The Dancing Alice Project: Computational and Embodied Arts Research in Middle School Education

• In Event: Transformative Literacy for the Digital Age: Multimodal Composing as Embodied Teaching and Learning

Abstract

In the Dancing Alice Project, the authors have developed and piloted a method for blending dance and computer programming as a novel and embodied way to engage middle school children with computational thinking. As students engage with the content they develop, the aim is to open pathways to broaden participation in computing through the arts. It was found that the most insightful and engaged experiences in dance and computer programming occurred when the knowledge that the students were exploring and creating was body, ego, and culturally syntonic, related to their knowledge of their bodies, self, and cultural experiences. This innovative research provides possibilities for studying how we teach and how students can learn and engage in sophisticated and embodied ways.

Authors

• Alison E Leonard, Clemson University

• Shaundra Bryant Daily, Clemson University