We present the Code Crafters workshop and our accompanying co-creative, generative quilt design software, through which we research how adults in quilting communities relate their quilting practices to computer science principles in an informal learning environment. We show that combining quilt-related activities with software prompts enables participants to identify connections between computing and quilting practices. In addition, our findings show that participants recognize collaborative, computer-generated design as both empowering and an opportunity to expand their creativity. Further, we report that participants indicated they enjoy sharing social, intergenerational, computational activities that foster learning about computers and their own practices. Through this research, we contribute to knowledge about the relationship between computing concepts and crafting practices. We provide an instructional model for reaching a non – traditional and underserved audience. And we demonstrate how this model motivates and engages adults to reflect on their identity, attitude, and relationship to computing.
We present the Code Crafters workshop and our accompanying co-creative, generative quilt design software, through which we research how adults in quilting communities relate their quilting practices to computer science principles in an informal learning environment. We show that combining quilt-related activities with software prompts enables participants to identify connections between computing and quilting practices. In addition, our findings show that participants recognize collaborative, computer-generated design as both empowering and an opportunity to expand their creativity. Further, we report that participants indicated they enjoy sharing social, intergenerational, computational activities that foster learning about computers and their own practices. Through this research, we contribute to knowledge about the relationship between computing concepts and crafting practices. We provide an instructional model for reaching a non – traditional and underserved audience. And we demonstrate how this model motivates and engages adults to reflect on their identity, attitude, and relationship to computing.
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Nastassia Jones
This is an interesting concept that is exciting for access and inclusion of people who are not interested in STEM-related jobs but this have to exist in this technology-driven world.
Karen Royer
Student
Thank you Natassia. I was especially pleased to be part of this group as I am a non-traditional student myself. I never expected to find myself back in school at this point in my life. I have been incredibly enriched by this experience. I value the skills that I developed during my hiatus from school much more now than I ever have. I also feel more connected and in tune with society than I ever have as well. Cheers!
Karen Royer
Student
We intentionally chose to refer to computing literacy, in our work, rather than computational literacy or computer science literacy for a reason. When we refer to computing literacy, it positions computing as the product or technology that quilters use and computation as the process or ability that people have or may learn. This enables computing literacy to happen without note in the same way that informal learning happens incidentally. Our facilitation during the workshops draws attention to computing knowledge acquisition as it happens. How does this align with the work that you are doing? How well does the distinction between computing and computation translate?
Roxana Hadad
Associate Director
Thanks for your sharing your exciting project, Karen, and for articulating this distinction between computing and computation literacy. Can you talk about this a little bit more, as I think I'm still unclear, but absolutely feel these discussions around the type of literacy being developed are vital to producing environments and resources that are better suited to certain kinds of learning. How is computing literacy distinguished from digital literacy?
Marion Usselman
This is really interesting. I can see definite connections with promoting engagement in computing by K-12 students, particularly girls. Is the software available for others to play with?
Karen Royer
Student
Thank you for your interest in our work.
Code Crafters - Procedural Patchwork - have fun with the software! The link opens in a new window. Cheers!
Karen Royer
Student
Marion, the color palette you used for your quilt is lovely. I had to try it for myself. Did you allow the computer to generate it or did you create it yourself? And, how do you feel about me using it?
Thanks again,
Karen
Marion Usselman
Hi Karen,
I'm glad you liked the palette. I chose it myself. I do quilting myself, and like the blue/orange combinations. Absolutely feel free to use it!. I'm tempted to actually try to one that was generated. Lots of half-triangle squares, in a very interesting pattern.
Marion
Karen Royer
Student
I agree about the pattern. It was terrific. I am not sure you were aware, but the colors are based on the Kona quilting fabrics so they could translate directly to a quilt. And, half square triangles can be so fast to work with. Have fun!
