Girls as Experts, Helpers, Organizers, and Leaders: Designing for Equitable Access and Participation in CSCL Environments

Abstract

Within the CSCL community and in computing and computational making more broadly, issues of equity continue to be under-researched and undertheorized. Here, we examine how FUSE Studios a set of in-school, choice-based, STEAM learning environments, based around a set of digital and tangible making challenges supports equitable access to and participation in making and computing. Drawing on web-log data and video-ethnographic data, we argue that four characteristics of FUSE support equity: the design of the challenges; the diverse ways of knowing and doing supported by the activity system; the specific interactions encouraged by the activity system; and the program's placement inside school. We focus, here, on gender equity, but also discuss implications and planned research on other aspects of equity.