The Creative Communities research group at the department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder explores how we can engage people to create, play, and learn together. We aim to design technologies and environments that enable people to create things they care about, to build meaningful relationships, and to shape the world around them.
Updates
We are organizing coding workshops for young people to create and play with physical activities, with the aim to explore how we can make K12 CS education more active and social rather than sitting in front of a screen. In the workshop, participants will learn programming concepts and skills by playing physical activities. Free participation and lunch will be provided!
The Creative Communities research group is looking for PhD students who are interested in working youth and families from underrepresented groups in STEM, developing experience in community-based research, examining equity and inclusion in learning environments, and exploring the possibilities of learning with creative technologies.
Our group has paper titled “A Review of Computational Toys and Kits for Young Children” accepted to International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. This paper presents a review of computational toys and kits that enable young children (ages 7 years old and under) to explore computational ideas and practices. We collected 30 computational kits and performed a qualitative analysis of these kits. We reflect on the implications for designers and researchers to expand the possibilities for children to create, explore, and play with computing.
We designed a winter-themed activity for a drop-in family night at the Hadley Public Library in Denver. Families could collaborate in a light-up snowflake mural, build dancing creatures with Lego WeDo and create interactive characters using Scratch and Makey Makey.
We are looking for parents and kids to participate in our digital privacy focus groups. Each family will be offered $25 gift card to King Soopers
Share your insights and get 20 dollars! We are looking for parents who have a 3-9 years old child and the child has experience with coding toys and apps, such as ScratchJr, Code-a-pillar, and Cubetto. Please go to http://bit.ly/cutoy and schedule a 50 minute Skype meeting with us!
Thoughts on collaborative processes while we were making our sign lab
For Maker Faire Denver, we created a collaborative mural of light-up creatures and vibrating critters using craft materials and simple electronics.
We're excited to launch our new website for our Creative Communities research group. Our group is exploring how we can engage people to create, play, and learn together. We want to support people to create things they care about, to see themselves as creators, and to see the ways they can shape the world around them.
Featured Project
Family Creative Learning is a workshop series that engages children and their parents to learn together — as designers and inventors — through the use of creative technologies. We designed the workshops to build on families' relationships and cultural backgrounds and to strengthen their social support and expertise around computing.