Type I: Engaging African Americans in Computing through the Collaborative Creation of Musical Remixes

佐治亚理工学院提出了一个项目，旨在利用音乐作品为计算实践提供背景知识，吸引和留住非裔美国人参与计算。与其他种族相比，非洲裔美国人对计算机的参与度相对较低。最近的研究表明，电脑游戏和最终对计算机科学的兴趣之间的关系并不像许多人想象的那样强烈，特别是对非裔美国人；因此，需要更具文化动机的方法。目前，现有的直接激励非裔美国人学习CS的方法针对的是计算前的主题或用于招收学生进入高中课程；然而，目前还没有针对高中生的文化动机核心CS主题的方法。这个项目代表了一种这样的方法：开发一个名为EarSketch的音频创作环境，使学生能够创建计算混音(即由处理小音乐样本和节拍的代码片段组成的音乐作品)。这种将重点放在嘻哈混音上的方法可能：(A)回避电脑游戏在接触少数族裔时遇到的文化问题，从而更成功地吸引这些群体；(B)通过在更容易接触到的层次层面上操作“循环”和“节拍”，而不是古典西方作曲中更精细的音符和事件层面，使那些没有接受过古典音乐培训的人更容易接触到计算音乐；以及(C)允许学生创造与文化相关的人工制品，对他们具有深刻的意义。EarSketch课程最初将部署在针对高中生的暑期讲习班中，最后将在拉尼尔高中的高中CS课程中试行。学生将学习如何在数字音频工作站(DAW)软件中混音音乐，以及如何编写代码在此环境中以算法生成混音，从与CS：原理国家课程(例如创建计算人工制品、使用抽象和模型以及有效地团队合作)一致的计算概念的角度来探讨混音。EarSketch旨在激励学生学习和应用计算概念，以实现音乐目标，如创建相加的、重复的和变化的纹理构造。该课程还借鉴了结对编程的思想，利用社交媒体作为分享和合作的手段，同时增加了学生创造性地重复使用和重新混合彼此的独特功能？S的作品，就像音乐混音所做的那样。EarSketch社交媒体共享网站将使学生能够分享他们的创意作品，并通过重复使用、更改和增强代码、样本和节拍来混搭其他S的作品。

The Georgia Institute of Technology proposes a project to engage and retain African-Americans in computing using music composition for the contextualization of computing practices. African-American participation in computing is relatively low compared to other ethnic groups. Recent research has shown that the relationship between computer games, once thought a "silver bullet" for CS education, and an eventual interest in computer science is not as strong as many have assumed, especially for African Americans; therefore, there is a need for more culturally-motivated approaches. Currently existing approaches for directly motivating African Americans in CS address pre-computational topics or are used for recruiting students into high school programs; however, there are no current approaches in addressing culturally motivated core CS topics for high school students. This project represents one such approach: the development of an audio composition environment, called EarSketch, which enables students to create computational remixes (i.e. musical compositions that are comprised of code snippets that manipulate small musical samples and beats). This approach with its focus on hip hop remixes may (a) sidestep the cultural issues that computer games have had in the engagement of minorities and therefore be more successful in engaging these constituencies; (b) make computational music more accessible to those without classical training by operating on the more accessible hierarchical level of "loops" and "beats" as opposed to the finer-grained note and event level of classical Western composition; and (c) allow students to create culturally relevant artifacts that have a deep meaning to them. The EarSketch curriculum will be initially deployed in summer workshops for high school students with a final piloting in a high school CS course at Lanier High School. Students will learn how to remix music in digital audio workstation (DAW) software and how to write code to algorithmically generate remixes within this environment, approaching remixing from the perspective of computing concepts aligned with the CS: Principles national curriculum (e.g. creating computational artifacts, using abstractions and models, and working effectively in teams). EarSketch is designed to motivate students to learn and apply computational concepts in order to achieve musical goals such as the creation of additive, repetitive, and varying textural constructs. The curriculum also borrows from ideas of pair programming and leverages social media as a means of sharing and collaborating while adding the unique feature of students creatively reusing and remixing each other?s works, as is done with musical remixes. An EarSketch social media sharing site will enable students to share their creative works and remix other?s work, by reusing, altering, and augmenting code, samples, and beats.