Designing Social Networks for New Learning Communities Sarita Yardi [email protected] Amy Bruckman [email protected] electronic learning communities

Designing Social Networks for New Learning Communities

Sarita Yardi [email protected]

Amy Bruckman [email protected]

electronic learning communities

College of ComputingGeorgia Institute of

Technology

Mark [email protected]

[email protected]/~yardi

Statewide Vertical Alliance to Broaden Participation through Contextualized Computing

georgia computes

Statewide Vertical Alliance to Broaden Participation through Contextualized

Computing

An Alliance of Georgia Institute of Technology

CEISMC (Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing)

Georgia Department of EducationGirl Scout Council of Northwest Georgiaand the University System of Georgia



designing an online community

To cause a dramatic change in the makeup of students pursuing computing undergraduate

programs, we need a dramatic change in how computing is perceived.

We know that women and minority students avoid computing because of their perceptions of it:

boring, tedious, asocial, and irrelevant.

We propose the expansion of a statewide, vertical alliance to communicate the image of contextualized computing and

support women and minorities pursuing careers in contextualized computing from pre-high-school, through high-school, undergraduate, and graduate education with contextualized M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.



We conducted a study in which we taught middle school teens to program in MicroWorlds…

…and found that their perceptions of computer programming were completely disconnected from

their everyday practices and experiences online

computing perceptions



What is computer science?

computing (mis)perceptions

What is technology?

“Cool. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t know... Cool and exciting and fun and technological and interesting”

“…anything that has software… sort of software… lots of stuff… I really forget… solar powered”

“it involves computers and stuff like that, technology is like… is it kind of like a chip? A TV has plugs ‘n’ stuff, anything that’s electric would have a technology… [pointing] this thing right here, the little device thing right here… I don’t even know”

“a machine that has its own brain, kind of in a way?”

“Science on the computer?”



Undergraduate CS enrollment has decreased by 59% since 2000

Interest in CS among women fell 80% between 1998 and 2004

statistics



applying computing concepts to solve human

problems

computingcontextualized

to Jump Height local "OriginalHeading make "OriginalHeading heading seth 0 forward thing "Height wait 1 back thing "Height seth thing "OriginalHeading end ====================to Main cc talkto "t1 setsh [dog1 dog2] seth 270 repeat 200 [Walk 10 10 Jump 10]end====================to Square Length repeat 4 [forward thing "Length right 90 wait 1]endto Start Mainend

to Walk StepSize QSteps repeat thing "QSteps [forward thing "StepSize wait 1]end



media comp

CS1315Introduction to Media Computation



How can we build on teenagers’ use of online social networks to

encourage them to pursue academic and professional careers in computers and

technology ?

the research question



the evolution of the turtle

1980

1990 20002010

from MicroWorlds to Neopets

Researcher: What do you think you could do with this turtle?”Participant: “Feed it and love it and take care of it”



• 87% of 12-17 year olds are online

• 51% go online everyday

• Internet use jumps… …from 60% in the 6th grade …to 82% in the 7th grade …to 94% in the 12th grade

teens are online



• 89% of online teens use email and 75% use IM

• 15 million unique visitors to Facebook in August 2006

• Over 100 million registered users on MySpace

• 68% of teens have a MySpace, Xanga or Facebook profile

• Over 70 million registered users on Neopets

teens are networked



• 50% of online teens have created content

• 19% have created their own online journal or blog

• 22% report keeping their own personal webpage

• 32% have shared self-created media content

teens are content creators

“I want to get a picture and put it on MySpace.” “Can we learn how?”

“Ms. [Teacher’s Name], what you doing?”“Installing MicroWorlds”“Why can’t you install the Internet, girl?”



what is contextualized computing?

Cause they’re me! They’re part of [name], they’re who I am!”

[name] [name]



But when she wore one of Chip's recent skins, it also became, as Erika tells me, "[A]lmost a Black like Me thing."

This is because the design Chip Midnight asked her to wear is a staggeringly attractive, astoundingly photo-realistic, young African-American woman-- something of a Serena Williams, say, set to 3D.

The (other) Skin I’m In

Normally Erika Thereian is blonde and California tan, an avatar hybrid of Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson, nothing less than the archetypal white girl of the world's dreams. Recently her friend Chip Midnight asked her to model his latest "skin“.

SECOND LIFE



• What do you like to do online?

• What social networking sites do you use? • How do you like to keep in touch with your friends? • What new skills do you want to learn on the computer? • Would you want to have a job that involves computers?

next steps:

asking them what they want



social networking communities for teens

the future of computing…

…the future of Georgia

Sarita [email protected]

College of ComputingGeorgia Institute of

Technology

Documents

Designing Social Networks for New Learning Communities Sarita Yardi [email protected] Amy Bruckman [email protected] electronic learning communities