The Programmers’ Collective: Connecting Collaboration and Computation in a High School Scratch Mashup Coding Workshop

Abstract

One challenge in bringing collaborative programming into schools has been to develop software design activities that make computation an integral part of the collective design rather than just a work arrangement between team members. In this paper we propose a collaborative approach to programming, the programmers' collective, that builds on collaborative models found in do-it-yourself (DIY) and open source communities. We describe and analyze the work of a class of high school student collectives engaged in programming music video mashups as part of a collaborative challenge in the online Scratch community. Our multi-level analysis focused on students' learning of specific programming concepts, effects of collaborative and task design on learning, and their personal reflections. In the discussion we address how students' experiences point to the value of "nested collectives," or multiple levels of designed-for collaboration as well as a needed shift from a focus on computation to computational participation.