Scalable Game Design Brasil Project Description Project History Team and Partners Achievements... 3

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1 Scalable Game Design Brasil Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza, Principal Investigator Contents Scalable Game Design Brasil... 1 Project Description... 1 Project History... 2 Team and Partners... 3 Achievements... 3 Seven Steps into the Future... 4 Funding... 5 About SERG... 5 Project Description Scalable Game Design Brasil (SGD Br) is a computational thinking acquisition project associated with Scalable Game Design 1, a successful long standing project led by Prof. Alexander Repenning at the University of Colorado Boulder to innovate computer science and STEM education in public schools. The strategy adopted by Scalable Game Design in the United States is to reform middle school IT education at a systemic level exploring the notion of Scalable Game Design as an approach to carefully balance educational and motivational aspects of IT fluency. 2 Our goal with SGD Br is to stimulate and support Computer Science education in basic and secondary education schools in Brazil. As this is an unprecedented initiative in the country, the strategy we adopt in the early stages of SGD Br is to run pilot programs with a few pioneering schools in and around the city of Rio de Janeiro in order to develop a solid understanding of specific challenges, opportunities and requirements for larger scale Computer Science education programs in Brazilian schools. To p. 1/5

2 this end we conduct in depth interdisciplinary investigations in partner schools, with a group of professors, research associates and graduate students from two universities in the State of Rio de Janeiro: the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC Rio) and the Federal Fluminense University (UFF). Project History SGD Br started in January 2010, as an informal research exchange between Prof. Clarisse de Souza (Department of Informatics at PUC Rio) and Prof. Alexander Repenning (Computer Science Department at the University of Colorado Boulder). Both share an interest in computing literacy and end user programming research. In March 2010, they established a formal partnership with Prof. Ana Cristina Garcia (Computing Institute at UFF), director of the Active Documentation and Intelligent Design Laboratory (ADDLabs), who became the head of the first SGD Br initiative with a Brazilian school, the Click to Computing ( Clique para a Computação ) project 3. The pioneer school in this project is COLUNI Colégio Universitário Geraldo Reis, UFF s application school for students graduating in teaching licensure programs. In the second semester of 2010 we ran a pilot Click to Computing computational thinking acquisition program with middle school students at COLUNI. A group of thirteen 9 th year students and their Geography teacher had seven 2 hour extra class meetings, during which they learned and designed scalable games with AgentSheets 4. In 2011 Click to Computing was officially inaugurated by the President of UFF, Prof. Roberto Salles. The leader of the project at UFF, Prof. Ana Cristina Garcia, works in collaboration with COLUNI s headmaster and teachers, as well as with Prof. Clarisse de Souza and members of her research group at PUC Rio. In 2011 Click to Computing ran a new computational thinking acquisition program at COLUNI. This time a Biology teacher coached fifteen interested 9 th year students during thirteen 2 hour weekly session spanning over four months (mid year break included). Later in October 2011, Prof. Alexander Repenning, Principal Investigator of Scalable Game Design in the United States, and Ms. Nadia Repenning, Chief Executive Officer of AgentSheets, Inc., visited COLUNI. On the occasion, students, teachers, researchers and university administrators gathered for a scalable games fair, where students from the 2010 and 2011 Click to Computing classes showcased their games to the visitors. Watch our video on YouTube with scenes from this event: In 2012, as SGD Br completes its second year of activity, we focus on structuring long term partnership with three schools, COLUNI and two new schools. To this end we are preparing 3 br.inf.puc rio.br 4 p. 2/5

3 training programs for teachers and developing web based technology to support them and their students as they engage in SGD Br programs and knowledge exchange activities. Meanwhile, we continue to run programs at COLUNI (three classes in 2012). Team and Partners The research team of SGD Br includes researchers from PUC Rio and UFF. At PUC Rio, researchers are members of the Semiotic Engineering Research Group (SERG). At UFF, researchers are members of ADDLabs, engaged in the Click to Computing project. As of May 2012, all graduate students, as well as three senior SERG members and one undergraduate student, have been participating in this project as non funded volunteers. SERG Members at PUC-Rio Clarisse de Souza, PhD in Linguistics and Professor of Computer Science (Head of Scalable Game Design Brasil) Carla Leitão, PhD in Psychology Luciana Salgado, PhD in Computer Science Martha Serra, MA in Education and Technology Ingrid Monteiro, PhD candidate in Computer Science Juliana Ferreira, PhD candidate in Computer Science Leonardo Faria, Computer Engineering student Marcelle Mota, PhD candidate in Computer Science ADDLabs Members at UFF Ana Cristina Garcia, PhD in Engineering and Professor of Computer Science (Head of Click to Computing) Cleyton Slaviero, MSc candidate in Computer Science Jaguaraquem Reinaldo, Computer Science student Jonathan Gomes, Computer Science student Partner School Colégio Universitário Geraldo Reis (COLUNI) Partner in Click to Computing Table 1: SGD Br Team and Partners in May 2012 Achievements Our main project achievements in two years fall into three categories: (i) establishing partnerships with AgentSheets, Inc. and Brazilian schools: *Localization of AgentSheets interface for Brazilian Portuguese (a fundamental step for a project in Brazil); *partnership with COLUNI fully established and second prospect partnership under negotiation. (ii) running computational thinking acquisition programs: *Two programs completed at COLUNI in 2010 and 2011 (2 coach teachers and 28 students); *two new programs started in May 2012 (2 coach teachers and 20+ students in May). (iii) doing research: *A research study conducted with the 2010 class; resulting research paper presented at the III End User Development Conference in 2011 (Torre Canne, Italy); *a research study conducted with COLUNI 2010 students and 2011 coach between Oct 2011 and Jan 2012 (resulting research paper submitted to and international conference in 2012); *first running p. 3/5

