Critical Computation and the Social Impacts of Computing

• In Event: 47.094 - Critical Digital Literacies in a "Post-Truth" Era

Abstract

This group provides specific suggestions for integrating the social and historical contexts of computation into learning environments with the goal of making critical computation more accessible for underrepresented groups. Our current era is paradoxically post-truth and data-driven. This paradox reveals that data does not necessarily equate to truth. In educational contexts, we must convey that the ways professionals and students acquire and process data matters to the conclusions that data supports. What is often missing in computational literacies curricula is an engagement and understanding of the contexts of information and processing. How has information been processed in the past, through analog or paper formats? How now, computationally? As computers do more writing and reading for us, it will be critical for students and professionals to understand where we came from to know where we are going.

Research continues to demonstrate that social barriers can complicate and undermine the learning of computation and computing, especially for underrepresented groups in technology fields including women/girls (e.g., Ashcraft, Eger, & Friend, 2012; Google Inc. & Gallup Inc, 2016; Hill, Corbett, & St. Rose, 2010; Ito et al., 2013). In response, new guidelines for Computer Science (CS) education refer to "social impacts of computing" as necessary components of computing education, although suggestions for implementation are sparse. Drawing on work from Kafai and Burke (2014), Bers (2017), Farris and Sengupta (2016), and Author 1 (2017), we frame computational thinking as literacy and propose computational participation as a useful context for critical computing education.

We draw on policy work, historical sources, theories of literacy and education, research, and practical experience with implemented programs to provide feedback on existing frameworks, and propose suggestions for expanding the social contexts of "CS for all" type programs. Specifically, at the K12 level we extend the K12 CS Framework and explore research on outside-of-school CS programs for girls (Author 2, 2017, 2018). At the undergraduate level, we extend the Stanford CS+X model in a new course of study that blends CS and English/Media education. Historical and theoretical work on literacy (Goody, 1986; Street, 1985; Graff, 1991; Brandt, 2001; Brandt, 2014; Haas, 1996; Author 3, 2017) supports these extended frameworks.

Within the context of CS-ed policy implementation spaces, frameworks such as the K12 CS Framework outline the need for "social impacts of computing" alongside "algorithms and programming." However, there are almost no pedagogical resources and very limited research on learning processes around that concept area. This is in high contrast to things like programming which have dozens of content providers and lots of emerging learning research.

Authors

• Annette Vee, University of Pittsburgh

• Rafi Santo, New York University

• Cassandra Scharber, University of Minnesota