CS Unplugged or Coding Classes?

In this episode I unpack Bell’s (2021) publication titled “CS unplugged or coding classes? Perhaps a more appropriate question is ‘why not both’?,” which argues there’s value in doing both unplugged and coding lessons.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK89 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each week of the podcast alternates

    between a solo episode where i unpack

    some scholarship and an episode where i

    interview

    one or multiple guests in this week's

    particular episode i'm unpacking a paper

    titled cs unplugged or coding classes

    perhaps a more appropriate question is

    why not both

    this paper was written by tim bell and i

    include a link to it in the show notes

    which you can find by clicking the link

    in the description that you're listening

    to this on or by simply going to

    jaredlery.com

    in the show notes if you click on the

    author's last name you'll be able to

    read more papers by them as it takes you

    to their google scholar profile

    or if you click on the title itself for

    the paper it takes you directly to it

    and in the show notes and on the website

    you'll find hundreds if not thousands of

    resources relevant to cs educators

    including a link to the curriculum that

    i create at budapedi.org

    which is for scratch junior and for

    scratch there's about 90 lessons at the

    moment and it's all 100

    free so if you haven't checked it out

    yet i highly recommend it

    but i'm the person who wrote it so i'm a

    bit biased

    all right so this paper does not have an

    abstract it's actually only three pages

    long

    with some pictures and so it's very

    short so i highly recommend checking it

    out

    if i were to summarize this particular

    paper into a single sentence i'd say

    that the author is arguing that there's

    value in doing both unplugged and coding

    lessons

    all right so if you're new to computer

    science or haven't heard of the idea of

    unplugged lessons unplugged lessons are

    essentially lessons that are done

    without devices

    so for example if kids are going to be

    learning about conditionals you might do

    an unplugged lesson or activity

    such as like red light green light so

    you'd be like if i hold up a green pen

    then take a step forward if i hold up a

    red pin

    stop taking a step forward etc there are

    many different ways that you can do

    unplugged lessons and activities

    csta usually has a couple of sessions

    dedicated specifically to this

    in their conference over the summer

    which is coming up in july and i'll

    include a link to that in the show notes

    all right so at the start of this paper

    the author is arguing that

    unplugged lessons have been around since

    the 90s so for about 30 years

    and some people might view this as a bit

    of a contradiction so you might see

    unplugged lessons and go well why why

    would you do that like why wouldn't you

    just like actually create something with

    a computer

    learn code so as an analogy if you were

    to think of a music class it would be

    like learning about

    an instrument and how it works but not

    actually ever getting to play it

    yeah that's great i've learned the

    fingering patterns for a recorder

    i learned to use a soft warm breath but

    i never actually got to

    play a recorder however some other

    people view it and say well this

    actually provides a really good way to

    reduce the screen

    time get some exercise and engage in

    concepts and practices

    in a kinesthetic way not to mention this

    might be helpful for teachers who can't

    afford

    devices such as tablets etc in the

    example that i was just providing with a

    recorder maybe you don't have a class

    set of recorders so you might learn how

    to do it and you'll learn how to sing

    but you won't actually get to play it

    because you can't afford it where this

    can become a problem according to the

    author

    is if it's viewed as a curriculum so

    only doing 100 unplugged lessons

    and considering that to be enough this

    might create some issues because some

    administrators quote

    might justify a lack of funding by

    suggesting that schools use unplugged

    teaching instead of buying devices

    end quote that's from page 25. so as a

    way to save

    money and to cut costs might be like

    yeah well that's nice you want to do

    computer science

    but we don't have devices so just do

    unplugged instead

    this i would argue can create

    decontextualized learning depending on

    how the unplugged is used as you're not

    actually able to situate and apply the

    understandings within a context

    so going back to the example of the

    recorder like in a general music class

    yeah you might be learning to use a warm

    slow air

    you might be learning the different

    fingering techniques you might be

    learning how to read the music

    you're not actually making music so

    you're going through the motions you're

    learning some of the concepts but you're

    not actually able to apply it by

    actually creating music or in this case

    actually creating

    something through computer science or

    through code so in the

    second half of the intro the author is

    mentioning that for some people

    there's research that shows that unplug

    can help out

    and for other people they found that

    well unplugged may have been

    a waste of time or not as valuable as

    learning how to actually code

    so the author ends this particular

    introduction by asking the question

    so why does it work for some and not for

    others okay so here's a brief

