Computing for all?: Examining critical biases in computational tools for learning

Given the increased need for broadening participation in computing, there must be a focus not just on providing culturally relevant content but also on building accessible and inclusive computational tools. Most efforts to design culturally responsive computational tools redesign surface features, often through making nominal changes to add cultural meaning, yet the deeper structural design remains largely intact. We take a critical perspective towards novice programming environments to elucidate how the underlying structure privileges particular epistemologies and cultures. In this paper, we examine how the cultural practice of storytelling is supported and/or inhibited within novice programming tools. We draw upon the experiences of 38 Native American youth, who worked in teams to create place-based, interactive stories and games for their community. Findings offer insights to the embedded cultural biases that exist in the structures of computational tools. We discuss insights for how to address cultural biases and promote deeper integration of cultural practices in future designs of culturally responsive computational tools.

Practitioner Notes

What is already known about this topic?

• Culturally responsive computing connects computing content heritage and vernacular cultural practices.
• “Black boxing,” or lack of transparency in how it works, in computational tools makes it difficult for novices to enter computing cultures.
• Design tools are embedded with particular ways of being, knowing, valuing and doing.

What this paper adds?

• Thirty-eight novice learners’ computational designs were shaped by the ways in which a computational tool privileged particular knowledge systems.
• Storytelling, as a critical cultural practice, especially in Indigenous cultures, is heavily constrained by the design structure of computational tools.
• Computational tools are cultural artifacts with deeply embedded epistemological, ontological and axiological biases, which directly frame what learners can do with these tools.

Implications for practice

• Collaborative, community-based design processes could mitigate the cultural biases that persist in computational tools.
• Transparency in computation tools in critical to broadening participation in computing cultures.
• Culturally responsive design of computational tools at the structural level is required to build inclusive computing cultures.

     

Standardized Testing in College Admissions: Observations and Reflections

Reflecting upon the experience serving on the University of California's Standardized Testing Task Force, and drawing lessons learned, I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has merely served to accelerate the trend of US higher education institutions moving away from current standardized tests. New educational assessments will continue to be produced. There will be strong calls for the making of completely different assessments than currently available. Educational measurement as field has much to offer and to learn.     

Empowering learners with personalised learning approaches? Agency,equity and transparency in the context of learning analytics

Abstract

The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related decisions and ‘datafying’ students in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting data. This article presents a study that explores staff and student experience of agency, equity and transparency in existing data practices and expectations towards learning analytics in a UK university. The results show a number of intertwined factors that have contributed to the tensions between enhancing a learner’s control of their studies and, at the same time, diminishing their autonomy as an active agent in the process of learning analytics. This article argues that learner empowerment should not be automatically assumed to have taken place as part of the adoption of learning analytics. Instead, the interwoven power relationships in a complex educational system and the interactions between humans and machines need to be taken into consideration when presenting learning analytics as an equitable process to enhance student agency and educational equity.     

私募股权投资后管理问题研究

对私募股权投资后管理的内涵、私募股权投资家与企业家的委托代理问题、私募股权投资后管理的动因以及私募股权投资后管理方式进行探讨。     

谈谈数学与学风

研究科学的目的在于寻求真理,因而做学问的态度应当十分严肃.无论从事什么工作,要想取得成绩,做出贡献,就必须付出代价.现代计算机科学中的大批研究课题都是数学性的问题。     

专业学习共同体视角下我国高校教研室建设策略

高校教研室是承担大学功能的重要载体,在执行教学计划、开展教学改革、提高教师素质等方面发挥着重要作用。当前,教研室在高校管理中逐步被边缘化,出现了过于行政化和"去教研室"的倾向,使得教师合作文化、教学研究功能和教师职业认同感缺失。具有生态特点和思维方式的专业学习共同体,不仅能为教研室转型发展和组织创新提供一个新的启示,也能为教师专业发展提供实践平台。为此,应从构建平等的参与机制、确立共同的愿景、培育教师合作文化、构建个人实践性知识的共享机制、完善支持性体系等方面入手,着力将教研室建设成为一个专业学习共同体。     

研究性学习模式在高等教育中的设计与实施

研究性学习是一种以学生为主的新型教学模式。在强调素质教育,注重培养学生综合能力的教育观念指导下,高校实施研究性学习是必要而可行的。为了更好地在高校开展研究性学习,我们可将其实施分为三个阶段：初期阶段、中期、后期阶段。在不同的阶段有不同的目标定位。     

课堂因理解而精彩——构建理解性学习课堂初探

新的学习科学的特色就在于它强调理解性学习。江阴市花园实验小学在学校“让生命之花幸福绽放”的办学理念引领下,尝试构建理解性学习课堂,初步形成了理解性学习三段式课堂——创设情境,构建理解心理场,为建设理解性学习课堂奠基;搭建脚手架,构建理解操作场,培养学生带得走的理解力;开展反思,构建理解经验场,让学生积攒理解性学习的后劲。     

行动研究：建设高职学习型文化的有效路径

构建学习型文化是高职院校可持续发展的必由之路,而以解决实际问题为目的的教育行动研究是构建学习型文化最有效的方式。通过教育行动研究使教师“学会学习”,培养合作学习能力,养成反思性思维习惯,提高专业化程度。     

多理论视角中的设计研究：模式与范例

学习现象的复杂性和学习研究的跨学科性决定了设计研究的多重性,其研究的理论宽度可以扩展到发展心理学、认知科学、文化心理学和文化人类学等多学科的宽广视域并可在多理论间穿行整合,因而建立单一模式来描述设计研究是不明智的。学习科学所进行的设计研究其核心目标在于跨越模式界限,促进持续的教育革新,最终走向多领域协同一致的学习研究,实现对学习在理论与实践上的更富生力的理解与革新。