Karen Royer
Student
I am Karen Royer, a Computational Media PhD student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Our work addresses a lack of information about how women identify, relate and feel about computing while foregrounding the social and intergenerational nature of quilting. Through our workshops and accompanying co-creative quilt design software, we encourage participants to explore the software, create their own quilt designs, which they can save, and use the generative parts of the software to explore how they may interact with and impact the outcome of computing activities. Conversations about data and intellectual property occur organically as participants discover the social aspects of the software. Our supportive environment encourages participants to leverage and learn from mistakes in a context with which they are familiar and comfortable. Using the "liking" mechanism built into the software enables users to experiment with how computers think differently and how they can control the final outcome through their choices. The palette system was a great revelation as users found the control and affordances of working with a palette, based on the popular Kona fabric collection, to be highly engaging. We did not anticipate this reaction.
In the coming summer, we intend on holding in person workshops as we had originally planned. It will be intriguing to analyze the results of this work in contrast to the necessary online workshops we held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kristina Lux
What an incredible idea! I am also involved in two research projects aimed at harnessing data from informal learning environments. Excellent work!
Karen Royer
Student
Thank you. It has been quite rewarding.
Emmanuel Nti-Asante
Great project. I am thrilled to see craft here
Trusting Inekwe
Thank you. Crafts can be a useful tool to aid with advancing computing literacy
Emily McLeod
Director of Teaching and Learning, Code.org
Thank you for sharing this project! I love the emphasis on crafting and combining quilting with computing literacy. I’m wondering about the future directions for the project—you mention that there are upcoming in-person workshops. What have you learned from the online workshops that is informing any design changes to in-person workshops? It sounds like analysis and work is ongoing, but I’m also wondering if you have any lessons learned to share with others who want to engage similar audiences. Look forward to learning more!
Karen Royer
Student
One of the most important changes in our in-person workshop will be a more organic, fluid access to sewing machines. We planned on sewing activities for our online workshops, however, in the end we decided to remain with our computers to remain engaged with each other. In an in person workshop, we will be in proximity to both our sewing machines and the software. This will enable us to investigate further the relationship between tangible experiences in a workshop and computing experiences.
However, our online efforts indicate that participants recognize a clear connection between quilting and computing through an activity in which they recreated a physical, tangible quilt block on the generator. And in the converse, one participant related, "I feel like I'm getting out a lot of that exploration on the computer. And then I end up with something... I was so excited when I discovered that I could generate a quilt from my block." Participants connected their computing experience to their own practice, its social qualities, creative opportunities and feelings of competence.
The generative nature of the software and its social affordances connected their computing experience to their own practice. We designed our software to reflect a typical "learning to quilt" format. Our computing activities also aligned with this same process. They were familiar procedures that positioned computing as augmenting their current interests and practice. At the same time, the online workshop format was a flexible platform that encouraged discussion and sharing, which informed new explorations and insights.
I hope this answered your questions. Please don't hesitate to ask any other questions and try out our Code Crafters - Procedural Patchwork software.
Jan Cuny
Dir DEIA for Strategy and Operations
Interesting idea and maybe I'll check out the software when designing my next quilt!
Did you or are you going to measure the change in women’s attitudes toward computing? And did you or are you going to check the extent to which they understood the underlying concepts?
Karen Royer
Student
Thank you for your great questions.
Our in-person workshops will incorporate measuring a change in women's attitudes toward computing. Though, our workshops in general aim to expose our participants to broad computing knowledge such as the role of computing in society and how, like quilting, computing has the capacity to bridge communities, introduce innovation and drive conversations about bias and intellectual property.
In the workshop, we discuss more direct underlying concepts as well. The "learning to quilt" framework facilitated conversations about the structure of our software as it related to quilting. We demonstrate how "liking" certain aspects or allowing more of one color or patch than another directs random generation and tight control of the results. Our drop down menus for selecting patches promoted discussions about representation. We presented our preplanned activity of recreating a specific tangible block in the software in response to a question from one of our participants.