    elaboration on what

    unplugged might look like so i gave you

    an example with a red light green light

    but on page 25 the author says quote

    students construct their own knowledge

    by engaging with computational

    challenges based on

    concisely described rules where the

    process of solving the challenge gives

    them understanding of significant

    principles

    they work with games and puzzles that

    have constraints that occur in computing

    and this enables students to discover

    important ideas from computer science

    such as the insight that an algorithm

    does not necessarily take twice as long

    to process twice as much data

    or to understand concepts in everyday

    life such as error detection that makes

    barcodes reliable to scan

    or to grapple with the limits of what

    can be computed end quote

    so further in this particular section

    the author mentions that unplugged

    activities were not meant to replace

    programming

    but instead to introduce kids to

    thinking as a computer scientist or

    engaging in experiences

    from the perspective of a computer

    scientist without necessarily having to

    depend on being able to code

    now one of the reasons why this is

    important is it can contextualize or

    situate the understandings and provide

    some context

    that might not be evident within the

    software itself so it's connecting it

    with real world experiences and

    understandings

    it's also helpful because not everybody

    can afford devices

    however it's also useful in increasing

    self-efficacy

    and getting more kids interested in

    computer science through a variety

    of activities rather than just sitting

    in front of a computer programming

    something

    which for some is very exciting and for

    others that's very boring

    in addition the author mentions that

    computer science is not just coding

    so there are other things that you can

    do besides programming but i would argue

    that is a large part of computer science

    or at least can be especially in the

    elementary space so the author mentions

    that unplugged really kind of

    gained a foothold in the research and

    k-12 world

    when there was a study that did two

    different groups so one group spent 10

    weeks doing unplugged activities before

    learning how to code

    and then another group spent 10 weeks

    just learning how to code

    and they found basically no difference

    in performance

    between the two different groups having

    not read that particular study yet

    i am curious what other factors might

    need to be taken into account so for

    example

    how engaged were students in this yes

    their performance might be the same but

    do they walk away from one of the groups

    going okay well computer science

    is boring or do they walk away from the

    group going yeah this was awesome i

    really want to do that and the other

    group is just kind of indifferent

    but i don't know because i haven't read

    that study yet they do note however that

    quote the unplugged first group

    showed self-efficacy and a wider

    vocabulary of commands

    end quote page 26 so

    maybe there are more benefits from doing

    a pairing of the two so the next section

    of this paper is titled goals of

    introducing cs to young learners

    so the first goal is it's not just

    knowledge and skills so the author

    argues that in order to address some of

    the diversity issues that is going on in

    the computing industry we need to reach

    a wider range of individuals and that

    unplugs might be one way to kind of

    spark an interest in computer science

    we also need to consider that not

    everyone has access to devices

    so in addition to the economic access

    there might also be like philosophical

    differences so some schools do not allow

    devices

    until a certain age group and then there

    might be some legal considerations that

    are

    denying access so for example prison

    inmates are not allowed access to some

    computers

    so in order to learn computer science in

    those kind of contexts you need to

    engage in something without a device so

    unplugged works really well for that

    and then again the author mentions that

    computer science is more than

    programming

    all right so the next main section is

    why does unplugged work for some

    and not for others so there are three

    main things that the author mentions one

    is that context is important

    so if you're doing unplugged in a

    computer lab kids might be like well why

    are we doing this when we have computers

    right there and we can actually learn

    how to code

    and if you instead do it in a gym they

    might be more excited

    just because of the novel experience of

    it they're in a different space

    doing something that is new we also need

    to

    consider the context in relation to

    individual learners

    so are they actually excited about this

    what do they value what are they

    expecting to get out of this

    so the next thing to consider is that cs

    unplugged is not a curriculum

    even though it's sometimes treated that

    way the author argues that it is instead

    a pedagogical approach

    quote indeed interventions that

    attempted to use cs unplugged as a

    self-contained curriculum

    instead of weaving it into the existing

    one have been found to be ineffective

    end quote

    now question that i have is ineffective

    at what

    maybe it's ineffective at teaching a

    concept of practice but maybe it's super

    effective at getting kids motivated to

    continue their learning in computer

    science also what kind of effect does it

    have down the road so if

    you only did unplugged in elementary

    space let's say

    and then a kid gets to middle school

    maybe they're super excited to engage in

    programming with devices

    compared to maybe students who were

    already programming all through

    middle school using devices but i don't

    know this is me being a devil's advocate

    and just expressing that i don't

    actually know what it was ineffective at

    and why all right so the last thing is

    that teachers need support so cs is

    constantly updating there's many new

    things that teachers need

    to learn so unplugged might be a way

    that we can help teachers

    who do not have a background in computer

    science or don't have the time

    necessarily to stay up to date on

    everything

    providing some unplugged lessons might

    be able to help them

    learn concepts and teach them in an easy

    and user-friendly way

    for teachers who are new to computer

    science

    all right so i'm going to end this

    particular paper by giving a quote from

    page 27 which is quote

    when unplugged was created 30 years ago

    it was designed for quite a different

    context to the curricula now appearing

    around the world

    and yet it has emerged as a useful tool

    as part of the many approaches available

    for engaging a variety of students in

    computer science

    a combination of approaches is needed if

    we wish to engage a diverse range of

    students

    we must support teachers to adopt an

    appropriate selection

    of teaching methods in quote all right

    so this particular quote kind of leads

    into

    my lingering questions or thoughts so

    i'm going to share some things that i

    was thinking of when i read this

    particular paper

    so a question that i have for you

    listener is how do you use unplugged in

    your classes

    and when do you use it and when do you

    not use it

    so some things that you might consider

    some of the things that i considered

    when i was determining whether i should

    or should not use

    unplugged in relation to the classes

    that i was working with

    or questions like okay so unplug lessons

    can be a lot of fun

    but does that mean we should use them in

    place of coding with the device when

    should we do that when should we not do

    that

    is it to introduce a particular concept

    or practice

    or is it used to reinforce a concept or

    practice

    is it when you're trying to introduce

    something you can't easily do on a

    device

    or it might take too long to code

    something or program something and

    instead you just want kids to

    get the main idea but not necessarily

    know how to recreate that thing

    so for me i personally used it to

    reinforce an idea

    so i situated it within the middle of a

    project that might use it

    but unplugged was never used for the

    sake of just doing unplugged

    and i very rarely did it in advance of a

    concept

    it was basically prn which means like as

    needed

    so for example if some kids in the

    classes that are working with were

    all engaging on different projects in

    different platforms and languages and i

    noticed that they are having an issue

    with a particular concept

    i might introduce an unplugged lesson

    that is related to that concept

    to kind of help out that group of

    students or an entire class so for

    example in the lessons that i've created

    at bootuppd.org

    the unplugged section that's in each one

    of the lesson plans

    provides an example of where you could

    maybe spend the first class

    introducing a project and starting work

    on it the second class is diving deeper

    into it

    maybe the third class is dedicated to

    an unplugged lesson or a portion of that

    as dedicated to an unplugged lesson that

    really reinforces

    what kids are learning in their project

    and then the remaining classes or class

    after that would encourage them to

    continue to apply their understandings

    within the project that they had already

    started

    so for example if this were a project

    that took four days to work on

    you might introduce the unplugged lesson

    on lesson two or less than three

    so that way it's situated within the

    project itself

    rather than decontextualized so this is

    an

    inspiration from james paul g in

    particular who wrote a book on situated

    language and learning and we discussed

    this in the interview that i did with

    brian brown so if you haven't checked

    that out yet i link to that in the show

    notes

    and include links to g's books the

    approach is basically

    learning something when you need it

    rather than in advance of application

    all right so the way that g might

    describe computational thinking or at

    least the way that it's introduced where

    it's often positioned before actual

    application of understanding in a

    programming platform is that's kind of

    like saying okay we're going to play

    this video game but before you actually

    play the video game

    you're going to read the entire

    instruction manual so you're going to

    learn how to do stuff that you can't do

    yet

    or isn't relevant to you at the moment

    now that's a bit of an extreme because

    usually unplugged focuses on one concept

    rather than like all of them at once but

    the approach

    that i mentioned earlier with the

    conditionals like if

    i'm holding up a green pen it's going to

    mean one thing and if i hold up a red

    pen it means a different thing

    that might not be relevant to a student

    if they don't know well why would i

