Another Side to the Story: Middle School Students Collaborating in an After-School ICT Enrichment Program
Location
Walsh A
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare two specific types of collaborations, between students and adults and amongst students, during an after-school Information and Communications Technology (ICT) enrichment program. This study was one of particular importance due to the deficiency in the literature about how African-American students collaborate. The general purpose of the ICT enrichment program was to strengthen the STEM education pipelines by providing students from populations underrepresented in STEM fields with the opportunity to build mobile applications using MIT App Inventor. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) provides standards for students around technology education, which include being a Global Collaborator (ISTE, 2017). The following question served as a guide to this qualitative inquiry: How did the collaboration between students and adults compare to that of collaborations amongst students? The preliminary results suggested that both types of collaborations often reflect each other in providing procedural assistance. Some of the nuanced instances amongst students included defining terms, talking about ideas, leading discussions, and joking. From this study, those who design ICT enrichment programs can learn more about what collaborations look like for similar groups of students and consider ways to design with such collaborations in mind.
Keywords
Urban Education, Culture Specific Design, Collaboration, Information and Communication Technology Skills
Recommended Citation
Jordan, Renee and Calandra, Brendan, "Another Side to the Story: Middle School Students Collaborating in an After-School ICT Enrichment Program" (2017). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 4.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2017/2017/4
Another Side to the Story: Middle School Students Collaborating in an After-School ICT Enrichment Program
Walsh A
The purpose of this study was to compare two specific types of collaborations, between students and adults and amongst students, during an after-school Information and Communications Technology (ICT) enrichment program. This study was one of particular importance due to the deficiency in the literature about how African-American students collaborate. The general purpose of the ICT enrichment program was to strengthen the STEM education pipelines by providing students from populations underrepresented in STEM fields with the opportunity to build mobile applications using MIT App Inventor. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) provides standards for students around technology education, which include being a Global Collaborator (ISTE, 2017). The following question served as a guide to this qualitative inquiry: How did the collaboration between students and adults compare to that of collaborations amongst students? The preliminary results suggested that both types of collaborations often reflect each other in providing procedural assistance. Some of the nuanced instances amongst students included defining terms, talking about ideas, leading discussions, and joking. From this study, those who design ICT enrichment programs can learn more about what collaborations look like for similar groups of students and consider ways to design with such collaborations in mind.
