    and those category names by the way are

    names that i've provided

    just for clarification purposes all

    right so the first challenge

    decontextualized learning here's a quote

    from pages 121 and 122.

    quote too often schools are introducing

    students to computer science by teaching

    them definitions of words

    associated with computing without

    providing them with opportunities to

    learn

    and apply computational concepts and

    practices in the context of meaningful

    activities

    for example some school districts

    introduce computing to elementary

    students

    by teaching them the definition of the

    word algorithm and the differences

    between hardware and software

    instead of engaging students in active

    learning through computing activities

    such as coding an animated story or

    programming a robot

    to dance end quote so this particular

    challenge of decontextualized learning

    is something that

    myself and many of the guests on the

    show have also talked about so

    i strongly agree with this as a

    challenge that we need to talk about as

    a field so the next one is

    replication so rather than encouraging

    kids to

    like tinker experiment debug prototype

    etc

    coding is often introduced as

    replicating existing code

    or solving problems with one correct

    solution so the authors

    provide an example of 30 identical

    projects being shared all at once

    and they initially thought that this was

    like a bug on their website that they

    needed to address

    but they then realized that it was 30

    different usernames from the same class

    so this approach of having kids in a

    class all create the exact same project

    in the same way prevents the opportunity

    for kids to express themselves

    through creative coding and thinking

    again this is also something that

    really resonates with me as i mentioned

    before my

    classes that i previously worked with

    kids were not replicating projects they

    were

    creating their own projects and in the

    boot up lessons that i have designed

    they're all supposed to be interest

    driven now unfortunately i have seen

    some people actually teach the lessons

    so that every single kid recreates the

    example project that i created

    but that's not the intention with these

    lessons so again

    this challenge really resonates with me

    and i agree

    we should avoid as a field replication

    for replication's sake and instead focus

    on creating with code

    all right so the third challenge that's

    presented in this paper is not enough

    time

    and by not enough time they mean not

    just for coding

    but also coding with one language or

    platform

    quote within this limited time students

    might learn some basic terms and

    concepts

    but they don't have the opportunity to

    put the ideas to use in a meaningful way

    and thus are unlikely to be able to

    apply the ideas in other contexts in

    other subjects

    and in situations where coding is

    allocated more time the curriculum often

    pushes teachers and students to shift

    from one coding tool to another

    rather than providing time for learning

    a tool well enough for designing

    projects

    solving problems and communicating ideas

    end quote page 122.

    you're going to hear me say this a lot

    but again this really resonates with my

    own approach

    so the kinder and first grade kids that

    i work with they all use

    scratch junior the second and third

    grade classes that i worked with i'll

    use scratch

    and then grades four through eight had

    the opportunity to pick

    from scratch to use sonic pi which used

    the language ruby and allowed you to

    code music

    to create art and animation with

    javascript through khan academy's

    program or to create apps using

    xcode and swift so they have that

    opportunity to pick

    four different platforms when they're in

    grades four and above however i

    encourage them

    to pick one and dive deep into it so

    some kids would stick with a single

    language for multiple years

    probably at least 80 percent of most

    classes just stuck with scratch

    for each grade level however some kids

    would shift between

    platforms like every semester or so and

    what was interesting is

    the level of transfer from it so i would

    constantly go up to

    a computer screen and be like oh how'd

    you figure out how to do that

    they'd be like oh well i remembered that

    i could do this in scratch

    so i wondered if i could do something

    similar in javascript

    or whatever so this particular challenge

    that they're highlighting if you are

    spending a short amount of time

    on one platform and then diving into the

    next platform and then the next

    odds are you're probably going over the

    same surface level concepts and

    understandings

    in different platforms but are not able

    to dive as deep as if you had spent the

    same amount of time

    on a single platform across the entire

    year

    alright so the fourth challenge that is

    presented is on automated

    assessments quote too often researchers

    and educators are adopting automated

    assessment tools

    that evaluate student programming

    projects only by analyzing the code

    without considering the project goals

    content design

    interface usability or documentation in

    quote

    from page 122. here's another quote on

    why this is problematic

    quote this form of assessment doesn't

    take into consideration

    what the student's program is intended

    to do how well it accomplishes

    the student's goals whether the code

    works as intended

    whether people are able to interact with

    it or how the student's thinking

    develops over a series of projects

    end quote from page 122. so this is one

    of the reasons why i actually recommend

    if you're going to use an

    automated tool use it for reflective

    practices rather than for evaluative

    or assessment practices so have kids use

    a tool

    and then use it as a way to guide their

    own reflection

    so for example the tool might point out

    that they don't have any conditional

    blocks

    and then they would go oh yeah i could

    add some conditionals into my project or

    they might go

    no that doesn't make sense for this

    particular project i don't need

    conditionals

    all right so as a quick summary the four

    challenges that were presented by

    resnick and rusk

    are decontextualized learning

    replication not enough time

    and automated assessments again those

    are my own

    summary of each one of those challenges

    okay so the next section of this paper

    is titled computational fluency so the

    authors note that many programs focus

    so narrowly on coding fluency or

    computational thinking

    that they are decontextualized from

    application or are situated

    within problems that only have a single

    correct answer

    so in their research and in my own

    experience as well

    coding can be motivating and meaningful

    when kids are able to create projects

    that express their own ideas

    so rather than using the term

    computational thinking on its own

    they prefer to quote use the phrase

    computational fluency to describe this

    ability to use

    computational techniques to communicate

    ideas effectively and creatively

    end quote page 122.

