Exploring Computer-Mediated Discourse in the Scratch Online Community

• In Event: Media, Culture, and Learning SIG: The Role of Technology in Communities

Abstract

The study explored the types of online discourse that took place in the Scratch online discussion community to understand how Scratch users communicated and interacted with each other. The study aimed to answer three research questions about the differences between experienced and novice users in terms of the categories of discourse, communicative acts, and computational thinking practices. The preliminary findings showed that experienced and novice users demonstrated different categories of discourse as well as communicative acts in the two discussion forums. Experienced users represented higher computational thinking practices than novice users on the Scratch community. In particular, different types of discussion forums may serve as different functions for experienced and novice users.

Author

• Joey Huang, University of California - Irvine