Critical Technology

Debugging by Design Rebroadcast (interview with Dr. Deborah A. Fields)

KMDI Season 2 Episode 6

Originally aired on April 11, 2022: Although computing technologies are now ubiquitous in much of the West and other parts of the world, there are still significant inequalities when it comes to who has access to computer science education. Powerful cultural stereotypes about who is or can become a coder persist, leading to the underrepresentation of girls and children of colour from a crucial form of digital literacy. 

In this episode, Dr. Sara Grimes chats with Dr. Deborah Fields, Associate Research Professor in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department at Utah State University, about her research on the relationship between identity, motivation and learning how to code among tweens and teens, and how to break down stereotypes about who can code and how. 

The discussion is focused on Dr. Fields’s 2021 article in the British Journal of Educational Technology: “Debugging by design: A constructionist approach to high school students' crafting and coding of electronic textiles as failure artefacts,” co-authored with Dr. Yasmin B. Kafai, Luis Morales-Novarro, and Justice T. Walker.

Type of research discussed in this episode: education research; pedagogy design and innovation; workshops; computer science education; participatory research; action research.

Keywords for this episode: constructionism; software bug; computer coding; e(lectronic)-textiles; equity in education; STEM (science technology engineering math); mischievousness; socially meaningful failure artifacts; productive failure; creativity; aesthetics first.

People on this episode