    so this situates the idea of

    computational thinking within creative

    pursuits

    and although not everyone will pursue

    coding for career related purposes

    when quote students create their own

    stories games and animations with code

    they start to see themselves as creators

    developing confidence and pride in their

    ability to create things and express

    themselves with new technologies

    end quote from page 123. now although

    the authors are

    recommending this approach and i

    recommend it as well the authors note

    that it takes time to develop this kind

    of fluency

    and this particular section of the paper

    ends with a short example of a kid who

    used scratch to become

    both a computational creator and

    computational thinker

    okay so now we get into the main portion

    of the paper which is

    labeled as four guiding principles and

    they also describe it as the four ps of

    creative learning

    which are projects passion peers and

    play

    quote these principles provide a

    framework to guide the design of

    technologies

    activities curriculum communities and

    spaces to support

    coding and learning end quote from page

    all right so let's unpack each one of

    these four guiding principles

    so the first one projects quote provides

    students with opportunities to work on

    meaningful projects

    not just puzzles or problem-solving

    activities so they experience the

    process of turning an initial idea

    into a creation that can be shared with

    others in quote from page 124

    okay so the authors note that there is

    some value in learning how to code

    by solving puzzles and that it is

    certainly easier for teachers who are

    new to cs

    to assess and manage that kind of

    approach to learning

    quote but learning to code by solving

    logic puzzles

    is somewhat like learning to write by

    solving crossword puzzles

    that's not the way to become truly

    fluent just as students develop fluency

    with language by writing their own

    stories

    not just playing word games students

    develop fluency with coding by creating

    projects

    not just solving puzzles end quote from

    page 124

    and again this really resonates with my

    own approach and

    which is why bootup's curriculum that

    i've written is 100 project-based

    learning

    and is what i engaged with in the

    classes that i facilitated

    across all grade levels alright so the

    next guiding principle

    passion quote allows students to work on

    projects connected to their interests

    they will work longer and harder and

    learn more in the process end quote from

    page 124.

    so resnick and rusk mention they value

    platforms and approaches to coding

    that allow kids to connect with their

    interests because it allows kids to

    create

    and share something that is relevant and

    meaningful to them

    this is such a high priority for them

    that they actually evaluate scratch

    classes or workshops by analyzing how

    diverse the projects are

    that come from that experience so if

    there are 30 kids or 30 adults within a

    class

    on scratch they want to see 30 very

    different or diverse projects coming out

    of that experience

    rather than everyone creating the exact

    same thing here's a quote from page 125.

