Author Archives: reese@illinois.edu

About reese@illinois.edu

Director of MSTE at College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Collaborative Computing Observation Instrument (C-COI)

Posted on by

The Collaborative Computing Observation Instrument  was developed by the CTRL-Shift research team under the direction of Dr. Maya Israel. It tracks student interactions as they work on computing tasks, with specific attention to collaborative problem solving, persistence, and adaptive help seeking. It is used in concert with video screen recording software such as Screencastify that records students’ computer screens and dialogue as they engage in computational activities.

We began the development of the C-COI by designing a visual model of student behaviors as they engaged in computing activities: Computational Thinking Flowchart

Team members involved in the development of the C-COI include: Maya Israel, Evan Ramos, Quentin Wherfel, Saad Shehab, and George Reese

Collaborative Discussion Framework

Posted on by

The Collaborative Discussion Framework is used at Kenwood Elementary School and was written by Minsoo Park and Todd Lash as part of their work in Computational Thinking in K-5.

  • What are you trying to do?
    (Do they have or understand the purpose?)
  • What have you tried already? 
    (Restate in steps what they have already done.)
  • What else do you think you can try?
    (Brainstorm, encourage students to take a chance.)
  • What would happen if….?
    (Come up with some possible solutions and hypothesize the outcomes.  Test each hypothesis.)
  • Celebrate & Share!
    (Take charge of celebrating one’s excitement)

    • Self recognition / realization (solution / different idea)
    • Recognition for other’s help? idea? solution? – Take 3