Off The Screen, And Into The World Of Everyday Objects: Computational Thinking For Youth With The Internet Of Things

This paper discusses the opportunities presented by the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide youth opportunities to develop their computational thinking and digital empowerment. This paper argues that to support youth in developing these literacies, we need to develop platforms that reduce the barriers of entry while still allowing them to explore and develop their computational identities. To this end, this paper introduces an extension to App Inventor by MIT that enables students to quickly design, develop, and implement IoT applications. We outline one IoT activity for youth and future directions for both curricular and technical development.