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.

     

State literacies and inequality: Managing Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic

For decades, Haitians have immigrated to the Dominican Republic in search of a better life, yet such hopes have been elusive for many. Since the 1980s, in the midst of shifting economic and political conditions, changing interpretations of the Constitution have increasingly denied Dominican citizenship to children born to Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Drawing on qualitative interviews with people of Haitian descent, the article demonstrates how citizenship claims are textually mediated, and it examines how agents of the Dominican state exert authority over Haitian- and Dominican-born people of Haitian descent through literacy events and literacy practices. Specifically, we consider not only how the withholding of documents shaped immigrants’ lives but also how state agents selectively and arbitrarily interpreted documents, such as passports, visas, birth certificates, and national identity cards, based upon various factors, including witnesses to the social interaction, whether bribes were forthcoming, and the state agent's determination of the social and economic value of the document bearer. While dominant development discourses routinely suggest that literacy skills provide a protective factor and potentially redress inequality, we demonstrate that literacy events are yet another social interaction in which authorities with power easily impose their interpretations on vulnerable populations.     

Hyperammonemia and hepatic status during valproate therapy

The present study was conducted to assess correlation of ammonia levels with valproate levels in epileptic patients presenting with valproate toxicity and also whether liver enzymes and ammonia levels could serve as biochemical marker of valproate toxicity. 100 patients with epilepsy who had received valproate therapy for more than 12 months and had presented with valproate toxicity and 100 controls were included in the study. The serum valproate, ammonia and liver enzymes were measured in these subjects. In patients with valproate toxicity, the mean level of serum valproate was 110.91 ± 28.68 mg/dL (therapeutic range 50–100 mg/dL). Serum ammonia was higher (86.37 ± 39.90 μg/dL) in patients with valproate toxicity compared to controls (68.73 ± 30.07 μg/dL). Out of 100 patients, only 37 patients had serum valproate level > 120 mg/dL and 22 patients had raised levels of valproate as well as ammonia. Age < 30 years and serum ammonia > 69 μg/dL is risk factors for valproate toxicity. Serum ammonia, liver enzymes should be regularly investigated in patients on valproate therapy for early diagnosis of valproate toxicity.     

萎叶提取物增强5-氟尿嘧啶对结肠癌细胞HT29和HCT116的生长抑制作用

研究目的：探讨萎叶（PB）提取物对5-氟尿嘧啶（5-FU）抑制结肠癌细胞HT29和HCT116生长的影响。研究方法：HT29和HCT116细胞分别给予PB、5-FU以及两种药物联合治疗24小时,应用等效线图法分析PB和5-FU的药效学相互作用,AnnexinV／PI染色法检测HT29和HCT116细胞的凋丁L=情况,高效液相色谱法排除PB和5-FU间任何可能的相互化学作用。重要结论：联合PB,低剂量5-FU可以在短时间内起到细胞毒作用,而单独应用PB或5-FU治疗较联合治疗可以诱导更多细胞发生凋亡。进一步采用等效线图法分析显示PB和5-Fu的联合作用在抑制结肠癌细胞HT29和HCT116的生长中分别体现出协同和拮抗作用。因此可以认为在HT29细胞中,PB使得较低剂量5-FU发挥最大抑制结肠癌细胞生长效果,然而在HCT116细胞中,PB没有显著降低5-FU的药物浓度,说明PB和5-FU的相互作用不仅仅体现在诱导细胞凋亡方面。     

Monitoring and Root Cause Analysis of Clinical Biochemistry Turn Around Time at an Academic Hospital

Quality can be defined as the ability of a product or service to satisfy the needs and expectations of the customer. Laboratories are more focusing on technical and analytical quality for reliability and accuracy of test results. Patients and clinicians however are interested in rapid, reliable and efficient service from laboratory. Turn around time (TAT), the timeliness with which laboratory personnel deliver test results, is one of the most noticeable signs of laboratory service and is often used as a key performance indicator of laboratory performance. This study is aims to provide clue for laboratory TAT monitoring and root cause analysis. In a 2 year period a total of 75,499 specimens of outdoor patient department were monitor, of this a total of 4,142 specimens exceeded TAT. With consistent efforts to monitor, root cause analysis and corrective measures, we are able to decreased the specimens exceeding TAT from 7–8 to 3.7 %. Though it is difficult task to monitor TAT with the help of laboratory information system, real time documentation and authentic data retrievable, along with identification of causes for delays and its remedial measures, improve laboratory TAT and thus patient satisfaction.     

Mixed methods for mixed reality: understanding users’ avatar activities in virtual worlds

This paper examines the use of mixed methods for analyzing users’ avatar-related activities in a virtual world. Server logs recorded keystroke-level activity for 595 participants over a six-month period in Whyville.net, an informal science website. Participants also completed surveys and participated in interviews regarding their experiences. Additionally, the study included online ethnographic observations of Whyville and offline observations of a subset of 88 users in classroom and after-school settings during their participation. A mixed-methods analysis identified a major user emphasis on avatar appearance and customization that was invariant across user typologies. Implications for the use of mixed methods in online environments are discussed with regard to three challenges resolved during the study: (1) appropriate reduction of the vast quantity of data, (2) integrated analysis of online and offline events, and (3) interactions between qualitative and quantitative data.     

Understanding Virtual Epidemics: Children’s Folk Conceptions of a Computer Virus

Our work investigates the annual outbreak of Whypox, a virtual epidemic in Whyville.net, a virtual world with over 1.2 million registered players ages 8–16. We examined online and classroom participants’ understanding of a computer virus using surveys and design activities. Our analyses reveal that students have a mostly na?ve understanding of a computer virus influenced by mythological or anthropomorphic perspectives; only few were able to describe computational elements. The 35 students who participated in a curricular intervention in addition to the virtual epidemic shared these na?ve conceptions initially, but developed more sophisticated views after the intervention. The discussion addresses possible explanations for students’ conceptions and implications for future instructional designs.