CDI-Type II: Collaborative Research: Preparing the Next Generation of Computational Thinkers: Transforming Learning and Education Through Cooperation in Decentralized Networks

该项目的目的是了解协作，合作和学习的背景下，一个大型的，分布式的虚拟组织组成的儿童和教师建立基于网络的模拟和动画使用Scratch软件。 PI将研究Scratch分散学习环境中合作的性质和模式，建立指导培养合作态度和行为的系统开发的原则，并制定战略来培养对虚拟组织中的生产合作和解决问题至关重要的计算思维能力。Scratch社区由超过40万名注册成员组成，他们讨论、混合和重用超过100万个项目。 该项目是麻省理工学院、哈佛大学和宾夕法尼亚大学计算机科学、心理学、儿童发展、教育学、组织科学和经济学研究人员的合作项目。该研究采用实验和人种学方法的新颖组合，将深入了解年轻人在虚拟组织中如何合作，他们对合作的态度和动机，以及培养他们进行生产性合作和创造性学习所需的计算思维技能和能力。 研究人员预计，这些发现将有助于设计和理解更有效的虚拟组织，特别是在学习，教育和合作创造领域。所使用的方法包括观察性研究，设计干预和现场实验。测试平台将是Scratch社区，评估将通过挖掘新模拟和动画构建中的在线合作记录来完成。该项目的成果将包括一个改进的Scratch环境，鼓励知识和工件的合作和共建的分布式虚拟组织的建设的设计原则，以及在一个引人入胜的环境中教授计算思维的新方法。拥有40万成员的Scratch社区将成为这项工作的一部分。这个项目是潜在的变革，因为这个特定的应用程序的参与性质，因为它适用于类似的虚拟社区，因为它的承诺，以达到一个多元化的学习者社区。

This project's aim is to understand collaboration, cooperation, and learning in the context of a large, distributed virtual organization consisting of children and teachers building web-based simulations and animations using the Scratch software. The PIs will study the nature and patterns of cooperation in the Scratch decentralized learning environment, establish principles to guide the development of systems that foster cooperative attitudes and behaviors, and develop strategies to cultivate computational-thinking capacities that are important for productive cooperation and problem-solving in virtual organizations. The Scratch community consists of over 400,000 registered members discussing, remixing, and reusing more than a million projects. The project is a collaborative project with researchers from MIT, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania drawn from computer science, psychology, child development, education, organizational science, and economics.Using a novel combination of experimental and ethnographic methods, the research will provide insights into how young people cooperate in virtual organizations, their attitudes and motivations related to cooperation, and their development of computational-thinking skills and capacities necessary for productive cooperation and creative learning. The researchers expect that the findings will contribute to the design and understanding of more effective virtual organizations, particularly in the areas of learning, education, and cooperative creation. The methods used include observational studies, design interventions, and field experiments. The test bed will be the Scratch community and the evaluations will be done by mining the online record of cooperation in the construction of new simulations and animations. The outcomes of the project will include an improved Scratch environment, design principles for the construction of distributed virtual organizations that encourage cooperation and co-construction of knowledge and artifacts, and new methods of teaching computational thinking in an engaging environment. The Scratch community of 400,000 members will be part of this work. This project is potentially transformative because of the engaging nature of this particular application, because of its applicability to similar virtual communities, and because of its promise to reach a diverse community of learners.