Amon Millner

Bio: Amon Millner is an academic researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Input device & Interaction design. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 6 publications receiving 2515 citations.

Scratch: programming for all

Abstract: "Digital fluency" should mean designing, creating, and remixing, not just browsing, chatting, and interacting.

BodyBeats: whole-body, musical interfaces for children

Abstract: This work in progress presents the BodyBeats Suite--three prototypes built to explore the interaction between children and computational musical instruments by using sound and music patterns. Our goals in developing the BodyBeats prototypes are (1) to help children engage their whole bodies while interacting with computers, (2) foster collaboration and pattern learning, and (3) provide a playful interaction for creating sound and music. We posit that electronic instruments for children that incorporate whole-body movement can provide active ways for children to play and learn with technology (while challenging a growing rate of childhood obesity). We describe how we implemented our current BodyBeats prototypes and discuss how users interact with them. We then highlight our plans for future work in the fields of whole-body interaction design, education, and music.

Tools for Creating Custom Physical Computer Interfaces

Abstract: The Hook-ups project introduces a new set of tools and activities intended to support children in creating physical computer input devices for computer programs they write. This project introduces a new approach to learning through design by providing opportunities for children to engage in both the physical and computational design concurrently. This demonstration proposal describes three types of Hookups (basic, repurposed, and fabricated) and introduces a set of puzzle piece-based building blocks called Scratch Patches that youth can connect to construct physical input devices. In this demonstration session, participants will have the opportunity to interact with existing Hook-ups interfaces, including several designed by youth, and construct their own Hook-ups.

Computer as chalk: cultivating and sustaining communities of youth as designers of tangible user interfaces

Abstract: My research efforts focus primarily on two areas: (1) developing engaging technological tools that promote learning and creative expression and (2) designing supportive environments that invite broad participation with these technologies. In this dissertation, I argue that the ways in which people use chalk (e.g., drawing hopscotch grids) can serve as an inspiration for rethinking how people can harness the expressive power of computational technologies. Today's computing devices have the potential to enhance expressive activities for diverse groups in similar ways that chalk does, but that potential has yet to be realized. At the core of my research is the Hook-ups System, a set of technologies and activities designed to enable young people to create interactive experiences by programming connections between physical and digital media. With it, young people integrate sensors with various materials to create tangible interfaces for controlling images and sounds in computer programs that they themselves create. For example, a 10-year-old created a paper-plate-based flying saucer, added a sensor, then wrote a program to control an animated flying saucer image on the computer screen. A framework called the Constellation of Connected Creators emerged from my work with the Hook-ups System. It provides facilitators with strategies for introducing technological tools and activities to communities of learners. It identifies several roles that both facilitators and participants adopt over time to sustain youth engagement in technology-rich learning activities: creator, co-learner, collaborator, coach, and colleague. This dissertation reports on my investigation that took place in two after-school technology centers over a five-year period. Two sets of questions guided my inquiry. The first set probed how attributes of the Hook-ups System enabled diverse audiences to engage in building personally meaningful projects, express themselves, and transform how they approached design. The second set examined which strategies were successful for using the Constellation of Connected Creators to establish a culture in which facilitators engaged groups of newcomers, cultivated future facilitators and supported their successors. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)

Supporting children as they program to make physical and virtual objects interact

Abstract: I develop technological tools to help communities of children creatively solve problems as they program computers. The Hook-ups project introduces computational tools that support children in building physical input devices for computer programs they create. Research questions guiding my work are presented, as are the methods by which I investigate them in informal learning environments.

The Scratch Programming Language and Environment

Abstract: Scratch is a visual programming environment that allows users (primarily ages 8 to 16) to learn computer programming while working on personally meaningful projects such as animated stories and games. A key design goal of Scratch is to support self-directed learning through tinkering and collaboration with peers. This article explores how the Scratch programming language and environment support this goal.

Defining Computational Thinking for Mathematics and Science Classrooms

Abstract: Science and mathematics are becoming computational endeavors. This fact is reflected in the recently released Next Generation Science Standards and the decision to include “computational thinking” as a core scientific practice. With this addition, and the increased presence of computation in mathematics and scientific contexts, a new urgency has come to the challenge of defining computational thinking and providing a theoretical grounding for what form it should take in school science and mathematics classrooms. This paper presents a response to this challenge by proposing a definition of computational thinking for mathematics and science in the form of a taxonomy consisting of four main categories: data practices, modeling and simulation practices, computational problem solving practices, and systems thinking practices. In formulating this taxonomy, we draw on the existing computational thinking literature, interviews with mathematicians and scientists, and exemplary computational thinking instructional materials. This work was undertaken as part of a larger effort to infuse computational thinking into high school science and mathematics curricular materials. In this paper, we argue for the approach of embedding computational thinking in mathematics and science contexts, present the taxonomy, and discuss how we envision the taxonomy being used to bring current educational efforts in line with the increasingly computational nature of modern science and mathematics.

The Maker Movement in Education

Abstract: In this essay, Erica Halverson and Kimberly Sheridan provide the context for research on the maker movement as they consider the emerging role of making in education. The authors describe the theoretical roots of the movement and draw connections to related research on formal and informal education. They present points of tension between making and formal education practices as they come into contact with one another, exploring whether the newness attributed to the maker movement is really all that new and reflecting on its potential pedagogical impacts on teaching and learning.

Digital Fabrication and Making' in Education: The Democratization of Invention

Abstract: A quote often attributed to Seymour Papert states that if a teacher from the 16th century would timetravel to the present, he or she would have no problem entering a school and teaching a class. Historical documents from that time show that he could not be more accurate. The Treviso Arithmetic, from 1478, teaches students how to do multiplication and division using ‘exactly’ the same paper-based algorithms we use today. Several descriptions of 16th century schools and their curricula look strikingly similar to today’s mathematics classes, such as a well-known school in Florence run by Master Francesco Ghaligai in 1519 which had a “...heavy emphasis on memorization and procedures” and a curriculum comprised of units on “multiplication, practice in the use of algorithms, division, fractions, and the rule of three” (Swetz & Smith, 1987).