Gerad:

Barefoot's conceptualization of computational thinking (CT) as embracing a set of concepts that could be explored by a set of approaches appealed to us because of its operational orientation.

That appeal has been borne out in practice. I'll confess that, initially, I thought it might be a challenge to integrate CT into visual arts, but, harnessing the wisdom of our art teachers to our enthusiasm, we have found it remarkably easy to do so. We devised a "curricular activity system" booklet to guide our baby steps and we will be revising this over the coming summer.

BTW: If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to visit the Barefoot site Barefoot Computing website

Thanks, Robert. After watching the video it's clear that CT has a natural application in visual arts, so hats off to your team for this creative integration!

I'm curious about what medium the students used to create their abstractions. Was it done with paper or using software? If software, can you share which one and the general level of creative expression kids have?

Many thanks, Alana. It is in no small part as a result of your support and that of your colleagues that we have been able to achieve as much as we have.

While it hasn't been a priority for us, we have asked students the question in focus groups whether the CT skills they learn with "us" transfer to other subjects. Being keen to please us, they generally say "sure" in that vague way that probably should be interpreted as "I have no idea."

BUT, one of the side projects in which we are interested is developing an instrument to assess CT that might be pertinent across subjects. Any suggestions are most welcome.

It seems to me that STE(A)M education is a great place to start with building the connections to CT because the connections are inherent. Layering on a CT framework feels like a great way to help students see the connections across subjects. I'd be excited to hear how it plays out!

Loved to see your use of the term "layering." One of the curricular activities with which the students are invited to engage drew its inspiration from palimpsests--which, of course, are artifacts of the layering process. One thing is so clear in our project is how much value is added from the expertise of the teachers with whom we are privileged to work. We are revising the curricular activities over the summer, and we are seeking to recruit another district to join us in the fall. Our project is playing out in wonderful and gratifying ways--and we hope it will continue to do so!

One of the things that we knew we wanted to avoid was somehow evaluating the quality of the art work that the students produced. After some head scratching, I came up with the idea of inviting the students to self assess after each curricular activity and sub-activity (there are eight curricular activities and varying numbers of sub-activities) regarding the extent to which they were engaging with logic, algorithms . . . (the six concepts--we discuss on an ongoing basis what the concepts mean--the Barefoot descriptions are very helpful thumbnail reminders to them and to us).

This has proven to be a most interesting exercise, as we synthesize the students' feedback by means of a modified bar chart and then invite them to reflect on the synthesis. We have also conducted a Q sort with them to get a "read" on how their perceptions relate to their grades in the subject, and we are planning to extend into assessing engagement and motivation next year.

Some of the students are very forthright in declaring how much they enjoy art (as you will have seen from the video), although it is challenging to disentangle the impact of our approach from the students' instinctive liking for art.

Thanks for sharing the details on student learning assessment!

Many thanks, Lou.

Happy to share what we did, Hilary. The focus groups have been one of the most straightforward parts of the evaluation process, although there definitely is a level of skill involved. For a start, I had the advantage of two GAs who were in their final year of the ECU's Marriage and Family Therapy program, so they were well versed in listening and developing probing questions on the fly. That said, we brainstormed prior to any focus group to develop a set of six (no more!) prompts that we think are pertinent. The question that you see Claire ask in the video about "do you guys enjoy coming to art?" was one of the six prompts for that focus group, but the instant response highlights what I regard as the "essential skill"--how she snuck it into the conversation. If I had asked the same question, it probably would have been greeted with a yawn!

You will have seen from the video the impact that our project has made on Anne herself! As for the students, I see the greatest impact in terms of the self-confidence of the students in speaking about computational thinking. For example, one of the major activities we conducted earlier this year was a "tri-county community learning exchange." (Shades of Harry Potter!). This event drew together some 40 parents and civic partners from across the three counties in which our project takes place. One of the students in one of the classes integrating CT with music delivered a most impressive expose of the concepts of CT in response to a question from one of the middle school principals. She then calmly asked whether there were any more questions! I'll vote for her!

Thank you for sharing your approaches with us in the early days of our project and for staying with as on the learning journey.

As you do yourself, Fay! We hope to return to exploring e-textiles at one of our sites in the fall.

I believe that the investigative approach that I have used throughout the varied lessons has undoubtedly impacted some of the students. The subject itself, may not carry over into other disciplines, but my hope is that they are processing information and becoming more investigative in other subjects as well The students are asked to evaluate their use of CT in the different projects as well as how it impacts their work in other classes and data collection is ongoing.