Designing Multimodal Composition Activities for Integrated K-5 Programming and Storytelling

Whyte, Robert; Ainsworth, Shaaron E; Medwell, Jane

Abstract

A broad interest in embedding computing into K-5 settings has resulted in a proliferation of research on integrated approaches to programming. Although much of these efforts focus on supporting learning in science, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM), less work in non-STEM (e.g. literacy) disciplines has been conducted. This paper examines the potential for integrating computing and literacy education through designing and implementing multimodal composition activities in a visual programming environment, Scratch. Ten primary students took part in an after-school intervention in an inner-city primary school in the midlands of England. Tasks focused on algorithm design, program execution and loops for programming, and representation choice, and structural and visual design for storytelling. Our results demonstrate how a non-STEM context supported the process of integrated programming and storytelling in meaningful ways. We detail our results and their implications for future work.

Citation

Whyte, R., Ainsworth, S. E., & Medwell, J. (2020). Designing Multimodal Composition Activities for Integrated K-5 Programming and Storytelling. In The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020 (1317-1324)

• Conference Name: ICLS 2020: The 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences
• Conference Location: Nashville, Tennessee (online)
• Start Date: Jun 19, 2020
• End Date: Jun 23, 2020
• Acceptance Date: Apr 30, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 19, 2020
• Publication Date: Jun 19, 2020
• Deposit Date: Aug 25, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 25, 2021
• Pages: 1317-1324
• Book Title: The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5788021
• Publisher URL: https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/6331