Performing Algorithms: Weaving as Promising Context for Computational Learning

Performing Algorithms: Weaving as Promising Context for Computational Learning
Jared O'Leary
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In this episode I unpack Keune’s (2022) publication titled “Performing algorithms: Weaving as promising context for computational learning,” which explores weaving as a potential practice for exploring computer science concepts.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    csk8 podcast my name is Jared O'Leary

    each week of this podcast is either an

    interview with a guest or multiple

    guests or a solo episode where I unpacks

    some scholarship in relation to Computer

    Science Education in this week's episode

    I'm unpacking a paper titled performing

    algorithms colon weaving as promising

    context for computational learning this

    paper is written by Anna Kuhn here's the

    abstract of this paper quote an

    important aspect of diversifying stem

    Fields including Computing is to better

    understand how tools and materials that

    are associated with social historical

    practices of underrepresented

    populations are aligned with

    disciplinary Concepts and what these

    materials contribute to teaching and

    learning taking a constructionist stance

    this study Builds on the presence of

    electronic textiles in the learning

    Sciences to investigate the alignment of

    electronically augmented fiber crafts

    with core computer science Concepts

    through an idea of epistemological

    pluralism through an artifact analysis

    with computer science instructors the

    study found that weaving and

    manipulating fabric are aligned with

    Core computational Concepts and that one

    craft activity requires multiple

    approaches to computational Concepts the

    work points to a particular instance of

    epistemological pluralism and the

    potential of fiber crafts as a context

    for understanding transfer of

    computational Concepts across multiple

    representations end quote better

    summarize this paper into a single

    sentence I'd say that this paper

    explores analyzing weaving as a

    potential practice for exploring

    computer science Concepts as always you

    can find a link to this paper in the

    show notes which is available at

    jaredelleary.com where you'll find

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    alright so the introduction for this

