Redesigning an Electronic Textiles Computer Science Activity to Promote Critical Engagement
Gayithri Jayathirtha, Joseph Chipps, Luis Morales‐Navarro · 2021
In K-12 computing education, students are usually supported to learn key disciplinary concepts and practices with little attention to critical issues. Rather than separating the two learning goals, we redesigned an electronic textiles learning activity within the Exploring Computer Science introductory curriculum to extend computing concepts and practices to include the implications of computing systems. Our redesign was guided by the following principles: (a.) Making connections and building on students' lived experiences; (b.) Centering people and interactions; and, (c.) Highlighting the implications of computing. In this poster, we report on how these principles were adopted to redesign a learning activity to support critical computational engagement. We recommend future redesign efforts of existing curricular learning activities to re-conceive the very “computing system” to consider the implications of computing.