Engaging Families in Creative Learning Experiences
Family Creative Learning is a series of family workshops that support intergenerational learning through the use of creative technologies like Scratch. The workshops are collaboratively designed with community centers that serve families with limited access to resources and social support computing. We designed the workshops to build on families' relationships and cultural backgrounds and to strengthen their social support and expertise around computing.
Through this project, we are exploring a variety of research questions that include the role that parents and family play in children's experiences with computing, how informal learning educators, or facilitators, support creative computing experiences, and how we can use documentation to make learning visible in these informal contexts.
In addition to designing and studying the program, we also develop resources for educators, such as the Family Creative Learning Facilitator Guide.
Relevant publications
Roque, R. (2023) Imagining Alternative Visions of Computing: Photo-Visuals of Material, Social, and Emotional Contexts from Family Creative Learning. In the Proceedings of the ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC 2023) (pp. 68-81) Chicago, IL.
Yu, J., Widman, S., & Roque, R. (2023) Family Negotiation in Joint Media Engagement with Creative Computing. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘23). Hamburg, Germany.
Roque, R. & Tamashiro, M. (2022) Making Learning Visible in Constructionist Learning Contexts. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Portugal.
Roque, R., Tamashiro, M., McConnell, K. & Granados, J. (2021) Opportunities and Limitations of Construction Kits in Culturally Responsive Computing Contexts: Lessons from ScratchJr and Family Creative Learning. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Online.
Roque, R. and Widman, S. (2021) Engaging families in computational literacy opportunities. In Lopez, E., Mehra, B., & Caspe, M. (Eds.), A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Roque, R. (2020) Building Projects, Building Relationships: Designing for Family Learning. In Holbert, N., Berland, M., & Kafai, Y. (Eds.), Designing Constructionist Futures: The Art, Theory, and Practice of Learning Designs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Roque, R. (2020) Qualities of Identity Resources in Creative Computing. In Gresalfi, M. & Horn, I.S., The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences: The International Conference ofthe Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020, Volume 1 (pp. 207-214). Nashville, TN: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Widman, S. & Roque, R. (2019) Parent perspectives on interfacing with computing opportunities in library settings. Proceedings in the 2019 Connected Learning Summit. Irvine, CA.
Roque, R. & Stamatis, K. (2019) It’s about relationships: Examining facilitation as a relational practice. Proceedings in the 2019 Connected Learning Summit. Irvine, CA.
Roque, R. and Jain, R. (2018). Becoming facilitators of creative computing in out-of-school settings. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of the Learning Sciences. London.
Roque, R. (2016). Family Creative Learning. In Peppler, K., Kafai, Y., & Halverson, E. (Eds.) Makeology in K-12, Higher, and Informal Education. New York, NY: Routeledge.
Roque, R. (2016) Family Creative Learning: Designing structures to engage kids and parents as computational creators. (Doctoral Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Roque, R., Lin, K., & Liuzzi, R. (2016) "I'm not just a mom": Parents developing multiple roles in creative computing. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS). Singapore.