    quote we often refer to this idea with a

    phrase

    many paths many styles some students

    make elaborate plans

    others explore and tinker some students

    enjoy telling stories

    others enjoy making patterns some

    students are excited about animals

    others are excited about sports to

    ensure coding is for all it is important

    to support these diverse entry points

    and approaches

    end quote again this sounds like many of

    the things that

    the guests have mentioned on the show

    and things that i have mentioned in

    other unpacking scholarship episodes

    i'm gonna have to start finding some

    papers that i completely disagree with

    all right so the third section of the

    guiding principles

    peers quote encourage collaboration and

    sharing and help students learn to build

    on the work of others

    end quote from page 125. so having a

    community-based platform like scratch

    allows kids to have an audience to share

    creations with

    it provides inspiration by seeing what

    other people have created in the same

    platform

    and allows kids to connect and

    collaborate with others who have shared

    interests

    now that being said i would argue that

    we could have all of those things

    outside of scratch or in something that

    is completely offline

    so for example if you downloaded the

    offline version of scratch you could

    have it so that kids have an audience to

    share with inside of their class or

    school

    allow them the opportunity to be able to

    share and learn from others

    and to be able to connect and

    collaborate with other kids within their

    class or across

    other classes or grade levels we have

    similar interests

    so as one example of that kids in the

    classes that i worked with could choose

    who they wanted to work with or work

    independently on projects

    and there were two kids who actually

    decided to work together

    on the same project however they were

    both in two different classes

    so one kid would come to the class

    earlier in the day

    they would then meet together at lunch

    and talk about what the first kid worked

    on

    and then the second kid would come into

    a class later in the day

    and one continue the work they would

    then meet after school and talk about

    the projects changes that were made to

    it so it's this interesting form of like

    asynchronous collaboration

    where there was time to work time to

    collaborate time to work

    and then time to collaborate again each

    day so it's pretty cool process that

    they came up with

    alright so the last guiding principle is

    play quote

    create an environment where students

    feel safe to take risks

    try new things and experiment playfully

    end quote from page 126

    so play is not viewed as an activity but

    as an

    attitude by the authors and the authors

    note that although it may appear

    more efficient to do direct instruction

    they found that

    quote many students became more engaged

    and gain a greater sense of agency and

    confidence when they learn through

    playful experimentation and exploration

    end quote from page 126 i totally agree

    with this approach and it's what i did

    in the classroom

    i will say that i did create some

    resources to help guide students with

    specific and common questions

    but kids walked into class and

    immediately started working on their own

    projects without me having to

    demonstrate anything to the full group

    there was very little direct instruction

    and whenever there was

    it was usually one-on-one and it was a

    form of guided direct instruction

    whereas guiding them to

    a solution to their problem without

    giving them the answer right away

    all right so a quick summary of the four

    guiding principles

    so they were projects passion peers and

    play

    and they are recommending that educators

    and learning spaces have those four

    guiding principles

    so the next section is titled putting

    the four p's into practice

    and although they recommend the four ps

    they do acknowledge that it's hard to

    actually do this in some formalized

    learning context

    so to help educators see how the four ps

    can all work together within a

    formalized space they provide

    an example case study of what one

    teacher did in tacoma washington so if

    you're interested in that i highly

    recommend reading that section of the

    paper

    so the last main section of this paper

    is called the next decade

    quote we need to break down barriers

    across disciplines

    providing students with opportunities to

    work on projects that

    integrate science art engineering and

    design

    we need to break down barriers across

    age allowing people of all ages to learn

    with

    and from one another we need to break

    down barriers across space

    connecting activities in schools

    community centers and homes

    and we need to break down barriers

    across time enabling children to work on

    interest-based projects

    for weeks or months rather than

    squeezing projects into the constraints

    of a class period or curriculum unit

    end quote from page 127. this obviously

    really resonates with me

    as i mentioned before kids were able to

    learn from and share with different

    grade levels and across different

    classes

    so we broke down some of the barriers by

    age kids we're sharing not just with

    the classes in the schools but also with

    the community and other schools as well

    we're looking at some of the projects

    that the kids in my classes made

    and there were no constraints in terms

    of having to finish a project by a

    specific time

    so some kids literally worked on

    projects for multiple years

    like those two kids who were working on

    the project asynchronously

    the reason why they started doing that

    is because the previous year they are in

    the same class together and they worked

    on a scratch project

    all year long and then they wanted to

    continue to work on that project but

    they were in two separate classes

    in the same grade level the next year so

    they came up with that creative

    asynchronous form of collaboration so i

    hope when you're listening to this

    episode and other episode you're

    thinking of

    how can i apply what is being discussed

    in an interesting way in the classes

    that i work with

    but again this is difficult especially

    if we're going to change the field as a

    whole because the authors note that

    it requires a shift in how many people

    think about education

    not just educators not just

    administrators but also like politicians

    and parents community members etc

    alright so here's the final closing

    statement from page 127 of this article

    quote we are at a crossroads 10 years

    from now

    we hope we can look back and report on a

    decade of educational change

    in which schools have provided students

    with the time

    space support and encouragement they

    need to become fluent with new

    technologies

    so that they can help shape tomorrow's

    society end quote

    all right as always with these unpacking

    scholarship episodes i like to end

    with some of my lingering questions or

    thoughts so one of the questions that i

    have is what principles are missing from

    the four ps of creative learning

    so for example if an administrator would

    look at these principles

    what would they think is missing what

    about a student

    what about a parent and another question

    we might ask is what word

    might exist that describes a principle

    that doesn't start with the letter p

    maybe this is a fifth one that starts

    with the letter r i don't know

    so another question i have is how might

    we incorporate each of these principles

    in different learning environments or

    context so for example

    if you have kids at home how could you

    encourage projects

    passion peers and play in informal

    learning

    or for leisure so one framework that has

    been helpful for me

    with thinking about some of these

    principles in relation to informal

    learning context

    is participatory culture which is what i

    will discuss two weeks from now

    now with that being said i hope you

    enjoyed this quick summary of this

    particular paper

    i highly recommend reading it it's only

    eight pages long so it's a quick read

    and you can find that in the show notes

    again by clicking the link in the

    description

    of the app that you're listening to this

    on or by going to jaredoleary.com

    and then clicking on the show notes for

    this episode or a link directly to the

    article

    i hope you enjoyed this episode and i

    hope you stay tuned next week for an

    interview

    and two weeks from now from a discussion

    on participatory culture

    if you did enjoy this episode please

    consider sharing with another educator

    or cs educator who might be interested

    in these concepts

    i hope you're all having a wonderful

    week and are staying safe

Article

Resnick, M. & Rusk, N. (2020). Coding at a crossroads. Communications of the ACM 63(11), 120–127.


My One Sentence Summary

This short article discusses some of the challenges in CS and coding education, and summarizes four guiding principles educators can use when engaging in coding practices in their classroom.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • What principles are missing from the Four Ps of Creative Learning?

    • If an administrator were to look at those principles, what would they think is missing? What about a student? What about a parent?

  • How might we incorporate each of these principles in different learning environments or contexts?

    • For example, if you have kids at home, how could you encourage projects, passion, peers, and play in informal learning or leisure?


Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode



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