Blurring Disciplinary Boundaries through Chiptunes

My portion of this panel session begins with a brief discussion on the broad landscape of music engagement as it relates to video games (e.g., music engagement within, through, and around video games). I then dive deeper into the potential for such engagement to blur disciplinary boundaries across multiple disciplines. As a main example, I discuss how chipmusicians might engage in computer science, entrepreneurial, and visual art practices for music-related purposes. Such engagement raises questions for the field of education and demonstrates an underexplored potential evident within the intersections of music, video games, and education.   

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Individualized Learning through Rhizomatic Design

While group-based learning through a sequence can be a useful approach for elected classes as it is easier to assume student "buy in" or motivation, group-based learning can be a difficult approach for mandated classes that include students who do not wish to attend the class or are initially uninterested in CS. In addition, group-based learning is often based on the pacing of the average student, which is a pace that is often too fast or slow for students who fall outside of the class average. This poster, and the resulting discussions, posits a rhizomatic approach to curricular and experience design that encourages individualized learning within group settings. Rather than moving through CS concepts and practices in a prescribed sequence, a rhizomatic approach encourages self-directed learning along multiple paths or an entirely undefined path. This poster challenges educators to question in what ways the curricula and pedagogies they are familiar with might be modified to encourage equitable learning for a multitude of axiologies (values) or ontologies (ways of being) by creating a space for interests to guide learning.

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Getting Started with Elementary CS (2019)

In Arizona (and many other states), districts are just getting started with elementary coding and CS education initiatives; however, teachers and administrators are often unsure where to get started. While high school CS is often guided by AP or dual enrollment criteria, elementary educators are often asked to implement CS standards without guidance on how or what elementary CS education could look like. This Birds of a Feather session intends to provide a space for elementary educators and administrators to ask questions as well as share tips and tools for getting started with computer science.

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Project-based Learning with Scratch (ISTE)

This presentation begins with an introduction to various approaches of project-based learning with Scratch; for example, backwards, inquiry-based, and emergent project designs. The second portion of this session is an interactive exploration of free Scratch project examples and resources I have developed.

The purpose of this session is twofold: a) provide an introduction to different types of project-based learning (e.g., backwards, inquiry-based, and emergent design) and how they lie on the project continuum (i.e., fixed, flexible, or open), and b) to give time to allow attendees to explore the free project-based resources I have created for Scratch. Everyone will walk away with dozens of lesson plans and resources to get them started with project-based learning with Scratch.

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A Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis of Chiptune-related Practices Discussed within Chipmusic.org

This study examined 245,098 discussion forum posts within a website dedicated to chiptunes, which are electronic music compositions or performances either emulating the sounds of or created through early computer and video game sound chips. Corpus-assisted discourse analysis tools and techniques assisted with revealing patterns of discourse across 10,892,645 words written between December 30th, 2009 and November 13th, 2017 within chipmusic.org.

Findings indicate seven interconnected themes of chiptune-related practices that demonstrate potential transdisciplinary connections between computer science education and music education: (a) music composition practices, (b) music performance practices, (c) maker practices, (d) coding practices, (e) entrepreneurial practices, (f) visual art practices, and (g) community practices. Abstract continues . . .

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Introduction to Ipsative Assessment

This lightning talk introduces ipsative assessment, which is an assessment undertaken by a student for the purpose of learning through reflection on prior work. This process differs from self-assessment where students evaluate their own efforts or results without making connections to prior creations or demonstrations of understandings. I begin this session by briefly reviewing applications of formative and summative assessment techniques and then introduce ipsative assessment as another possibility for assessing student work. After this brief introduction, I elaborate by providing examples of how I used ipsative assessment within the K-8 coding classes I designed and facilitated, and conclude the lightning talk by sharing assessment resources I created for elementary CS education professional development sessions.

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