How do we balance between leaving it completely open for students to explore in inquiry-based learning, and having a plan about what we think as important for them to learn? Or does there have to be a balance? If not, if all we want students to learn is the process of inquiry, how do we assess that, and how does it fit into school’s agenda?

Since these interventions are so easy to do but usually ignored, how can technologies play a role transforming them into habit? I am thinking of using text messages daily or weekly to give parents guidance on what to do. It’d be helpful for the content of the messages to be determined by the location parents are in.

For example, by having kids and adults create stories together, they may have much fun and form a stronger bond with each other. In the storytelling class I’m currently taking, we have an organizing question, fun activities, and a design challenge for each class. I also think having some kind of structure that’s external to the storytelling process its might be helpful.

Description:

URL: http://www.vidcode.io/

Objective: get teen girls excited about coding by creating fun video and graphic effects

Target age: teens

I chose to study Vidcode, an online platform that empowers teen girls to learn to code and unleash their creativity by creating music videos, motion graphics, and fun video effects. Vidcode attracted me attention in the first place because it’s very different from many other coding websites and apps out there: it leverages the popularity of social media and allows kids to create something cool and express themselves, and the educational goal of teaching kids how to code follows naturally. (LEARNING GOAL)

Just by exploring the website, I realized that Vidcode does a great job creating communities of learners. It not only provides educators with resources including curriculum and projects, but also creates an online community for kids to share their projects with others. By involving educators, the kids’ learning experience can take place in formal learning environment in school as well. And by exploring what other people have done, kids are very likely to be inspired and even collaborate with one another. (SOCIAL)

Other than making the learning experience social, Vidcode promotes active, engaging, and meaningful learning. Since kids are working on media that’s interactive and moving rather than static, they are more likely to stay engaged; more importantly, they stay active because they can see the changes of the media based on the modifications of code (ACTIVE, ENGAGING). Since kids can upload their own videos and images to work on, what they’re doing is relevant and meaningful to their own lives (MEANINGFUL). As a result, they are more motivated to learn.

After registering an account as a student, I found that the design of the project screen is intuitive and easy to navigate. Video/image is shown on the right; codes that are generated based on drag and drop are in the middle; lessons are on the left. The lessons are short descriptions of computer science basics with actionable items, keeping kids engaged (ENGAGING).

Vidcode is pretty effective as a learning tool; I would say that it scores high in all 5 criteria: active, engaging, meaningful, social, and learning goal. However, there are three aspects that I’d to add to make it better. First, it does seem to me that it’s tailoring at very beginning users with drag and drop blocks and limited options regarding blocks. I would add more functions, or even guide students to create their own cool functions to keep the momentum of more advanced programmers. Second, the learning goals are currently grouped by what media the kids are working on (i.e., movie, animation, graphics, etc.). It would be great if those learning goals can be connected to the bigger picture, such as Common Core and AP Computer Science, so that kids can find more meaning and relevance in what they’re learning. Third, users cannot collaborate online; I would make the project workspace collaborative so that more collaborations could happen virtually.

I think a lot can be done to improve social interaction in e-reading experience: ways to facilitate collaborative reading in the same physical space and online, and create great content and interaction that foster parasocial relations.

“Thus by using a variety of media to represent a single phenomenon, we are helping children ask better questions.”

Alper made a great point here: technology can enable children to make sense of their experiences from different perspectives, either through documentation, different mediums, or social interactions. However, I feel that (1) incentives for young children to take on such projects are lacking, and (2) parents and teachers lack tools and resources to guide children through the learning experience. So here are my questions:

• In what context have existing documentation and transmedia learning technologies been used to create meaningful experience for young children?
• How effective are existing documentation and transmedia learning technologies in fostering multiple perspectives?
• How can we better engage parents and teachers as learning partners to make learning visible?