    very short paper describes how women are

    traditionally underrepresented in

    Computing and that there are some

    different approaches that have been used

    to try in foster a sense of belonging

    within the field and one of those

    approaches was actually engaging in

    electronic textiles so think of like the

    ugly sweaters that you see around

    holiday times in the winter that might

    light up or maybe shoes that when you

    step it will do some kind of a design or

    pattern using LEDs or even something as

    simple as a teddy bear when you squeeze

    it it plays a recorded sound or even

    something more complicated like emojin

    heaps gloves that would allow you to

    manipulate to create music with your

    hand these are all different examples of

    electronic textiles now there have been

    a variety of educational research

    studies on electronic textiles quote

    which augment the feminized practices of

    sewing with electronic components

    demonstrated new leadership

    opportunities for girls improved

    learning outcomes for all students and

    inroads for rupturing dominant Computing

    cultures end quote yet it remains

    underexplored how fiber crafts in their

    own right without electronic components

    align with Core computational Concepts

    and whether they present relevant

    context for further inquiry of

    computational learning while fostering a

    sense of belonging end quote that's from

    PDF page one I really like that idea I

    have often seen e-textiles but not

    necessarily fiber crafts explored in

    computer science computational thinking

    computational literacies Etc I have seen

    some people discuss cyber security in

    relation to different braiding patterns

    that historically were used from

    different cultures to communicate hidden

    messages so depending on the color

    patterns or designs Etc of like a

    braided cord or something that would

    basically be used as a letter containing

    a cipher that needed to be read by

    somebody else without being intercepted

    and understood by somebody in between

    like whoever was delivering the message

    or something so I've heard of that as

    being a really interesting way of

    exploring some Concepts in cyber

    security and so when I saw this title I

    was like oh this is really interesting I

    too am curious about whether or not you

    can explore textiles in relation to

    computer science computational thinking

    computational literacies Etc without

    actually engaging in the electronic

    components of things so the question

    that guides this this is from page one

    is quote how do fiber crafts I.E weaving

    and manipulating fabric align with

    computational Concepts end quote so the

    first section after the introduction is

    titled potential of fiber crafts for

    inclusive computer science learning now

    the author mentions that for centuries

    fiber crafts has been a part of the life

    experiences of women around the world

    and that electronic textiles in

    particular has been a way that youth

    especially young girls have been able to

    engage in stem or steam ideas but what

    has not been looked at at least

    according to the author and at least

    according to what I've seen or rather

    have not seen is people have not yet

    explored whether or not the production

    of textiles is actually something that

    can serve as a starting point for

    fostering a sense of belonging in

    Computing or computer science so the

    next section of the paper talks about a

    material dimension of epistemological

    pluralism so here are a couple of quotes

    from page two quote the constructionist

    idea of epistemological pluralism

    theorizes multiple ways of getting to

    know an idea as a key to domain learning

    and quote a little bit further down

    quote for example when looking at

    weaving as a form of algorithmic doing

    the process of programming in which

    writers determine the outcome becomes

    closer to live coding that produces an

    unfolding algorithm of person and Loom

    combinations in this case the social

    material practices of loom and people

    frame the typical programming approach

    to algorithmic doing as something very

    different yet valuable the ontological

    threads within constructionist ideas of

    epistemological pluralism and Technology

    studies prompted the present study to

    consider what fiber crafts materials

    bring to computational learning end

    quote so I have to confess I haven't

    really read much about epistemological

    pluralism but it sounds a lot like what

    I've talked about with

    multi-perspectivalism and even

    regelski's paper on methodolatry and the

    importance of having an understanding

    and habit of using a variety of

    pedagogical practices rather than just

    adhering to one method at the cost of

    ignoring all others but then from a

    student standpoint the idea of being

    able to look at something almost like it

    were I don't know a gem with many

    different facets and understanding that

    if you rotate you can look at the same

    concept from a different angle or a

    different lens or different perspective

    to understand it in a new way or in

    relation to other ideas or concepts from

    like other domains so this part like

    really resonated for me now the next

    part is actually on the methods so what

    they did is they took a bunch of

    projects that were produced by middle

    school kids in a fiber craft course

    instructors of computer science then

    spent about 60 Minutes analyzing the

    artifacts that were created by students

    and these artifacts were about 20

    photographs per student per session that

    they're creating something and so they

    looked at it from different angles

    zooming in to be able to show the

    different types of stitches weaving

    techniques Etc after the computer

    science instructors analyzed the

    artifacts they then did an analysis of

    the artifact analysis sessions so this

    used like thematic coding that was

    related to the the K-12 computer science

    framework specifically The Core Concepts

    of algorithms variables control

    structures modularity and

    troubleshooting so in other words

    instructors of computer science looked

    at some weeding projects created by

    middle school students specifically some

    pictures of them and then the researcher

    took those analyzes and used the K-12

    computer science framework as a lens to

    be able to look at this and try and make

    sense of how does this relate now even

    though the author found connections

    across all five of those computational

    Concepts this particular paper just

    focuses on algorithms which they Define

    as quote routines that can be performed

    by people and computers to accomplish

    tasks algorithms require effective

    communication with a computer by sorting

    algorithmic tasks and subtasks for

    computers to read and respond to end

    quote and the author noted that there

    were three types of approaches to

    algorithms one was syntax oriented one

