Examining Student Learning in a Mobile Phone-Based, Community Research, Computer Science Curriculum

• In Event: Computational Thinking

Abstract

This paper examines what students learned, if anything, through an innovative curriculum in which students conducted community research with mobile phone apps and computer science tools. Using sociocultural theory to define learning, this mixed-methods study employed quantitative methods to analyze student pre- and post-project surveys, interpretive participant observation qualitative methods, and multimodal analyses of students’ final projects and videos of students presenting these projects. Results included students gaining new understandings of data and research, increased motivation to learn computer science, but mixed depth of analysis on students’ final projects. This paper contributes to AERA’s 2014 theme regarding educational research in an age of technological innovation, and Division C, Section 1e’s focus on learning in a carefully designed computer science environment.

Author

• Jean J. Ryoo, Exploratorium