Fostering Joint Parent/Child Engagement in Preschool Computational Thinking by Leveraging Digital Media, Mobile Technology, and Library Settings in Urban and Rural Communities

该项目将通过创建一系列移动的应用程序来向学龄前儿童教授基本的计算思维（CT）概念，以指导家庭通过顺序设置的视频和动手活动。 为了支持在家的家庭，它还将开发一种新的图书馆模式，以建立图书馆员的计算思维、内容知识和自我效能，以便他们能够支持父母与子女的努力。计算思维是一种越来越重要的技能，对于学习和成功的劳动力。 它包括识别问题，集思广益，并生成可以由计算机或人类传达和遵循的解决方案和流程的能力。 很少有项目将计算思维引入幼儿。很少有研究已经做的方式，父母可以促进儿童参与CT技能。 开发一种模式，培训和支持图书馆员成为父母的虚拟教练，因为他们与他们的孩子在CT，将利用和建立图书馆员的专业知识。该项目的目标受众包括生活在农村地区的父母和儿童，在农村地区，获得计算机技术学习的机会可能非常有限。项目合作伙伴包括EDC，一个主要的研究组织，美国图书馆协会，和BUILD，一个全国性的协会，促进跨图书馆，幼儿园准备和公共媒体programming.The形成性研究问：1）什么支持做学龄前儿童的父母在农村社区需要，以有效地从事CT与他们的孩子在家里？2）农村社区图书馆如何支持家庭联合CT探索？总结性研究提出：3）如何结合媒体资源，移动的技术和图书馆支持的干预措施，促进持续的联合家长/儿童参与和积极的态度周围CT？ 研究人员将开发一个家长调查，从以前开发的工具，要求家长报告儿童的CT相关词汇和CT相关的态度和处置的使用几个规模。 调查量表将评估图书馆员对计算机技术的态度，以及他们在虚拟环境中支持家长的自我效能。 在形成性研究期间，EDC将对密西西比州和肯塔基州农村地区的30名家长和6名图书馆员进行试点测试调查量表。 分析将主要是定性的，并将致力于为开发团队提供快速反馈。 将使用时间查询和后端数据对父应用程序的使用进行定量分析，探索与使用应用程序所花费时间相关的因素。总结性研究将评估新媒体资源和移动的技术，结合图书馆虚拟实施模式，如何支持家庭对CT的联合参与，以及对CT的积极态度。研究人员将在MS和KY农村招募125个有4至5岁儿童的低收入家庭参与这项研究。 他们将随机分配每个图书馆内的家庭到“全面”干预条件，包括媒体资源，移动的技术，并通过虚拟实施模式提供图书馆支持，或“媒体和移动技术”的条件。这种设计将使研究人员能够更全面地了解图书馆支持对农村家庭持续参与的额外好处，相反，鉴于一些家庭可能无法获得虚拟或物理图书馆支持，可以看到仅媒体和移动技术干预的比较影响。作为加强非正式环境中学习的整体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深入学习的理解。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划共同资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划要素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程，信息和通信技术（ICT）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will teach foundational computational thinking (CT) concepts to preschoolers by creating a series of mobile apps to guide families through sequenced sets of videos and hands-on activities. To support families at home it would also develop a new library model to build librarians’ computational thinking content knowledge and self-efficacy so they can support parents’ efforts with their children. Computational thinking is a an increasingly critical skill for learning and success in the workforce. It includes the ability to identify problems, brainstorm and generate solutions and processes that can be communicated and followed by computers or humans. There are few projects that introduce computational thinking to young children. Very little research has been done on the ways that parents can facilitate children’s engagement in CT skills. And developing a model that trains and supports librarians to become virtual coaches of parents as they engage with their children in CT, will leverage and build the expertise of librarians. The project’s target audience includes parents and children living in rural areas where access to CT learning may be very limited. Project partners include the EDC, a major research organization, the American Library Association, and BUILD, a national association that promotes collaborations across library, kindergarten readiness, and public media programming.The formative research study asks: 1) What supports do parents of preschoolers in rural communities need in order to effectively engage in CT with their children at home? and 2) How can libraries in rural communities support joint CT exploration in family homes? The summative research study asks: 3) how can an intervention that combines media resources, mobile technology, and library supports foster sustained joint parent/child engagement and positive attitudes around CT? Researchers will develop a parent survey, adapting several scales from previously developed instruments that ask parents to report on children’s use of CT-related vocabulary and CT-related attitudes and dispositions. Survey scales will assess librarians’ attitudes towards CT, as well as their self-efficacy in supporting parents in CT in a virtual environment. During the formative study, EDC will pilot-test survey scales with 30 parents and 6 librarians in rural MS and KY. Analyses will be primarily qualitative and will be geared toward producing rapid feedback for the development team. Quantitative analyses will be used on parent app use, using both time query and back-end data, exploring factors associated with time spent using apps. The summative study will evaluate how the new media resources and mobile technology, in combination with the library virtual implementation model, support families’ joint engagement with CT, and positive attitudes around CT. The researchers will recruit 125 low-income families with 4- to 5-year-old children in rural MS and KY to participate in the study. They will randomly assign families within each library to the “full” intervention condition, including media resources, mobile technology, and library support delivered through the virtual implementation model, or the “media and mobile-technology-only” condition. This design will allow researchers to understand more fully the additional benefit of library support for rural families’ sustained engagement, and conversely, see the comparative impact of a media- and mobile-technology only intervention, given that some families might not be able to access virtual or physical library support.As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This project is co-funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.