Digital Media and Learning Conference 2017

The emergence of STEAM education, a transdisciplinary approach that focuses on problem-solving (Delaney, 2014), is occurring worldwide, albeit with growing pains. As STEAM education continues to gain momentum, STEAM educators are trying to understand this new approach and distinguish it from STEM (Authors 2&1, 2016). Our research team conducted a 3-year longitudinal study that determined several differences between STEAM and STEM including: authentic transdisciplinarity, which foregrounds the problem and allows the disciplines to emerge naturally; arts as a part of the problem-solving process instead of an add-on; and employing a variety of methods and perspectives (e.g. drawing on interest-based learning, social justice issues) to solve problems (Authors 1&2, 2016). We view STEAM as a way to engage learners that have been historically disenfranchised from STEM. With little available literature regarding the efficacy of STEAM practices, educators have limited support to design or enact STEAM teaching (Henriksen, Mehta, & Mishra, 2014). This limitation often relegates educators to using existing STEM models and attempting to ‘add-on’ experiences with the arts (Kim & Park, 2012). 

This “Teach-In” broadens the conversations around STEAM by (1) presenting a research-based conceptual model of STEAM educational practices, (2) exploring how digital media (game and media creation) can assist in problem solving, and (3) examining a rubric created to assess student collaboration in STEAM activities (Authors, 2017) as a means to support educators in implementing STEAM instruction. We will examine ways participation is increased when engaging students with relevant problem solving, using connected learning ideals, and diversifying the types of knowledge/abilities valued to ensure more equitable instruction and participation.

Through a combination of presentation and hands-on work, the facilitators will lead the participants through the goals of this workshop which include:
1. To introduce a STEAM instructional model.
2. To demonstrate how this instructional model incorporates equitable participation through problem-based scenarios.
3. To present teacher-created problem-based scenarios connected to the community, relevant to students’ lives, and representative of real-world issues.
4. To have participants iterate the scenarios while exploring the opportunities of digital tools to contribute to equitable participation. 
5. To examine and practice using the collaboration rubric.

The field of cognitive sciences has increasingly embraced the use of media and technology in assessing and enhancing people’s cognitive skills. This panel presents an interdisciplinary approach to bridge cognitive sciences, digital media/technology, and learning sciences. We first introduce our kid-friendly cognitive assessments (e.g., Child Risk Utility Measure), highlighting the affordances and contributions of digital media in understanding children’s thinking. Established cognitive measures tend to be aesthetically unappealing to children, and often fail to take into account their cognitive limitations. Digital media and technological tools allowed us to circumvent this issue by making cognitive tests into games that children enjoy.
We then discuss four research studies which use media and technology to help improve various cognitive functions. The first seeks to improve preschoolers’ spatial reasoning ability through songs and dance that emphasize spatial vocabulary and gesturing. The second aims to improve kindergartners’ numerical knowledge through digital games meant to train children’s domain-general executive function skills or domain-specific number sense. The third targets preteens with ADHD and aims to improve working memory and inhibition processes through scaffolding within a memory game. Finally, digital training games are not limited to children; tablet games also prove to be a crucial instrument for enhancing older adults’ performance on working memory tasks. Together, these studies emphasize the versatility of digital media and technology in improving people’s learning and learning abilities in individuals of all ages.

We close with an overview into further insights our aggregate data can provide. Specifically, analyses of data from similar media-and-game training studies can help pinpoint individual characteristics that allow people to benefit from the games. In the future, we hope that understanding individual differences through these analyses can help inform personalization of learning.

Presenters and Titles:
ES: A freshly baked perspective on how we measure risk propensity in children
GL: Gametizing Cognitive Tests
RK: A Song of Space and Kids to Go “Above, Above, Above”
GL/SK: Improving Mathematics through Playing Games
MW: Improving Working Memory and Assessing Motivation to Play
CP: Benefits of Tablet-Based Brain Training in Older Adults
SM: Can Machine Learning help predict Working Memory Training Gains?

Robert Kalinowski, University of California, Irvine, School of Education, rkalinow@uci.edu
Minnie Wu, University of California, Irvine, School of Education and School of Information and Computer Sciences, Department of Informatics, minniew@uci.edu
Chelsea Parlett, University of California, Irvine, School of Education, cparlett@uci.edu
Shafee Mohammed, University of California, Irvine, School of Education, shafeem@uci.edu

The App Authors project connects youth with skills and tools to design, create, and share apps, introducing learners from all levels to coding and the design process. This multi-stage project is currently working with partner schools and public libraries in a variety of regions of the U.S. to iteratively build a curriculum that will be made publicly available at the end of our project, and contribute to scholarship examining how youth engage in informal learning about coding. We are supporting youth creators in developing problem solving and critical thinking skills while focusing on community sharing and introducing fundamental coding skills. The design of this curriculum is centered around reflective practice, and brings together the experiences and perspectives of youth, informal educators, formal educators and librarians, and designers. In addition to providing young people with early programming experience and a supportive environment for sharing their achievements, we are working to further establish the place of libraries (both school and public) as a site of opportunity to engage youth in STEM/STEAM exploration and digital development. We are wrestling with the importance of context for these activities, and addressing differences in audience, resource levels, duration of experience, and type of library with our curriculum design. Building on our experiences running the App Authors program multiple times in elementary school and public library settings, we are now expanding to train practitioners and observe how they implement this curriculum, with the goal of continued iteration based on their experiences. In addition to the practical elements of our work, we focus our research attention on understanding youth priorities for app development and their experiences within coding-oriented informal learning contexts, as well as best practices for developing these kinds of programs and how to tailor them to different settings and audiences. This session will detail the App Authors framework, current curriculum and findings, and will discuss open opportunities for future work in this arena.

