UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Make or Shake: An Empirical Study of the Value of Making in Learning about Computing Technology

Johnson, R; Shum, V; Rogers, Y; Marquardt, N; (2016) Make or Shake: An Empirical Study of the Value of Making in Learning about Computing Technology. In: Read, JC and Stenton, P, (eds.) Proceedings of IDC 2016: The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. (pp. pp. 440-451). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): New York. Green open access

[thumbnail of Johnson et al 2016 Make or Shake - An Empirical Study of the Value of Making in Learning about Computing Technology AAM.pdf]
Preview
Text
Johnson et al 2016 Make or Shake - An Empirical Study of the Value of Making in Learning about Computing Technology AAM.pdf

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Learning about computing technology has become an increasingly important part of the school curriculum but it remains unclear how best to teach it to children. Here, we report on an empirical study that investigated how the process of making affects how children of different ages learn about computing technology. In one condition, they had to first make an electronic cube before conducting other activities and in the other they were given a ready made one to use. The results of the study show that for younger children, the making significantly improved their performance in a post-lesson test, whereas the older children performed equally well in both conditions. We discuss possible reasons for this, in terms of differences in creative appropriation. We also saw much spontaneous collaboration between the children that suggests making can encourage a collaborative relationship between children of different ages.

Type: Proceedings paper
Title: Make or Shake: An Empirical Study of the Value of Making in Learning about Computing Technology
Event: IDC '16: 15th Interaction Design and Children Conference, Manchester, UK, 21 - 24 June 2016
Location: Manchester UK
Dates: 21 June 2016 - 24 June 2016
ISBN-13: 9781450343138
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1145/2930674.2930691
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2930674.2930691
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Permissions@acm.org
Keywords: Making; Learning; Active Learning; Electronics Kits; Preparation for Future Learning
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1501039
Downloads since deposit
145Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item