Digital Week 4 & 5

Collaborative Learning week 5

Computational Thinking

In his book 'Mindstorms', Seymour Papert (1980) stated that 'when a child learns to program, the process of learning is transformed. It becomes more active and self-directed. In particular, the knowledge is acquired for a recognizable personal purpose. The child does something with it. The new knowledge is a source of power and is experienced as such from the moment it begins to form in the child's mind." (p.21)

Computational Thinking is a problem solving process. It is a fundamental skill for everyone, and involves solving problems, designing solutions and systems to solve open ended problems based on multiple variables. We illustrate the concept in this week's session with the following quotes:

“Everyone should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.” (Steve Jobs, cited in Sen, 1995)

"Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers." (Wing, 2006)

"Computational thinking is taking an approach to solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behaviour that draws on concepts fundamental to computing." (Wing, 2006)

According to Google (n.d.), Computational Thinking Means Solving problems by using:

• Decomposition: Breaking down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts
• Pattern Recognition: Observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data
• Abstraction: Identifying the general principles that generate these patterns
• Algorithm Design: Developing the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems

Scratch for Computational Thinking

Last week we used Scratch with Makey Makey. This week we will be using Scratch for computational thinking. 

Pair Programming

Pair programming is a common technique in agile software development. One member of the pair is the ‘driver’ (does the typing, and focuses on tactics) while the other is the ‘navigator’ (can review and suggest, and focuses on strategy). When pair programming you should change your roles within the pair on a regular basis, and also change your partner on a regular basis.

"This combined effort, which requires frequent role changes between the two developers, and changes of pairing, has been argued to provide benefits such as improved team discipline, cohesion and morale, better code, a more resilient work flow and creation of better solutions. It raises the working knowledge of the entire code base by all the developers, and enables mentoring of team members" (Parsons, Ryu & Lal, 2008).

Scratch Examples 

With Scratch examples you can click the 'See Inside' button to see how the code was written and, if you want to, you can make a copy to modify yourself by pressing the 'Remix' button. This example shows repetition and selection

There is also a ScratchJR for 5-7 year old and Snap! (formerly BYOB) which is an extended reimplementation of Scratch that allows you to Build Your Own Blocks. It also features first class lists, first class procedures, and continuations. These added capabilities make it suitable for a serious introduction to computer science for high school or college students.

Celebrating 50 Years of Kids Coding

This Google Doodle (which appeared the Google homepage in 2017) is a short coding game to celebrate 50 years of kids coding.

Digital Curriculum

The new digital curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2017) emphasises computational thinking. 

“In this area, students develop algorithmic thinking skills and an understanding of the computer science principles that underpin all digital technologies. They become aware of what is and isn’t possible with computing, allowing them to make judgments and informed decisions as citizens of the digital world” (Ministry of Education, 2017). 

We will be looking at the 8 progress outcomes/whakatupuranga of the Computational Thinking technology area, which you can find through the following links: 

• 8 Progress Outcomes: tinyurl.com/CTOutcomes
• 8 Whakatupuranga: tinyurl.com/whakatupuranga

This image from the curriculum shows how the 8 progress outcomes are intended to align to levels.

Collaborative Learning week 4

Collaborative learning is a learning process that brings learners together (including the teacher) and enables students to be responsible for their own learning as well as the learning of their peers. Collaborative learning is aimed at having students fully appreciate the process of building knowledge together and improving learning outcomes by collective knowledge and collective capability. We might link these ideas with the concept of kotahitanga, as outlined in this week's in class video from Trevor Moeke

In the flipped preparation discussion this week we will be looking at how collaboration links with the learning theories of constructivism and constructionism. A learning theory is about changes in observable behaviour. It addresses: how such changes become relatively permanent, whether the change is immediate or potential, what role experience plays, and what aspects of reinforcement are present (Olsen & Hergenhahn, 2013).

These top ten learning theories are particularly relevant to digital and collaborative learning

1. Conditioning
2. Connectionism and the Law of Effect
3. Progressive Education
4. Constructivism: Social Development Theory
5. Constructivism: Equilibration
6. Social Cognitive Theory
7. Situated Learning / Cognition
8. Community of Practice
9. Constructionism
10. Connectivism

Constructionism

Constructionism argues that collaborative learning is particularly effective in environments where learners are required to actually produce what Seymour Papert refers to as a 'social product' - and this may be anything from a robot to a computer game or even a mathematical theory.