    was spatial and then one was

    performative approaches to algorithms

    here's a quote from PDF page three that

    is really interesting and it honestly

    includes a lot of jargon that I don't

    understand stand because I haven't done

    fiber crafts quote for weaving 92

    percent of instructors in of 11

    highlighted the repetitive process of

    changing heddle positions paired with

    shuttle directions in a plain weave as

    algorithmic a hettle is a flat piece

    with long and short openings for Lift

    threads a shuttle is a carrier of yarn

    for example to create a plain weave

    pattern Weavers had to lift the pedal to

    part lengthwise threads and draw the

    shuttle with yarn between the threads in

    One Direction then to weave another row

    Weavers had to lower the heddle and draw

    the shuttle with yarn between the

    threads in opposite direction this

    pairing of pedal positions and shuttle

    directions remain for the duration of

    the weave instructors connected the

    algorithmic aspects of weaving to a

    syntax oriented approach of instructing

    a computer like a programming language

    end quote I don't know about you but

    whenever I hear a domain that uses very

    specific language that I have no

    familiarity with I feel like I'm

    studying Japanese because there are

    words where I'm just like I have no idea

    what that means but it's interesting now

    another really interesting thing is that

    the author mentions that kids actually

    like planned out what they were going to

    weave using coordinate paper so they'd

    like draw on it there's a picture on PDF

    page three so you can see how they kind

    of like Drew out the patterns they're

    going to use and to me this really

    reminded me of like pseudo code and just

    program development and planning which

    naive me didn't realize was very similar

    to what you I guess would do when

    weaving or might do now the last area of

    the algorithms that was really

    interesting that the author mentioned is

    that there was a performative approach

    to algorithms and as somebody who has

    explored live coding in the sense of

    live coding music like algor raving

    creating live music by typing out lines

    of code this really intrigued me the

    performative aspects of coding can be

    really fascinating and so to see this in

    a physical creation rather than a

    digital one really kind of caught my

    attention but here's a quote from PDF

    page three quote the algorithmic

    performance I.E the repetitive process

    of changing heddle positions paired with

    shuttle directions done by the the loom

    and the youth translated coordinate

    patterns into fabric instructors

    recognize the views process of weaving

    yarn into a matrix of warp threads as

    the way a computer would process a

    program youth performed the algorithm

    like how a computer would process a

    program rather than communicate it in a

    machine readable form for a computer to

    perform end quote so that's really

    interesting it rather than having a

    computer compute something a person is

    performing the algorithm that you may

    have written out on like graph paper or

    coordinate paper kind of reminds me of

    the like program a robot where like kids

    will do an unplugged where you like

    write out a line of code and then

    somebody else will pretend to be a robot

    who's going to follow that line of code

    or like the peanut butter and jelly

    thing that a lot of people will do or

    it's like okay you're going to write out

    the algorithm for creating a peanut

    butter and jelly sandwich and then like

    the teacher will do that algorithm and

    it'll like you got it all messed up

    because the kids don't mention like oh

    you're supposed to use a knife to spread

    it so the teacher will use like I don't

    know their fingers or a pencil or

    something all of these are examples of

    like how you can perform a series of

    steps that might just be described as an

    algorithm but in this case you're

    actually weaving it so in the last

    section is the discussion and

    implications the author basically says

    that hey there are at least three

    approaches to algorithms that can be

    found in weaving and this is something

    that we should continue to investigate

    in relation to computational learning so

    for example the author mentions perhaps

    we could explore how students might

    complete pseudocode translations of a

    project or maybe correct some mistakes

    like debug some issues that might arrive

    in the pseudo code or in the weaving

    itself this would result in some

    interesting forms of potential transfer

    that the author mentions we could

    explore but here's the final closing

    paragraph from page four quote the

    relationships among approaches to

    algorithms were non-linear rather than

    one leading approach the translations

    across approaches to algorithms inform

    each other for example while a graft

    plan could be implemented one-to-one by

    performing The Illustrated algorithm

    changes to the pattern can happen on the

    go resulting in edits to the graph plan

    the fact that weaving fabric brick can

    involve multiple non-linear approaches

    to algorithms within the same graph

    presents a particular instantiation of

    epistemological pluralism where weaving

    provides several ways of engaging with a

    domain idea that Weavers can select from

    weaving also makes it possible to engage

    with more than one approach to

    algorithms this leads to considering

    epistemological pluralism in terms of

    recognizing multiple ways to approach a

    domain conceptual understanding

    simultaneously by one person along with

    social historical promise of fiber

    crafts as fostering computational

    belonging for women in Computing the

    expanded understanding of

    epistemological pluralism further

    warrants additional studies that explore

    the utility of fiber crafts as context

    for computational learning end quote and

    I totally agree this is a really

    interesting thing to look at and it's

    definitely worth exploring some more now

    at the end of each one of these

    unpacking scholarship episodes I like to

    share some lingering questions or

    thoughts does not meant to critique of

    the authors or anything like that just

    me kind of sharing what I thought to

    hopefully encourage some dialogue within

    the field or even on this podcast if

    you'd like to come on and me about it

    which you can do by pressing the contact

    me button on my website your

    delivery.com so one thing that I

    wondered is what students would have

    said about their artifacts if they were

    interviewed so just because we can find

    evidence of a concept or a practice or

    standard in an artifact does not

    necessarily mean the student also sees

    or understands that connection or

    relationship like I had some students

    who would accidentally stumble upon a

    concept like I don't know recursion or

    something and when I'd ask him like oh

