Design Considerations for Capturing Computational Thinking Practices in High School Students’ Electronic Textile Portfolios

Abstract

Assessing computational thinking in making has proven a challenge, in part because student creations are innately diverse and unique. In this paper we consider portfolios as a way to document and assess students’ learning processes in the context of designing electronic textile (e-textile) projects. We describe students’ use of portfolios at the end of an introductory computing course, Exploring Computer Science, during which 33 students created a series of electronic textile (e-textile) projects as part of a new curricular unit. Our analysis not only illuminates the capability of portfolios to capture computational practices and certain concepts, but also reveals students’ lack of effective use of non-textual evidence in their narrations. We consider the affordances and limitations of portfolios for supporting student reflection and metacognition of their own learning as well improvements that could be made to scaffold students’ communication and use of visual evidence in more effective ways.