An Investigation of So-Called 'Digital Natives'' Mental Models of Computer Architecture: Computers as a Conversational Partner

Computer use has become a fact of life, especially for children, many of whom were forced to switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and resorted to digital hobbies as a safety measure. Further the amount of time children spend on computers, as well as the number of different computer devices that pervade our post-pandemic society is only increasing. Today's children, who have grown up around computer technologies are often referred to as 'digital natives.' The concept of a 'digital native' implies that children who grow up around computers and similar technology will innately know how a computer works due to their constant exposure to such technologies, and therefore do not need to be taught formal computer skills, unlike previous generations who received such instruction. In line with this thinking, previous studies in computer science education and human-computer interaction have focused on how children learn to program computers or use a specific software, rather than examining their fundamental understand of how the whole computer 'works.' Cognitive scientists and educational psychologists have long demonstrated the need to understand the ways that children think about concepts because such knowledge serves as a foundation for further learning and academic development. As such, I aimed to investigate the underexplored topic of children's conceptual understanding of computer architecture, which arguably is one of the most important topics for educational researchers in an ever-increasingly digitized society. I was interested in exploring the mental models (knowledge and ideas about a concept) these co-called 'digital natives' held about computer architecture. Computer architecture is a fundamental, yet unseen, part of a computer. In short, a computer's architecture determines how a computer processor is designed to input, transfer, store, and output data. If today's children are truly 'digital natives,' they theoretically should have some idea of how a computer 'works' even without receiving any formal education on the topic. However, many digital natives view computers as magical mystery boxes of information. Without theoretical grounding in computer sciences concepts, such as computer architecture, today's children risk doing without knowing, opening the risk that there will be little foundational understanding that is needed for the flexible cognitive development that will be required as computers continue to evolve. For this study, I asked one overarching question, which I explored through three smaller investigations. My research question was as follows: What ideas are present in elementary children's (ages 9-11) mental models of computer architecture? This research question served as a guide for the following lines of inquiry. (a) What do children believe makes a computer unique from other forms of technology? (b) What processes and elements of computer architecture do children believe are important to the function of the computer? (c) How do children depict the structure and process they believe are present in a computer's architecture? In this qualitative study, I gathered the expressed ideas from 35 children, all of whom were part of an afterschool literacy program in partnership with a local elementary school and a large research university. Over two program sessions I collected written and drawn artifacts as well as audio/video data captured while the youth participants engaged in activities related to computer architecture concepts. Findings from my analysis of participants' responses suggest that conceptual understanding about how computers work has not changed much since the topic was first investigated in the late 1960s. However, the youth in this study recognized a new technology, digital voice assistants and other such conversational artificial intelligence software, as a key component of computer architecture, being present in every step of the computer architecture process. Children in this study simultaneously viewed such software as a physical component within the computer, a person separate from the computer, and as a fundamental way to interact with computers. These findings also speak to the growing body of literature on how children interact with conversational software, and how such interactions impact youth's education and their digital safety habits. This study contributes to the gap in the literature on children's ideas about computer architecture, and additionally shows that so-called 'digitally native' children still require formal computer literacy instruction to understand how a computer 'works,' -- which continues to evolve in complexity. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]