domino: Unleash your phone's potential, one sensor at a time

Andrea diSessa (2001) claimed that computers can be the basis of an empowering, new literacy— called computational literacy— that change the way people think and learn. However, few students in India have access to computers (ASER Center, 2018) and computer science curricula (Raman, Venkatasubramanian, Achuthan, & Nedungadi, 2015). As a result, most students lack the computational literacy skills that might allow them to harness technologies in creative and personally meaningful ways.

Our proposed solution, domino, uses smartphones, which are increasingly prevalent in Indian households, to enable Indian youth to become empowered users of technology. domino allows learners to create their own cause-and-effect applications by making their phone’s sensors talk to each other, by, for example, location, weather or velocity-based triggers. We target learners in the beginning of their smartphone use — often teenagers in high school in India, and design the learning experience at homes, where smartphones are most accessible.

We anticipate that learners will see an increase in their computational thinking skills, their understanding of technology around them and their confidence in becoming active producers of such technology. A high-functioning prototype of domino has been tested with high school students in India with success in learning and usability. Continued user-tests will inform the design of domino as a fully functioning product.