Sharing Practice for Computing Educators

1. Sharing Practice for Computing Educators Janet Finlay, Leeds Metropolitan University Sally Fincher, University of Kent

2. alic.dur.ac.uk www.sharingpractice.ac.uk Planet: www.patternlanguagenetwork.org

3. CETL ALiC Lots of collaborative practice within consortium How to share practice outside consortium?

4. What’s the problem?

5. “Useful sharing” What is important to share? What is a useful representation?

6. Planet…Pattern Language NetworkNarratives of practice Patterns

7. Oxford University Press 1977 1216 pages 253 patterns Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein, Jacobson, Fiskdahl-King, Angel A Pattern Language

8. Distinguishing features of patterns • Form • Content • Key abstractions • Combination of abstract & concrete • Non-obvious • Value system • Structuring principle

12. Planet approach (Finlay et al., 2009): Workshop 1: cases to candidate patterns Refine candidate patterns Cases submitted Activity: Domain mapping Workshop 2: candidate patterns to patterns: “rule of three” Workshop 3: patterns applied to problem scenarios Refine patterns

14. The good:“Talking about particular case-studies or practices … was really helpful in teasing out the similarities… the value was really in the discussion as it helped me to focus on the significant factors”

15. The not-so-good:“I found the concept of patterns quite difficult to grasp, I just didn’t ‘get it’”Abstraction difficult“Rule of three” problem

16. So moved from Patterns to Bundles

17. Springer • 2001 • 267 pages • 46 bundles • Fincher, Petre, Clark, Utting, Boyle, Mander

18. EPCoS Bundle Form

19. 8.5 Red card / yellow card Students and staff alike are reluctant to reward group members who do not contribute, although some groups seem perfectly happy to "carry" a hitch-hiker. In either case, it is impossible for staff to know precisely how much work each team member did: only the students involved know this.

20. 8.5 Red card / yellow card This is what it is … The way it works is … It works better if … It doesn’t work unless …

21. 8.5 Red card / yellow card So: find a mechanism which devolves some control over the performance of group members to the groups themselves

24. Focused on abstraction – lost essential detail“I think we got this feeling we had to make it as generic as possible so as many people as possible would use it …

25. Focused on abstraction – lost essential detail“I think we got this feeling we had to make it as generic as possible so as many people as possible would use it … the simple fact is that it works the other way“

26. Focus group with team • Revised bundle template in participation with team • More scaffolding for sections • More relevant terminology

28. “Writing the bundles helped me to capture what worked and what didn’t in a much more succinct (and useful) manner”Collection of ~30 bundles

30. Lessons learned • Make time for sharing practice • Make use of narrative – tell stories • Detail is important • Representations should reflect community – be flexible

31. Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M., Fiksdahl-King, I., & Angel, S. (1977) A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction, New York: Oxford University Press • Fincher, S., Petre, M. and Clark, M. (2001), Computer science project work: Principles and pragmatics, London: SpringerVerlag. • Finlay, J., Gray, J., Falconer, I., Hensman, J., Mor, Y., and Warburton, S. (2009) Planet: pattern language for web2.0 in learning, JISC project final report, available at http://www.patternlanguagenetwork.org