TY - GEN
T1 - Considering Parents in Coding Kit Design: Understanding Parents' Perspectives and Roles
AU - Yu, Junnan
AU - Bai, Chenke
AU - Roque, Ricarose
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 ACM.
PY - 2020/4/21
Y1 - 2020/4/21
N2 - As education researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders recognize the importance of computing, many coding kits (toys and apps) have emerged to help young children learn to code at home. However, how parents perceive and support their children's use of the kits at home are less understood. In this study, we performed semi-structured interviews with eighteen parents who obtained coding kits for their young children for home use. The results show parents expected their kids to have fun and meaningful interactions with the kits. In supporting the play, parents took on various roles, mostly acting as spectator, scaffolder, and teacher. While parents perceived benefits of coding kits like a changed perspective on coding, they also reported concerns, such as their limited programming knowledge to provide help. Finally, we reflect on design and research implications to develop coding kits that consider parents' perspectives and important roles in supporting young children's exploration with computational thinking.
AB - As education researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders recognize the importance of computing, many coding kits (toys and apps) have emerged to help young children learn to code at home. However, how parents perceive and support their children's use of the kits at home are less understood. In this study, we performed semi-structured interviews with eighteen parents who obtained coding kits for their young children for home use. The results show parents expected their kids to have fun and meaningful interactions with the kits. In supporting the play, parents took on various roles, mostly acting as spectator, scaffolder, and teacher. While parents perceived benefits of coding kits like a changed perspective on coding, they also reported concerns, such as their limited programming knowledge to provide help. Finally, we reflect on design and research implications to develop coding kits that consider parents' perspectives and important roles in supporting young children's exploration with computational thinking.
KW - coding toys and kits
KW - educational technology
KW - informal learning
KW - parent roles
KW - parents' perspectives
KW - young children
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85091304836
U2 - 10.1145/3313831.3376130
DO - 10.1145/3313831.3376130
M3 - Conference article published in proceeding or book
AN - SCOPUS:85091304836
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
SP - 1
EP - 14
BT - CHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
T2 - 2020 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2020
Y2 - 25 April 2020 through 30 April 2020
ER -