TY - GEN
T1 - Exploring the relationship between collaborative discourse, programming actions, and cybersecurity and computational thinking knowledge
AU - Yett, Bernard
AU - Snyder, Caitlin
AU - Hutchins, Nicole
AU - Biswas, Gautam
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 IEEE.
PY - 2020/12/8
Y1 - 2020/12/8
N2 - Computational thinking (CT) skills are necessary for solving the real-world problems of today and are therefore being incorporated into K-12 curricula. Cybersecurity is of similar importance; however, it can be difficult for young learners to grasp the required concepts and use them to construct meaningful algorithms. We discuss our approach that combines a hands-on robotics platform with a block-based programming environment to facilitate the learning and application of cybersecurity and CT concepts. Throughout a week-long intervention, high school students were introduced to cybersecurity and CT and given the opportunity to apply this knowledge in a collaborative setting to solve security problems on the robotics platform with instructor and peer support. A series of competitions between groups of students further motivated students to translate their learned concepts to practice, often leading to breakthroughs as students incorporated new algorithms into their existing projects to counteract previous security flaws. We present evidence of the learning behaviors of several such groups through mixed-method case studies integrating data collected from learning performance, collaborative discourse, and analysis of program development. We discuss the impact of this approach on cybersecurity and CT learning and then present future directions for this work.
AB - Computational thinking (CT) skills are necessary for solving the real-world problems of today and are therefore being incorporated into K-12 curricula. Cybersecurity is of similar importance; however, it can be difficult for young learners to grasp the required concepts and use them to construct meaningful algorithms. We discuss our approach that combines a hands-on robotics platform with a block-based programming environment to facilitate the learning and application of cybersecurity and CT concepts. Throughout a week-long intervention, high school students were introduced to cybersecurity and CT and given the opportunity to apply this knowledge in a collaborative setting to solve security problems on the robotics platform with instructor and peer support. A series of competitions between groups of students further motivated students to translate their learned concepts to practice, often leading to breakthroughs as students incorporated new algorithms into their existing projects to counteract previous security flaws. We present evidence of the learning behaviors of several such groups through mixed-method case studies integrating data collected from learning performance, collaborative discourse, and analysis of program development. We discuss the impact of this approach on cybersecurity and CT learning and then present future directions for this work.
KW - Collaboration
KW - Computational thinking
KW - Cybersecurity
KW - Educational robotics
KW - K-12 STEM education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102969918&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102969918&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TALE48869.2020.9368459
DO - 10.1109/TALE48869.2020.9368459
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85102969918
T3 - Proceedings of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2020
SP - 213
EP - 220
BT - Proceedings of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2020
A2 - Mitsuhara, Hiroyuki
A2 - Goda, Yoshiko
A2 - Ohashi, Yutato
A2 - Rodrigo, Ma. Mercedes T.
A2 - Shen, Jun
A2 - Venkatarayalu, Neelakantam
A2 - Wong, Gary
A2 - Yamada, Masanori
A2 - Chi-Un Lei, Leon
T2 - 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, TALE 2020
Y2 - 8 December 2020 through 11 December 2020
ER -