Social computational thinking tools: reinventing computation education in public schools

Abstract

For the last 15 years we have been exploring notions of design and social media as means to foster highly engaging as well as effective educational environments. We have created what we call social computational thinking tools with the goal to synthesize human abilities with computer affordances. This presentation will outline three social computational thinking tools and discuss how they have combined notions of design and social media to create unique learning experiences in the classroom:1) Mr. Vetro is a Collective Simulation teaching students about human physiology through technologically enhanced role play of interacting organs,2) Scalable Game Design teaches students computational thinking through game design. They learn about computational thinking patterns in the context of game design and later apply these patterns to scientific simulation building.3) CyberCollage is a Collective Programming environment enabling students to work on game and simulation projects collaboratively in real time.