Papert & Harel (1991) state that constructionism is the idea of learning-by-making and that these activities display qualities of "learning-richness":

"The simplest definition of constructionism evokes the idea of learning-by-making... I do not believe that anyone fully understands what gives these activities their quality of "learning-richness." But this does not prevent one from taking them as models in benefiting from the presence of new technologies to expand the scope of activities with that quality." Papert & Harel (1991)

Constructivism

Constructivism is based on a type of learning in which the learner forms, or constructs, much of what he or she learns or comprehends (Cashman et al., 2005). This means that knowledge is constructed, and transformed by students. The learning process is something a learner does by either activating already existing cognitive structures, or by constructing new ones that accommodate the new input. Learners do not passively receive knowledge from the teacher; teaching becomes a transaction between all the stakeholders in the learning process. One of the ideas associated with constructivism is Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (what the learner can do with the guidance of a knowledgeable other).

Liu and Matthews (2005) put constructivism in its historical context, contrasting it with earlier behaviourist and cognitivist theories; "knowledge is not mechanically acquired, but actively constructed within the constraints and offerings of the learning environment… The mechanistic positivist accounts of learners as recipients of hard-wired knowledge were supplanted by accounts of learners as situated, active knowledge constructors.”

Scratch

The first activity of this session will be using Scratch, a visual programming tool with Makey Makey kits to make a musical instrument.

Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, and it helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. With Scratch you can program your own stories, games and animations and share and use other projects on the online library. When combined with a Makey Makey it can be used to respond to external events to create interactive programs. Makey Makey is an electronic circuit board that allows users to connect everyday objects to computer programs that respond to events.

After the activity, we will reflect on how constructionist and constructivist theories apply to this type of learning.

Some other ways in which Makey Makeys can be used are:

• Building scientific instruments
• Flight simulators
• Power motors
• Lighting LED's
• Rain gauge
• Home security system
• Selfie switch
• Bringing code to life.

These ideas are described in the video on the portal: Makey Makey: An invention kit for everyone.

Cooperation and Collaboration

One area of debate in education is the difference (or similarity) between cooperation and collaboration. To begin our discussion this week we ask you to answer the PollDaddy question at poll.fm/5zccy to share your own viewpoint on collaboration and cooperation

In his book chapter, 'What do you mean by collaborative learning'. Pierre Dillenbourg suggests that it is not easy to define what we mean by collaborative learning, since there are many different opinions. “This book arises from a series of workshops on collaborative learning, that gathered together 20 scholars from the disciplines of psychology, education and computer science… The reader will not be surprised to learn that our group did not agree on any definition of collaborative learning. We did not even try. There is such a wide variety of uses of this term.”

This, however, is not very helpful to teachers who are required by 'Our Code, Our Standards'  to “Teach in ways that enable learners to learn from one another, to collaborate, to self-regulate and to develop agency over their learning.” (Education Council, 2017).

Fortunately there are some ideas in the literature that can help us to define what collaborative learning means. Kozar (2010) uses the analogy of a pot luck dinner to compare cooperation and collaboration. In a potluck dinner, people cook and bring different dishes to the table. Had they cooked together they would have learned a lot more from one another; they would have taken away some practical, hands-on skills even if cooking together had meant a messier and a more chaotic process. In the cooperative process, guests return back to their homes being able to cook only the same dish they brought. In collaboration, guests cook together to  gain new knowledge or experience from the interaction.

A few other ideas about what defines collaborative learning include

• Shifting the responsibility for learning to the student (Panitz, 1999).
• For non-foundational knowledge (picks up where cooperative learning leaves off) (Bruffee, 1995).
• A social contract (instructions, settings, constraints) (Dillenbourg, 1999).
• Horizontal not vertical division of labour (reasoning layers, not subtasks) (Dillenbourg, 1999).
• Interdependent, with shared responsibility to make substantive decisions together (ITL Research, 2012)