Authors:
Nina Bresnihan
1
;
Glenn Strong
1
;
Lorraine Fisher
1
;
Richard Millwood
1
and
Áine Lynch
2
Affiliations:
1
School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin and Ireland
;
2
National Parents Council (Primary) and Ireland
Keyword(s):
Pre-K/K-12 Education, Community Building, Active Learning, Constructivism and Social Constructivism, Lifelong Learning: Continuing Professional Training and Development.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Active Learning
;
Community Building
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Lifelong Learning: Continuing Professional Training & Development
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Social Context and Learning Environments
;
Theory and Methods
Abstract:
OurKidsCode is a joint project between Trinity College Dublin and the Irish National Parents’ Council (Primary) which aims to promote and support families’ interest and activity in computing through the delivery of family creative-coding workshops at a national scale in Ireland. There is evidence that parents highly value computer science education, and are interested in supporting and encouraging their children’s engagement with it. However because of their lack of knowledge and skills, they find this challenging. We present a rationale for the project, and report on the design, development and evaluation of family creative coding workshops delivered in non formal settings which engage families as computational co-creators. The evaluation of the pilot workshops show promising results for parents’ attitude to learning with their families and significant increases in their confidence to do so. They also provide evidence that the workshops succeed in promoting and supporting families’
interest and creative activity in computing and the learning collaboration between parent and child.
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