Coding to Create: A Subtext of Decisions as Early Adolescents Design Digital Media

• In Event: 58.082 - Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 58.082-14 - STEM and Computer Science: Beliefs and Actions

Abstract

A recent development in the digital composition practices of youth is the use of coding to create digital media. This paper reports on a descriptive case study focused on five early adolescents engaged in Scratch, an online programming community. The data collected included participant created digital media products, interviews, observations, and online community artifacts. Based upon a content analysis of the digital media products and an inductive analysis of the interviews, observations, and community artifacts data, I determined participants demonstrated decisions connected to the design of projects created, decisions focused on the function of projects, and decisions connected with meaning. I created a typography to represent the decisions made by participants as they created projects in Scratch.

Author

• Julia Hagge, The Ohio State University - Marion