ThinkerSpaces Design Studios

DecorationProject aims


My research group has been partnering with local schools and community programs to provide after-school experiences for children ages 8-12 to help them develop collaborative digital literacy and higher-order thinking skills. We accomplish this aim by focusing on HCI educational opportunities, where teams of children take on playful human-centered design challenges. Teams work with various maker tools (art supplies, Legos, Makey-Makey, MinecraftEdu), through multiple iterations of design, to try to solve these challenges. Teams are allowed to fail or succeed with little intervention from facilitators. Facilitators observe learner activity, document team problems, and analyze interactions to identify learner needs: what types of knowledge and skills do they need to develop most. Through ongoing co-modeling, articulation, coaching, scaffolding, refection, exploration (collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991), we work to help children develop needed knowledge and skills, including: collaborative competence, digital literacy, socio-emotional knowledge and skills, and an understanding of how people learn and behave.


Project Videos and Tools


Introducing Design

 


Sample Design Challenge


Introducing Lego Fred


Fred’s Profile: Self-Evaluation Form (If your trying the challenge don’t peek… no one likes a cheater đŸ™‚

 


Process Tools and Scaffolds


Posters

Strategy Cards

References

Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Holum, A. (1991). Cognitive apprenticeship: Making thinking visible. American educator, 15(3), 6-11.