6: Mediated identity

Whereas Week 5 considered the ways in which computer science intersects broader identity categories in producing subject positions, Week 6 considers computing as a medium for literacy and identity practices. We will consider how computing mediates literacy practices at scales ranging from individual cognition to social and cultural processes.

Note: the diSessa reading is only Chapter 1 of Changing Minds.

Weekly update

This video responds to your Week 4 and 5 discussion reports, then draws out themes from your CS autobiographies, and closes by introducing this week's readings.

Summary

• Discussion reports. Software can be read like a political text, asking who built it, for whom, and with what values, an approach English language arts teachers are well equipped for. But critique also needs to get "under the hood" into the technical details, or it risks seeming merely ideological. Systems that appear neutral can still reproduce inequality (Benjamin). The CAPE framework (capacity, access, participation, experience) shows why counting who is in the room is not enough. Teachers make value-laden choices whenever they build curriculum, and social and political questions can be a powerful way into rich technical learning rather than a distraction from it.
• Identity and early computing. Many early computing pioneers and online communities experienced computing as an open medium for exploring who they might be, in contrast to how high-pressure and stereotyped computing and social media often feel today.
• CS autobiographies: identity trajectories. Relationships with computing start early and are often bound up with relationships with family and friends (see Margolis's research, and Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out). Being the only girl in a class, or finding a mentor who shares your identity, can shape long-term trajectories.
• CS autobiographies: mediated identity. Several autobiographies were organized around platforms (instant messaging, file sharing, search, games and level editors) that mediated not only learning but also friendships and identity.
• CS autobiographies: different visions of computer science. Many of you described moving from playful, project-based making into fast-paced, syntax-focused courses where you no longer felt you belonged. "Future bad pedagogy is not an excuse for current bad pedagogy." How might early, interest-driven experiences prepare students to thrive in later, more traditional courses?
• Intellectual context. Papert's constructionism (read Mindstorms!) and Turkle's work on our relationships with computers (The Second Self) are the background to this week's reading on epistemological pluralism. Academia is like an extended family, and it helps to know which branch you belong to.
• This week's readings. Turkle and Papert argue that there is no single right way to understand computational ideas, so we should not be too narrow in demanding that students work one way. diSessa (Chapter 1 only; let me know if you want the rest of the book) offers a computer scientist's definition of computational literacy, including the idea of material intelligence, or thinking with external representations. This is a jumping-off point for asking how identities are authored, expressed, and interpreted through digital tools and platforms.

The CS autobiographies will be compiled and emailed to the class. Please do not share them outside the class. Your discussion group can decide whether and how to discuss them.

Readings

diSessa, A. A. (2001). Changing Minds: Computers, Learning, and Literacy. Mit Press.

Turkle, S. & Papert, S. (1990). Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and Voices within the Computer Culture. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 16(1), 128–159.