    how did you know how to do that

    sometimes I'd go I don't know I

    accidentally dragged the Block in there

    and then it worked the right way and

    then other times I've asked him that and

    they go oh well in a different

    programming language that I was using or

    a different project I could do it so

    then I wondered how could I do it in

    this new language and new project so

    sometimes it is the actual transfer and

    other times it's just a happy accident

    so we can't necessarily assume that a

    student understands what we actually

    understand and see so for example there

    could be some bias on the behalf of not

    only who is analyzing the artifacts but

    also what tool they are using to analyze

    that that might bias the findings in a

    way that would ignore the null examples

    so for example if you give a music

    composition to a mathematician they

    might look at the mathematical

    relationships between I don't know the

    frequency combinations within a chord

    progression or something like that but a

    computer scientist might categorize a

    light Motif as an example of a function

    but a poet might analyze the structure

    of the lyrics and then a sinustheat

    might map out the melody and Harmony in

    color palettes Etc all of these are

    interesting lenses or ways of exploring

    a composition that relate to different

    expertises or domains but the composer

    who created the composition might not

    have actually thought about any of that

    while creating the piece nor actually

    understand these different perspectives

    and I say that as somebody who has

    written music and to hear people analyze

    the music that I've written I've gone oh

    that's an interesting perspective that I

    was not at all thinking of when I wrote

    that but yeah I can see how that relates

    to whatever thing they mentioned so the

    same thing might be happening when we

    are analyzing an artifact yes you might

    be able to find computational or

    Computing concepts with within some kind

    of artifact but it doesn't necessarily

    mean the person who created it was

    thinking of it in that way nor does it

    necessarily mean that it would be

    helpful for a Creator to think of it in

    that way like I often hear people say

    that oh well in this very specific song

    by like David Bowie It's Got Some Loops

    in it so therefore composers and

    musicians to think of Music in terms of

    computational literacies or

    computational thinking well no but I've

    already ranted about that in other

    podcasts so I won't do that here another

    question I have is when my integration

    be an activity that serves as a metaphor

    a medium for learning on computer

    science concept or practice and when

    might that be problematic so for example

    is this a subservient relationship if

    we'd ever start explore this in a

    computer science class would we then be

    engaging in the Arts only for the

    purpose of learning computer science

    concept or practice rather than actually

    to create art or textiles which I would

    argue is a form of Art and if we do find

    these metaphors or mediums or exploring

    a concept are there opportunities for

    further Exploration with increase in

    complexity or is it just like a one-off

    activity where we go cool I reinforced

    an understanding of a concept now I

    don't ever need to do that again because

    further exploration would not yield any

    different understandings and that's

    something I genuinely don't know so I've

    never done weaving but to get on my

    soapbox again I have seen some people

    provide some interesting metaphors in

    relation to music that are great for a

    single activity but would not stand the

    test of time if you were to try and

    continue to dive into those

    relationships between music and

    computational thinking as it's often

    defined it can skim the surface of

    understandings but that's about it in my

    opinion and for those of you that don't

    know my background's in music education

    all three of my degrees are music

    education taught General music band

    that's why I'm focusing on the music

    side of things alright so the last

    question that I have is where is the

    line for you when you consider something

    to be an example of Cs or CT and when it

    isn't I'm a bit more skeptical of when

    something is an example of Cs or CT I

    tend to be more skeptical than most

    people when it comes to this but it's

    probably because of my background in the

    Arts where I've seen people kind of

    misuse or abuse the Arts in a

    transactional way as Nate stoddlemeyer

    might describe it so that's a bias that

    I have that you might disagree with and

    we can chat about it but those are some

    lingering thoughts I really thought this

    was an interesting paper which is why I

    want to share it as a podcast if you

    enjoyed this episode consider sharing

    with somebody else or leaving a review

    on whatever platform you're listening to

    this on again you can find a link to the

    article by clicking the link in the app

    that you're listening to this on or by

    going to the shout outs at

    jaredolary.com thank you so much for

    listening stay tuned for another episode

    next week and until then I hope you are

    staying safe and are having a wonderful

    week

Article

Keune, A. (2022). Performing Algorithms: Weaving as Promising Context for Computational Learning. International Society of the Learning Sciences, 957–960.

Abstract

“An important aspect of diversifying STEM fields, including computing, is to better understand how tools and materials that are associated with socio-historical practices of underrepresented populations are aligned with disciplinary concepts and what these materials contribute to teaching and learning. Taking a constructionist stance, this study builds on the precedent of electronic textiles in the learning sciences to investigate the alignment of nonelectronically augmented fiber crafts with core computer science concepts through the idea of epistemological pluralism. Through an artifact analysis with computer science instructors, the study found that weaving and manipulating fabric are aligned with core computational concepts and that one craft activity requires multiple approaches to computational concepts. The work points to a particular instance of epistemological pluralism and the potential of fiber crafts as a context for understanding transfer of computational concepts across multiple representations.”

My One Sentence Summary

This paper explores weaving as a potential practice for exploring computer science concepts.

Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • I wonder what students would have said about their artifacts if they were interviewed.

  • When might integration be an activity that serves as a metaphor or medium for learning a CS concept or practice?

    • When might that be problematic?

  • Where is the line for you for when you consider something to be an example of CS/CT and when it isn’t?

Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

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