    need to do that in my project if instead

    they get to a point where they

    are maybe working on a story and they're

    like hey i want to make it so that when

    they click on this button

    it'll do this thing but if they click on

    this other thing it'll do something else

    and it'll give like different story

    options

    okay that's an excellent moment to say

    cool we have a way that you can do that

    using this thing called conditionals so

    it situates that learning within it

    so what i would actually like to see for

    future research is

    comparison of not just doing unplugged

    before coding and comparing that to a

    group where they're just coding

    i want to also see a group where they do

    unplugged situated within the middle of

    a particular project so again

    if let's say it takes five days to do a

    project maybe doing the unplugged on

    day two or day three rather than at the

    beginning

    seeing how that compares not only in

    terms of performance but also in terms

    of interest and motivation to want to

    learn that concept

    my guess is kids will be more interested

    in learning it because they know they

    need to know it

    to actually apply it in their project at

    least that's how it came across with the

    kids that i worked with in the classes

    that i was in

    now another question to consider when

    engaging in these unplugged is

    when might you'd use unplugged without

    situating it within

    application of understanding on a device

    so there are definitely moments where it

    makes more sense to teach a concept

    especially if you need to have students

    understand it

    so for example if you are trying to

    cover all the standards which is

    something we could problematize but i

    want in this episode but if you're

    trying to cover all the standards

    some of them might not especially at the

    younger grades you might not actually be

    able to

    create something with that particular

    standard it's just learning a concept

    and going okay i understand that but i'm

    not necessarily going to make something

    with that concept so maybe an unplugged

    is really beneficial

    in that moment another question that you

    might consider is when might you just

    use coding on its own so for example if

    you are situating understandings within

    a project

    maybe you don't actually need unplugged

    to reinforce an understanding or maybe

    you do

    regardless of which approach you take

    and i'm not trying to argue that you

    should do my approach to putting in the

    middle of a project

    because you might not be engaging in

    project-based learning instead what i'm

    arguing

    is just consider the different ideas of

    how you can

    use the two in parallel or in

    conjunction with each other

    to reinforce understandings or introduce

    a new concept

    regardless of which option or options

    you choose to do with kids

    consider how do you engage in either

    approach in a way that contextualizes or

    situates learning

    in particular how do you do so in a way

    that allows students to apply their

    understandings

    beyond the one-off lesson so while i'm a

    fan of computer science and i

    love learning more about it i'm not a

    fan of computer science for the sake of

    learning computer science

    so for example if you do a lesson where

    it's about a particular concept or

    practice

    but kids aren't able to actually use

    that understanding outside of that

    lesson in itself

    or outside of the classroom what was the

    point of that

    okay that was a really neat thing but

    what am i going to use that

    but that's my own biases in relation to

    philosophical or pedagogical approaches

    to education

    so feel free to disagree with me and by

    the way if you ever would like to

    be a guest on the show you can press the

    contact me button on my website

    where we can talk about things that you

    might disagree with me on everything in

    education is gray and i'm just

    presenting

    my perspective while also trying to

    consider other perspectives that i might

    not agree with with the hopes that it

    helps you in some way to

    think through your own classes alright

    so the questions that i was asking the

    things that are sharing at the end

    probably were longer than it would take

    you to actually read the article itself

    but i do highly recommend reading

    through it

    as it did lead to some thoughts for

    myself that i'm still considering

    and don't necessarily have a answer for

    that i think is applicable

    in all situations if you enjoyed this

    episode please consider sharing with

    somebody else

    make sure you check out all the

    resources on my website

    and check out the free curriculum that i

    create at bootuppd.org

    stay tuned next week for another

    interview and the following week for

    another unpacking scholarship

    episode hope you're all staying safe and

    are having a wonderful week


My One Sentence Summary

This author argues there’s value in doing both unplugged and coding lessons.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • How do you use unplugged in your classes? When do/n’t you use unplugged in your classes?

  • When might you use unplugged without situating it within application of understanding on a device?

  • When might you use coding on it’s own?

  • How do you engage in either approach in a way that contextualizes or situates the learning?

    • How do you do so in a way that allows students to apply understandings beyond the one-off lesson?


Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode



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