4 AgentSheets web based extension prototype to support computational thinking learning and teaching. Seven Steps into the Future From short term (1 year) to long term (5 years), we envisage seven major steps for SGD Br: 1) To get more students and teachers at COLUNI involved in the Click to Computing project. To this end, we will run on average two programs a year and promote workshops with teachers interested in learning, using and teaching computational thinking acquisition as part of their activities at school. 2) To get a total of three schools involved in SGD Br. In addition to COLUNI, which is a public school, we want to partner with two more schools: a private bilingual (Portuguese English) school where students follow an international curriculum; and a private monolingual school where students follow a Brazilian curriculum, just like COLUNI. The profile of these schools is particularly fit for understanding the cultural challenges of running SGD Br programs in this country. We have a small and diverse group of people to work with: students, teachers, private schools, public school, international and national curricula. 3) To promote Scalable Game Design workshops to train interested teachers from interested basic and secondary education schools, showcasing the results obtained in our partners schools programs. 4) To test, conclude and internationalize (i.e. develop a multilingual interface for) existing web based extensions prototypes for AgentSheets. This will allow teachers and students from different countries to benefit from this learning andteaching support tool. 5) To design and develop computer mediated communication tools to support intercultural exchange among members of Scalable Game Design communities in the United States and in Brazil. 6) To explore and develop computational communication coaching support tools integrated into our web based extension for AgentSheets. In particular, we want to explore opportunities for the students to learn and develop their reading and writing skills by producing, sharing and expanding textual narratives of their games. To this end we will use SERG and ADDLabs combined expertise in Computational Linguistics, Semiotic Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. This research is socially motivated by excessively high levels of functional illiteracy among the Brazilian population. 7) To explore emerging patterns of a folk theory of programming and computing in narratives and games produced by participants of SGD Br programs. To this end p. 4/5

5 we will again use SERG and ADDLabs combined expertise in Computational Linguistics, Semiotic Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. Funding Most researchers and developers participating in SGD Br in the last two years are volunteers. However, to achieve our seven steps into the future we need to structure and sustain a stable research team and provide it with the necessary infrastructure. All research and achievements in 2010 and 2011 have been mainly carried out by volunteers, with shared resources from other projects at SERG and ADDLabs. In 2012 Prof. Ana Cristina Bicharra has obtained a grant (E 26/ /2012) from FAPERJ, the research funding agency of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The grant covers the necessary infrastructure to run Click for Computing activities at COLUNI for one year: school equipment and stipends for coach teachers and teaching assistants. SERG is now looking for new sponsors to ensure the success of this initiative in two new schools (two more projects like Click for Computing) and to sustain the duration of all three projects till we accomplish the vision expressed by our intended next steps. About SERG The Semiotic Engineering Research Group (SERG) is devoted to interdisciplinary research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), focusing on Semiotics. This discipline studies processes of signification (how signs are produced, encoded and used in culture) and communication (how people use signs to act in the world). SERG is where Semiotic Engineering, the first fullfledged semiotic theory of HCI, has been created. It has gained increased interest in recent years because of the new kinds of communication and participation brought about by the Web 2.0. See, for example, Don Norman s article on Semiotic Engineering at: In Scalable Game Design Brasil, we investigate theoretical issues mainly related to the following topics: Computing Literacy (or folk theories of computing), End User Programming Languages, Signification and Communication with Hybrid Representational Systems and Cultural Dimensions in Computing. To learn more about SERG, please visit: Acknowledgment SGD Br is grateful to AgentSheets, Inc. for providing us software and technical support. We also thank Prof. Alex Repenning and Ms. Nadia Repenning for their enthusiastic support and collaboration in all of our initiatives. Finally we owe all of our success to COLUNI teachers, students, staff and administrators, who made Click to Computing a pioneering initiative among Brazilian public schools. p. 5/5