Quinn Burke

Computer Programming Goes Back to School

Learning programming introduces students to solving problems, designing applications, and making connections online.

Constructionist Gaming: Understanding the Benefits of Making Games for Learning.

There has been considerable interest in examining the educational potential of playing video games. One crucial element, however, has traditionally been left out of these discussions—namely, childrens learning through making their own games. In this article, we review and synthesize 55 studies from the last decade on making games and learning. We found that the majority of studies focused on teaching coding and academic content through game making, and that few studies explicitly examined the roles of collaboration and identity in the game making process. We argue that future discussions of serious gaming ought to be more inclusive of constructionist approaches to realize the full potential of serious gaming. Making games, we contend, not only more genuinely introduces children to a range of technical skills but also better connects them to each other, addressing the persistent issues of access and diversity present in traditional digital gaming cultures.

Computational Participation: Teaching Kids to Create and Connect Through Code

We are proposing to reframe computational thinking as computational participation by moving from a predominantly individualistic view of programming to one that includes a greater focus on the underlying social and creative dimensions in learning to code. This reframing as computational participation consists of three dimensions: functional, political, and personal. Functional pertains to the basic programming skills and concepts that someone needs to learn in order to participate in society. Political purposes capture why understanding programming skills and concepts is relevant in society. Last, personal purposes describe the role that these skills and concepts play in personal expression for building and maintaining relationships. We discuss three focal dimensions—creating applications, facilitating communities, and composing by remixing the work of others—in support of this move to computational participation by drawing from examples of past and current research, both inside and outside of school with children programming applications such as games, stories, or animations to design artifacts of genuine significance for others. Programming in a community suggests that such significance ultimately lies in the fact that we design to share with others. Programming as remixing code makes clear that we build on the work of others and need to better understand the ramifications of this approach. We situate these developments in the context of current discussions regarding broadening access, content, and activities and deepening participation in computing, which have become a driving force in revitalizing the introduction of computing in K-12 schools.

Cybersecurity in liberal arts general education curriculum

Cybersecurity learning has been explored through different analytical lenses, across a range of grade levels and academic institutions. From attempts to standardize learning with accreditation to refining curricula and labs, there is currently considerable effort to create more programs in this discipline to address a million-job gap within the cybersecurity workforce. One primary challenge in cybersecurity education on the post-secondary level is offering experiential coursework to undergraduate students at liberal arts institutions. While such experiential coursework is already prevalent at research universities, smaller liberal arts institutions are still trying to gain a foothold into offering cybersecurity as a course of study. We address this issue with the design of an undergraduate course and cybersecurity learning modules that fit into the liberal arts education. First, we present the design of a general education course situated in a new educational paradigm, project CyberPaths, aiming at helping primarily undergraduate institutions with limited resources to introduce experiential cybersecurity learning. It takes advantage of experiential learning through a cloud infrastructure called Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI). Then we describe our experience teaching this First Year Experience (FYE) course that exposed freshmen of different majors to cybersecurity. We present the design of pre- and post-course surveys, as well as focus group interviews that were used to evaluate students’ learning experience. Student feedback and direct observation suggest that incorporating flexible cybersecurity modules into general education coursework can be an effective vehicle to demonstrate importance and key concepts of cybersecurity to a diverse student population.

A Multi-Institutional Perspective on H/FOSS Projects in the Computing Curriculum

Many computer science programs have capstone experiences or project courses that allow students to integrate knowledge from the full breadth of their major. Such capstone projects may be student-designed, instructor-designed, designed in conjunction with outside companies, or integrated with ongoing free and open source (FOSS) projects. The literature shows that the FOSS approach has attracted a great deal of interest, in particular when implemented with projects that have humanitarian goals (HFOSS). In this article, we describe five unique models from five distinct types of institutions for incorporating sustained FOSS or HFOSS (alternatively H/FOSS) project work into capstone experiences or courses. The goal is to provide instructors wishing to integrate open source experiences into their curriculum with additional perspectives and resources to help in adapting this approach to the specific needs and goals of their institution and students. All of the models presented are based on sustained engagement with H/FOSS projects that last at least one semester and often more. Each model is described in terms of its characteristics and how it fits the needs of the institution using the model. Assessment of each model is also presented. We then discuss the themes that are common across the models, such as project selection, team formation, mentoring, and student assessment. We examine the choices made by each model, as well as the challenges faced. We end with a discussion how the models have leveraged institutional initiatives and collaborations with outside organizations to address some of the challenges associated with these projects.

CS for SC: A Landscape Report of K-12 Computer Science in South Carolina (Abstract Only)

The goal of the CS for SC Landscape Report is to examine the current state of computing education on the K-12 level within the state of South Carolina. Building off of the 2007 South Carolinas Computing Competitiveness Report, the report more fully examines the fundamental questions of who? what? and where? in terms how computer science education has developed in the state over the past nine years. Results are reported in this poster based on a survey of 158 K-12 educators and ten follow-up interviews with leading computing teachers and program administrators from around the state. This research is funded through a generous grant through the National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance (NSF Award No. 1228352, 1228355) administered through Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP).