ABSTRACT
This essay traces how the digital computers, multimedia, communications networks, and social media have played an increasingly important role in the world of informal STEAM learning. This role can be understood in terms of the development of four complementary and intertwined Digitally-Mediated Learning modalities: learners as STEAM content consumers, creators of digital content, players of video and computer games, and participants in virtual communities. Each modality has promoted Computational Thinking and related digital literacies. The essay presents highlights in the historical development of each modality, as well as how each modality promotes Computational Thinking. The promise of these modalities is that crossovers between them can help prepare learners to address complex, global, sometimes “wicked” problems. At the same time, these same modalities give rise to a variety of technology-related dilemmas – from violations of data privacy to widespread false information and even fake identities – that fall into the areas of ethics and public policy. These problems and dilemmas are interconnected and require a greater focus on thinking about future scenarios, systems thinking, and learning across traditional subject matter boundaries, college degrees, and separated knowledge communities.
