Slowness, Politics, and Joy: Values That Guide Technology Choices in Creative Coding Classrooms

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges: The choice of tools in creative coding classrooms not only impacts students' learning and artistic development but also carries significant social and educational values, which have rarely been studied. Although there is a wide range of tools related to creative coding, understanding and evaluating the values these tools embody remains a challenge for educators and tool developers.
• Significance: Creative coding, as a form of expressive programming, is often used to create artistic works and teach computational thinking. Selecting appropriate tools not only influences learning outcomes but may also have profound effects on students' future cognition and work patterns. Understanding the underlying value systems can help optimize teaching practices and potentially contribute to advancements in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
• Research Motivation and Related Work: The authors observed that previous research has primarily focused on creative coding artists or students, with limited attention given to how educators select and design tools. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the key values reflected in educators' tool choices in creative coding classrooms.

Solution

• Proposed Solution: Conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 creative coding educators and tool developers to investigate their values. The analysis identified three themes: slowness, politics, and joy.
• Innovations:
  • Refocused on values (rather than mere technical choices) to uncover deeper considerations in educators' tool selection.
  • Proposed a framework combining critical perspectives on slowness, politics, and joy for analyzing and designing creative coding tools.
• Implementation Steps and Techniques:
  • Used interview methods to capture educators' thought processes in tool selection.
  • Applied open coding to categorize and analyze interview content, extracting the framework.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  • Established three core themes:
    1. Slowness: Moderate operational friction can help students learn through reflection and enhance artistry, but it should not excessively reduce learning efficiency.
    2. Politics: Tool selection involves the distribution of power and the transmission of values, such as tool pricing, the use of proprietary software, and compatibility between coursework and real-world work environments.
    3. Joy: Creative coding tools should foster a sense of joy derived from exploration, practice, and community connection while avoiding overly complex or rigid designs.
  • Applied the framework to case studies, such as optimizing tool accessibility and examining the role of artificial intelligence technologies.
• Advantages:
  • Enriched the understanding of the value systems underlying the use and design of creative coding tools, providing reference perspectives for optimizing classroom teaching methods.
  • Emphasized the importance of community building and inclusive documentation as key measures to address technological hegemony.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results: Primarily qualitative analysis, revealing educators' actual needs and contextual backgrounds through interviews. Specific results indicate that tool choices not only determine classroom performance but must also consider factors such as openness, long-term stability, and support for students' creativity.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Limitations: Small sample size (12 participants) and a focus on the U.S. educational context, which may not fully align with global experiences. Additionally, the study primarily centers on the intersection of educators and tool developers, excluding traditional educator groups.
  • Future Directions:
    • Expand the sample to cover broader geographical and cultural contexts.
    • Quantify the prevalence of values, such as investigating cultural differences in interpretations of slowness, politics, and joy.
    • Explore learning and usage patterns in other related fields (e.g., new media art or industry-standard tools).

Conclusion

This study, by focusing on the value-driven approach to tool selection in creative coding classrooms, provides valuable references for educators, tool developers, and HCI researchers. The proposed framework of "slowness, politics, and joy" is not only applicable to the creative coding domain but can also be extended to other areas of technology design and social practice. These findings offer critical insights for tool improvement, curriculum design, and community building while highlighting potential directions for future research.