Table 2 Characteristics of computation in playful activity, and characteristics of play in computational activity, with examples from the identified episodes
Computation in PLAY | Working definition | Example from episodes |
|---|---|---|
Familiar to unfamiliar | Beginning with familiar materials, or algorithms, to find new and unfamiliar behaviors or relationships | From Playing with LEDs: building circuits with wire, then extending to explore copper tape, noting the advantages and frustrations of this adhesive yet delicate material |
Modularity | Breaking larger problems down into discrete sub-tasks, with attention to repeatability | From Playing with LEDs: exploring voltage requirements of different LEDs prior to designing a string of them to implement in their project |
Abstractions | Identify rules for elements of a system, exploring the behaviors they produce, creating representations of those rules and emergent behaviors | From Round and Round: discovering the relationship between diameter of a gear and number of gear teeth when the size of the teeth is fixed |
Play in COMPUTATION | Working definition | Example from episodes |
|---|---|---|
Risk | Exploring and assembling materials without knowing the results to observe the resulting behaviors | From Playing with LEDs: attaching different color and voltage LEDs without knowing what will happen |
Reconfigurations | Rearranging the elements of a system to explore alternative configurations and resulting behaviors | From Round and Round: teachers explore different ways of attaching a motor to the driver in a planetary gear system—from underneath, from the top, etc |
Roles/Shifting Authority | Exploring different roles, distributing authority in unfamiliar ways | From Playing with LEDs: a middle-school student informs a college professor of the importance of voltage limits when combining LEDs |
Variations | Trying multiple ways of solving a problem or enacting some desired behavior | From 4-bar Linkages: a teacher explores card stock, chip board, and different fasteners to build variations on a linkage system driven by a motor |
Obsession | Fixation and extreme concentration on a task; an unwillingness to stop doing what you are doing | From Playing with LEDs: two participants sit next to each other focused on trying to wire LEDs in series, neither stopping for more than 40 min |