Performing Algorithms: Weaving as Promising Context for Computational Learning

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

Other podcast episodes that were mentioned or are relevant to this episode
- Exploring Computer Science with Joanna Goode
  - In this interview with Joanna Goode, we discuss corporate influence through neoliberal practices in CS education, reflecting on engaging all students in CS programs, considerations around equity and inclusion in CS education, layers of curriculum design and implementation, discussing and problematizing integration, influences of policy and administrative support (or the lack of) on CS education, Joanna’s experience with developing Exploring Computer Science, and much more.
- How to Get Started with Computer Science Education
  - In this episode I provide a framework for how districts and educators can get started with computer science education for free.
- micro:bit, Rhizomatic Learning, and CS for Healing with Katie Henry
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- On "Methodolatry" and [Computer Science] Teaching as Critical and Reflective Praxis
  - In this episode I unpack Regelski’s (2002) publication titled “On ‘methodolatry’ and music teaching as critical and reflective praxis,” which problematizes the lack of philosophy, theory, and professional praxis in music education. Although this article is published in a music education journal, I discuss potential implications for computer science educators.
- Project moveSMART: When Physical Education Meets Computational Thinking in Elementary Classrooms
  - In this episode I unpack Fritz et al.’s (2021) publication titled “Project moveSMART: When physical education meets computational thinking in elementary classrooms,” which summarizes pilot study findings and activities that integrate CS/CT with physical education through a micro:bit.
- Scratch for Sports: Athletic Drills as a Platform for Experiencing, Understanding, and Developing AI-Driven Apps
  - In this episode I unpack Kumar and Worsley’s (2023) publication titled “Scratch for sports: Athletic drills as a platform for experiencing, understanding, and developing AI-driven apps,” which summarizes explorations of the intersections of computer science and physical education.
- Stitching the Loop with Electronic Textiles
  - In this episode I unpack Kafai et al.’s (2019) publication titled “Stitching the loop with electronic textiles: Promoting equity in high school students’ competencies and perceptions of computer science,” which explores the impact of an electronic textiles unit on high school students’ understandings of computer science.
- The Subservient, Co-equal, Affective, and Social Integration Styles and Their Implications for [Computer Science]
  - In this episode I unpack Bresler’s (1995) publication titled “The subservient, co-equal, affective, and social integration styles and their implications for the arts,” which “examines the different manifestations of arts integration in the operational, day-to-day curriculum in ordinary schools, focusing on the how, the what, and the toward what” (p. 33).
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