"And then also, I feel like I understand the randomness, which is part of the fun, of course, but if I want to get something more specific after the randomness, how do I take it to that place? Or is that possible?"
Though we had planned activities, each activity was presented fluidly, informally, as the participants indicated a need or posed a question that could be answered through engagement with the software.
Jan Cuny
Dir DEIA for Strategy and Operations
It would also be nice to have some longitudinal data about what these women did with CS afterwards.
Karen Royer
Student
I agree wholeheartedly. The idea was discussed. We have not implemented anything at this time. Thank you.
Maria (Mia) Ong
I think it's wonderful that your project aims to engage an under-served and often overlooked population using craft. I just spent some time with your Code Crafters software. It was colorful, engaging, and fun! I enjoyed seeing others' ideas, too.
This project seems to scaffold participants' familiarity with the craft. Do the project activities work as well with participants who have never before quilted but perhaps have done another type of craft? (I'm a knitter.)
Best wishes with the in-person workshops. I bet they will yield interesting results!
Karen Royer
Student
Thank you Maria, I am pleased you enjoyed the software.
I believe that our in person workshops especially have the potential to reach others who have never quilted. However, our online workshops did actually reach novice quilters. One of our online quilters had less than a year of quilting. I believe they related they had around 6 months of quilting experience.
Your question about the activities we designed is a good one. I believe that the important thing about our work is that our participants indicate an interest in quilting. That is, because we position the software as contributing to and relating to their quilting practice, they must understand and/or desire to engage in a quilting practice.
Having said that, your question is an intriguing one. I am trying to imagine how the workshop could or would change if the focus was connecting software to a different craft practice. How important is a preexisting interest or participation in a craft in making a connection to software? Interesting.
A question for you. What other craft activities have you tried and how would you feel about quilting after trying the software? Thanks for your interest.
Cheers
Jan Cuny
Dir DEIA for Strategy and Operations
Do you know anything about what happens to your students after completing this course? Do they engage in other computing courses or experiences?
Karen Royer
Student
One of our participants reached out to us to ask if she could use the software to present workshops to other quilters. I can see she engages on a regular basis through her contributions to the community sections of the software. She offers workshops, writes blogs and offers patterns that she designs using the software. I am not aware to the extent that she connects the software back to computing as directly as we did, however, she has related that the workshops impacted her practice. Recently, I emailed her as I noticed a new color palette that she introduced to the community. I even had to try it myself as I was drawn to her choices. The software is a platform that keeps us connected while the workshop initially brought us together.
Thanks for asking.
Ann Gates
As someone who loves to sew and create quilts, I am excited to learn about the Code Crafters workshop.
Karen Royer
Student
Thank you Ann. Though I find creating a quilt, with all the thoughts about how it will be used and who will use it, rewarding, one of the most satisfying parts of quilting for me is guiding others learning new techniques. What is it that you find rewarding? Cheers.
Patti Parson
Hi Karen again and in the right timeline. It is exciting to see how the project has evolved, the revelations along the way, and that in-person gatherings will be possible.
Karen Royer
Student
Patti, I have enjoyed your comments. Our time travels have been an amusing interlude to my day. I am glad you found our current work. And, we are very much looking forward to in person gatherings for a dual reason. One, we initially intended to conduct our research in person. And two, comparing the activities, environment and results of online and in person events will be quite interesting. Best of luck to you.
Andrea Tirres
This is a really interesting idea. Can you share more about your outreach efforts and marketing strategy?
Karen Royer
Student
We have presented our work at Creativity & Cognition 2021, STEM 4 ALL in May 2021, AISL, ICER, DIS and GRiSTS. Reaching the academic community with our work is a priority while at the same time we reach into our quilting community to spread the word more informally. We have a web presence - Code Crafters. And we have the online software - Procedural Patchwork - Code Crafters Software. I believe Gillian Smith - gmsmith@wpi.edu would be the best contact person to receive a more detailed account of our outreach efforts and marketing strategy.
Thank you for your questions.