Interconnections: Teaching Systems Thinking through Digital Design

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Keywords: Systems Thinking,Making, Computer Science Education,Digital Learning Pedagogy

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The Interconnections book series shares over 100 hours of ‘digital making’ curricular units spanning four areas of digital design; digital storytelling through computation, game design, e-textiles and physical computing. The series offers concrete lesson plans that integrate digital making with learning systems thinking, a powerful way of understanding the world as a series of interconnected systems characterized by dynamics like feedback loops, emergence, complexity and non-linear dynamics.   

 

The approaches were developed through a collaboration between the Creativity Labs at Indiana University, the Institute of Play, the Digital Youth Network at Depaul University and the National Writing Project. 

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Collaborators:

• Kylie Peppler - UC, Irvine

• Melissa Gresalfi - Vanderbilt University

• Katie Salen Tekinbaş - UC, Irvine

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Funder:

• The MacArthur Foundation

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Books:

• Gaming the System. Designing with Gamestar Mechanic. Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Melissa Gresalfi, Kylie Peppler and Rafi Santo. MIT Press; Cambridge, 2014. 

• Short Circuits. Crafting e-Puppets with DIY Electronics. Kylie Peppler, Melissa Gresalfi, Katie Salen Tekinbaş and Rafi Santo. MIT Press; Cambridge, 2014.

• Soft Circuits. Crafting e-Fashion with DIY Electronics. Kylie Peppler, Melissa Gresalfi, Katie Salen Tekinbaş and Rafi Santo. MIT Press; Cambridge, 2014.

• Script Changers. Digital Storytelling with Scratch. Kylie Peppler, Rafi Santo, Melissa Gresalfi and Katie Salen Tekinbaş. MIT Press; Cambridge, 2014.

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Resources:

• Interconnections teacher resources