Coding for All:

Interest-Driven Trajectories to Computational Fluency

The Coding for All project brings together an interdisciplinary research team from the MIT Media Lab, the Digital Media and Learning Hub at University of California Irvine, and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University to develop new online tools and activities to engage more young people in developing computational fluency, particularly youth from groups currently underrepresented in computing.

What is being developed?

This initiative extends the Scratch programming language, which enables young people to code their own interactive stories, games and animations. To ease the transition into coding, the MIT Scratch team is developing a series of interest-based "microworlds" — specialized coding environments designed to connect with young people’s interests. The first interest-based microworlds being developed are in the interest areas of hip-hop dance, fashion, and sports.

What are the project goals?

Design goal: Identify design principles and develop technological infrastructure for supporting interestdriven trajectories into computational fluency.

Deployment goal: Provide more pathways from interest to computational fluency for populations of youth underrepresented in the computing world.

Research goal: Contribute to a deeper understanding of trajectories that youth follow from their interests into computational fluency

What activities have been offered so far?

The project partners are collaborating with Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA) to develop resources and workshops on the interest area of hip-hop dance. We have offered workshops for youth in Cleveland and Los Angeles, and for librarians, educators, and youth program leaders nationally and internationally. In addition, the hip-hop dance and coding resources are featured as part of the Hour-of-Code.

Who is working on the project?

The lead researchers and staff on the project include:

MIT Media Lab: Mitchel Resnick (Principal Investigator), Natalie Rusk (Co-PI), Moran Tsur, Eric Schilling, Sarah Otts

University of California - Irvine: Mimi Ito (Principal Investigator), Crystle Martin

Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University: Urs Gasser (Principal Investigator), Andres Lombana-Bermudez, Sandra Cortesi, Paulina Haudong

Other collaborators include:

Progressive Arts Alliance

Support

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number 1348876. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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