We like to start out on pop and play with a bit of a game. So, happy to hear that it was us that we beat them to the punch. I will say, I am excited to hear that this is your first podcast I was a little worried that maybe Bruce and Barack got to you first. And that's, that's why we're excited to have you here to talk about all of that today, not only the toys, but also those new frontiers. And I think they also teach us important things about what is really different what we need to pay attention to. But I have always been interested in games, in textiles when we were still kind of married to our computer screens, and more recently even moved into biology exploring the liquid medium. And I think you accurately summarized it-I work on all the fun stuff, connected to learning. Thank you for having me on your podcast, I think this is my first one. And we're just thrilled to have you here to talk with us today about, about your work and about play, you know, broadly speaking, so Yasmin. She's also the author and editor of many, many books on play, games, coding, making, including my co-editor for the Designing Constructionist Futures book. Importantly, she's one of the co-designers of the Scratch programming language. Yasmin is a pioneer of learning with creative technology. Nathan: I am very excited to have you here today with us Yasmin Kafai, Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Nathan: Finally, Yasmin talks about the implications of moving “code” from digital spaces such as Scratch, to the physical world of textiles and materials. Reflecting on how kids create and share artifacts in Scratch, as well as in virtual worlds such as Whyville, Yasmin highlights the importance of meeting children where they’re at, of embracing kids’ culture and values in the design of learning environments. Scratch is a programming tool and online community where children write code to create games and interactive stories, share these programs, and learn from each others’ projects all around the world. Haeny: Yasmin is the co-creator of one of the world’s most popular constructionist environments, Scratch. The idea is that these construction environments externalize our thoughts into tools and representations so that then, communities of learners can see that thinking, they can tinker with it, debug it, and use it to build new things. Constructionism is all about putting powerful creation tools into the hands of learners and inviting them to build and share objects and artifacts that have personal and communal value. Yasmin is a pioneer of constructionist design. Nathan: This week we talk with Yasmin Kafai from the University of Pennsylvania. She helped develop Scratch programming language, called the YouTube of interactive media, where millions of kids create and share their programs and Stitching the Loop, a unit using electronic textiles to introduce computing to high school students as part of Exploring Computer Science curriculum. She is author of numerous books, among them Connected Play, Connected Code, and Connected Gaming and co-edited volumes that focus on gaming and gender such as Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat and promote constructionist approaches such as Designing Constructionist Futures with Nathan Holbert and Matthew Berland. Her research empowers students to use computer programming to design games, tell interactive stories, and sew electronic textiles with the goal to support creative expression, build social connections, and broaden participation in computing. Kafai is the Lori and Michael Milken President's Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.
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