Interests towards teaching programming skills have risen recently in the realm of computing education. Learning how to program not only enables learners to develop computing applications, but it can also enhance learners' computational thinking (CT) practice. CT refers to learners' ability to approach ill-structured tasks systematically based on algorithmic thinking in computing. Along with growing academic interests towards CT in recent studies, researchers have emphasized the role of teaching programming in facilitating learners' problem-solving skills. Emerging OERs have expanded learners' opportunities to engage in hands-on programming exercises; yet a challenge still remains as to how learners' programming exercises can be tailored to accommodate individual differences in terms of learners' digital literacy skills. There is still a lack of in-depth discussions on how to support learners' personalized learning experiences during programming exercises associated with CT. This study hence proposes a conceptual framework that seeks to consider how to promotelearners' personalized learning experiences and enhance their CT skills in OERs. Through extensive reviewing of literature, this study provides several implications for further research.
Recent technological developments have made it feasible for qualitative researchers to develop their own digital tools. As an example, the goal of this article is to explore the design process involved in developing cell phone applications for qualitative research. Cell phones, ubiquitous in our daily lives, can serve researchers in many ways. Cell phones can be used for recording conversations during interviews and taking pictures during observations. We will introduce two cell phone applications—Interview and Observation Tools—developed by the first author in response to data collection and analysis tasks carried out in discussion with the second author, his dissertation advisor. We will also introduce App Inventor, which is an open-source web application for the android operating system that the first author used to program and develop both applications. We will discuss why and how we included specific features based on the first author’s reflections. This work will provide qualitative researchers with practical tips for developing their own digital tools and generate ideas for future research by introducing the methodological problems the first author encountered and how he addressed them in the design and development processes of his cell phone applications.
The goal of this article is to introduce activity systems as a methodological tool in narrative inquiry to gain a holistic understanding of socially shared experiences from an examination of documents. The research question was how can qualitative researchers use activity systems as a tool for engaging in narrative inquiry of socially shared experiences to uncover new meanings by constructing a story? In this article, we share a sample analysis of our experience relying on documents and media as a form of narrative to begin to understand the socially shared human activity associated with net neutrality and its potential impact on U.S. residents. We end this article with reflections of lessons learned from our activity systems guided story construction process.Keywords narrative inquiry, activity systems analysis, cultural historical activity theory, document analysis, net neutrality What is already known?In qualitative research, narratives bring shape and form to ideas that allow us to engage in ongoing dialogue about the idea as part of our reality. Narratives can help navigate tensions in human activity. While identifying tensions in narratives, activity systems analysis can help understand the complexities involved in human activity including tensions. What this paper adds?This article introduces activity systems a tool for qualitative researchers to engage in narrative inquiry and constructing a story about new meanings. It also introduces documents as a valuable source of data in narrative inquiry. Narrative Inquiry with Activity Systems: A Story About Net NeutralityThe goal of this article is to introduce activity systems as a methodological tool in narrative inquiry to gain a holistic understanding of socially shared experiences from documents. We engage in this discussion by referring to a sample data set from a study we conducted through document analysis about net neutrality and its implications to distance education. In this article, we asked the primary research question how can qualitative researchers use activity systems as a tool for engaging in narrative inquiry of socially shared experiences to uncover new meanings by constructing a story?We begin our discussions by introducing our understanding of narrative inquiry and its intent to find what Bruner (1991) proposed as a breach in a socially shared plight. In our sample study, the breach or tensions, as described by Engeström (1987), we encountered took on a critical role in organizing the relevant human activities we identified. We introduce our reliance on activity systems as an analytical tool to assist in finding multiple units of activities, each with its own tensions and outcomes. We discuss how the activities we found first took an important role in our sense making of net neutrality and then in our continual efforts to transform our new understandings into words through storytelling. We end this article with our reflections of lessons learned including a discussion of how approaching narrative inquiry from an activity theoretical...
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