The shooting of Nahel Merzouk in June 2023 ignited widespread protests across France, known as the ``Justice Pour Nahel'' movement, drawing attention to the privacy and security risks faced by protesters. This study explores the discourse on Twitter during the protests, focusing on digital surveillance and censorship concerns. We analyzed 341 tweets using qualitative methods to understand the security and privacy attitudes and advice shared by French-speaking users. Our findings reveal a strong apprehension toward increased long-term government surveillance and censorship, with limited and often low-tech advice on how to counteract these threats. We highlight the discrepancy between the concerns raised and the available guidance and compare our findings with those of prior work. Grounded in our analysis and informed by prior research, we offer targeted recommendations for activists, policymakers, and researchers to mitigate security and privacy concerns arising from social unrest, both in France and globally.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713870
Computational thinking (CT) is essential for the 21st century learner. Yet, assessing CT remains challenging. This is particularly challenging in constructionist learning, where individual idiosyncrasies may clash with one-size-fits-all assessments. Tools like Dr. Scratch offer CT metrics that show promise for effective and scalable CT assessments, particularly in constructionist game-based learning (GBL). Prior work has advanced the design of automated CT metrics but hardly included teachers in the process. We extend Dr. Scratch to improve automated CT assessments for GBL and put teachers in the loop to assess its novel features. Specifically, we interviewed seven middle school teachers employing GBL in STEM curricula and asked them to provide feedback on the newly designed CT metrics. Teachers view the new CT metrics positively, underscoring their potential for adaptive CT assessments despite hindrances. We advance automated CT assessments via teacher evaluation toward design-sensitive CT metrics and CT for all.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713368
Tangible programming engages children through hands-on and collaborative learning but often lacks integration with widely used programming platforms, which limits their extensibility and relevance in existing educational contexts. To address this, we propose Tangible-MakeCode (T-MC), a system that combines physical coding blocks with MakeCode. T-MC enables students, including beginners in coding, to design and program interactive wireless communication projects. Students assemble the blocks, capture an image with a webcam, and convert it into code for MakeCode, which they can simulate and upload to their micro:bit boards. We describe the iterative design of T-MC, informed by participatory design workshops with 53 children and feedback from expert interviews with six teachers. A pilot study with 21 children (ages 12-14; M=10, F=11) demonstrates that T-MC is an engaging and inclusive tool that empowers beginners to contribute to team projects by providing an accessible platform for prototyping ideas.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713260
This work presents the iterative design and evaluation of a large-language-model (LLM) based teachable agent, MatlabTutee, that facilitates learning-by-teaching (LBT) experiences within university computer science courses. We detail four different experiments, with a total of 119 students, where we refine our system, compare it to human-facilitated LBT experiences, and deploy it in two, month-long in-the-wild environments. We find that our system is able to successfully convey a learner persona similar to a human pretending to be novice while also providing comparable LBT benefits. These benefits include helping students identify areas for improvement, develop a more accurate assessment of their own abilities, and improve their overall attitudes toward computer science. We also explore how students choose to adopt our system into their study habits while situated in real university courses.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713644
A classic problem in enterprise Wi-Fi is client-side misconfiguration, which enables credential theft via “Evil Twin” (ET) attacks. To mitigate this, we design, develop, and evaluate a new configurator, SeQR, which allows users to effortlessly and securely set up an enterprise Wi-Fi connection. Utilizing existing authenticated channels, SeQR fully automates the client-side enterprise Wi-Fi configuration process with a simple scan, leaving no room for misconfigurations. Specifically, SeQR thwarts ET by making it impossible for users to opt-out from the security-critical certificate validation. We evaluate the efficacy of SeQR on two fronts. First, we implement a prototype of SeQR in Android, and test its functionality and runtime performance. Next, we compare the usability of SeQR against two existing Wi-Fi configuration interfaces of Android in an in-person user study (n=41) with real devices. Our evaluation shows that SeQR achieves noticeable usability improvements over existing designs, and prevents users from misconfiguring.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3714223
Developing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) education curricula encouraging participation from underrepresented groups is crucial for diversity in computational fields. Many existing programs attract cis-white males, to the exclusion of other groups. This paper discusses a camp where participants, primarily female youth ages 10-14 (N=45), engage in crafting social wearable technologies within a live-action roleplay context. Our findings from four camp sessions show increased self-reported competence and interest in STEAM among participants, alongside enhanced feelings of community and social support. The camp's innovative approach integrates design thinking, iterative design, and collaboration, proving effective in fostering inclusivity and engagement in STEAM. We adopted an iterative Research-through-Design process, with researchers embedded in the camp to observe and conduct surveys and interviews with participants. Researchers and educators can benefit from reading our results, which demonstrate the value of a playful, socially-engaged curriculum in attracting and retaining diverse students in STEAM fields.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713843