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

该项目的目的是在一个大型的分布式虚拟组织的背景下了解协作、合作和学习，该组织由使用Scratch软件构建基于网络的模拟和动画的儿童和教师组成。私人投资机构将研究临时分散学习环境中合作的性质和模式，确立指导发展促进合作态度和行为的系统的原则，并制定战略培养计算思维能力，这对虚拟组织中的生产性合作和解决问题非常重要。Scratch社区由400,000多名注册成员组成，讨论、混合和重用100多万个项目。该项目是一个与麻省理工学院、哈佛大学和宾夕法尼亚大学的研究人员合作的项目，他们来自计算机科学、心理学、儿童发展、教育学、组织科学和经济学。该研究将利用实验和民族志的新方法，深入了解年轻人如何在虚拟组织中合作，他们与合作有关的态度和动机，以及他们的计算思维技能和能力的发展，以及生产性合作和创造性学习所需的能力。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、教育和合作创建领域。使用的方法包括观察性研究、设计干预和现场实验。试验台将是Scratch社区，评估将通过挖掘在构建新的模拟和动画方面的合作在线记录来进行。该项目的成果将包括改进的临时环境，建立分布式虚拟组织的设计原则，鼓励知识和人工制品的合作和共建，以及在有吸引力的环境中教授计算思维的新方法。拥有40万名成员的Scratch社区将成为这项工作的一部分。该项目具有潜在的变革性，因为这一特殊应用程序具有吸引人的性质，因为它适用于类似的虚拟社区，而且它有望接触到不同的学习者社区。

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.