The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis was the first in a series of three award-winning computational thinking games developed in the mid-1990s. In August 2015, TERC and partners re-launched Zoombinis for tablets and desktops for the commercial market. The Educational Gaming Environments (EdGE) group at TERC is studying how playing Zoombinis can help upper elementary and middle school learners build implicit computational thinking (CT) skills (e.g., problem decomposition, pattern recognition, algorithmic thinking, abstraction) that teachers can leverage in formal STEM instruction. Building on prior work with the digital science learning game, Impulse, we will combine video analysis and educational data mining to identify implicit computational thinking that emerges through gameplay (Rowe, Baker, & Asbell-Clarke, 2015). 

This spotlight presentation will report results from the first phase of this process:  developing a human labeling system for evidence of specific CT skills in five Zoombinis puzzle by analyzing video data from a sample of 70+ elementary learners in grades 3-5, middle school learners, and computer scientists. This spotlight presentation will include (1) audience gameplay; (2) discussion of video examples of the types of implicit computational thinking children and computer scientists exhibit through Zoombinis gameplay; and (3) provide an overview of learning analytics methods for combining these human-labeled video data with game log data from these learners and computer scientists to create systematic, automated ways of predicting implicit computational thinking skills from gameplay behaviors in large player audiences.

Principles and Practices of Making Inside and Outside Schools 
Provocation: How does a make/maker framework support learning?
Discussant: Deborah Fields
Abstracts: Are available here and are attached as a resource file below. 

Connected Youth-Adult Partnerships in Informal Environments
Ericka Brunson, Kitsap Regional Library
Megan Burton, Kitsap Regional Library

Implementing Culturally-Centered Robotics Programs Through Library Partnerships
Jiéyì Ludden, Seattle Public Library 

Designs for Digital Making: How Programmatic Forms Impact Constructionist Learning
Emily Schindler, University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Making with Biology: How to Grow Socially Responsive and Creative Designs with bioMAKERlab
Debora Lui, University of Pennsylvania 

If These Walls Could Breathe: The Literacies of Making a “Living Wall”in High School
Molly Buckley-Marudas, Cleveland State University 

Humanities Fabrication: The Wisconsin History Maker Kit
Mitchell Ogden, University of Wisconsin - Stout 

When it comes to film programming in libraries, the days of “hit play and walk away” are over. Today, more and more individuals have the tools for film and media production literally in the palms of their hands, and quality independent, international, and documentary films are becoming easier to access. Librarians are active in the digital revolution and part of this work includes bringing robust and meaningful film programming and hands-on digital media education into school and public libraries. How? This presentation shows how, through film and media education partnerships in their communities and by deepening their own professional development experiences in critically analyzing and creating media, librarians are advancing the digital and media literacy competencies of their patrons. 

In this session, we document the work of Media Smart Libraries, an IMLS-funded statewide professional development initiative for librarians in Rhode Island. We outline how our deep partnership with the Providence Children's Film Festival developed and how we exploited the assets of a university - community partnership to increase awareness of the value of digital and media literacy for children, teens, and families. By advancing the digital and media literacy competencies of children, teens, and families in our communities, we helped increase awareness of the value of screen media education and digital and media literacy for children, teens, families, and community leaders. We created a cadre of digital and media literacy expert librarians and improved the quality of LIS education for the next generation of public and school librarians through coursework that offers hands-on experiential learning and competencies in content creation, curation, and collaboration. But this work was not easy and there was a lot of learning along the way. We describe the design, implementation and assessment of a series of public programming events over the course of two years emphasizing the use of film and media texts, and digital media tools and technologies, drawing upon our partnership with the Providence Children’s Film Festival. We offered a series of 15+ Continuing Education Workshops for librarians designed to create a cadre of digital and media literacy experts. We describe our learning experience using a cohort program and a digital badging system to credential librarians who attend workshops/events and complete activities towards the earning of badges. Finally, we describe the consequences of revising the University of Rhode Island's MLIS curriculum to emphasize digital media literacy and experiential learning through community collaboration.

An urban educator and game designer join forces to share an innovative approach they’ve used to create explorers and risk takers while engaging diverse learners in Minecraft. Join us as we share strategies developed for addressing civic engagement and building emotional intelligence.

This deep dive will explore issues of:
- Equity & Access: Lower the barriers to provide opportunities and engagement
- Girls & Tech: Programming strategies geared toward girls and their interest
- Skill Development: 21st Century & Digital Literacy