Onramps to Computer Science

This conversation is with a group of founders designing novel learning experiences to engage learners. The conversation explores each approach, and what values they bring to what they design and build for learners. How does "engagement" relate to what skills, identities, and dispositions these experts hope that learners attain including but not limiting to computer science.Armando Somoza is a new media artist, technologist, social entrepreneur, and educator. He is committed to the creative application of immersive learning experiences, cultural entrepreneurship, and digital technologies as an agent of provocation and change. He holds an MFA in Emergent Digital Practice and a BA in Ethnic Studies. He is a career educator, artist, and technologist currently serving as a graduate level Adjunct Professor at NYU Steinhardt and CEO & Co-Founder of Rapport Studios, a creative agency that exists to disrupt, awaken, and reorient people’s relationship to knowledge and culture. Our product, CodeSCTY, leverages original hip hop music and youth culture to teach computational thinking and coding - like Schoolhouse Rock for coding.Chenits Pettigrew is an accomplished musician, educator, entrepreneur and creative director. Through innovative curriculum development, live performance, multimedia creation and master classes, his work aims to foster sustainable change. He has worked with arts and community organizations domestically and internationally in pursuit of this mission. He is the co-founder of Soul Science Lab, a music and multimedia production company and Chief Creative Officer of Rapport Studios, a creative education agency. At Rapport he is focused on building dynamic content for CodeScty, a product that uses original hip hop music to teach computer science concepts. Chenits holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from Pennsylvania State University and an interdisciplinary Master’s in Music Business & Tech and Art as Activism from New York University. Leandra Tejedor and her cofounder Alexandra Diracles are proving that the best way to teach teens, especially girls, computer programming is go where they live: social media videos. It's a Javascript coding curriculum that can be used as a stand-alone course or a unit within a CS course. Vidcode has reached over 150,000 students (62% girls) in 113 countries, and recently partnered with Snapchat to help enable teens to code their own snapchat filters. Tejedor holds a degree in design and interactive media from Ramapo College.We often forget how rare it is that any of us as learners truly stumbles upon a deep motivation, a love for a topic, or enthusiasm for new skills out of nowhere. And yet, so many of the approaches we take through institutional learning make the assumption that you - empty vessel awaiting relevant knowledge - are eager to dive in.  Today especially, we're obsessed as a country with "readiness." For the future, for jobs, for the challenges of tomorrow, but nobody every got ready for anything by having others shove it cram it down our throat. As many of you are aware, thoughtful, well-designed onramps can be the difference between pushing through an already cracked door, and feeling around aimlessly for a secret opening in a library wall like in a scene from Harry Potter. You get what I'm saying - meet everyone...Links from this episode:Kiki Dance ChallengeVidCodeCodeSCTYMark Guzdial, University of Michigan: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

The show is about learning with technology, the realities and exciting potential.Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate us, and leave a review wherever you've accessed the podcast. Find our listener survey at facebook.com/nosuchthingpodcast drop a like on the page while you're there.The music in this podcast was produced by Leroy Tindy, a guest in episode zero. You can find him on SoundCloud at AirTindi Beats.The podcast is produced by Marc Lesser. Marc is a specialist in the fields of digital learning and youth development with broad experience designing programming and learning environments in local and national contexts. Marc recently served as Youth Studies Practitioner Fellow at City University of New York, and leads a team of researchers and technologists for NAF (National Academy Foundation).Marc is the co-founder of Emoti-Con NYC, New York's biggest youth digital media and technology festival, and in 2012 was named a National School Boards Association “20-to-Watch” among national leaders in education and technology. Connect with Marc on BlueSky @malesser, or LinkedIn.What's with the ice cream truck in the logo? In the 80's, Richard E. Clark at University of Southern California set off a pretty epic debate based on his statement that "media are mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in nutrition." * So, the ice cream truck, it's a nod to Richard Clark, who frequently rings in my ear when I'm tempted to take things at face value. "Is it the method, or the medium?" I wonder.The title, No Such Thing, has a few meanings. Mostly, it emphasizes the importance of hard questions as we develop and document the narrative of "education" in the US. For Richard E. Clark, the question is whether there's such a thing as learning from new technologies. For others, it might be whether there's a panacea for the challenges we face in this field. Whatever your question, I hope that it reminds you to keep asking--yourself, your learners, others--what's working and how so.* Clark, R. E. (1983) Reconsidering Research on Learning From Media. Review of Educational Research 53(4) 445-459. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.