NSF POSE: Phase II: An Open-Source Ecosystem for EarSketch

Award ID: 2549947

As emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) continue to grow in economic importance, underlying computational thinking skills become even more critical. Computational thinking is a set of skills and practices that helps people understand how computers and AI work and how they can be leveraged to increase the productivity and creativity of the modern workforce. The integration of computing education with creative arts, such as music production, has shown success in increasing interest and engagement in computational thinking among students. This project will create an Open-Source Ecosystem (OSE) for the music and computing learning platform, EarSketch, which takes a novel approach to teaching computational thinking via algorithmic music composition and remixing, engaging approximately 280,000 K-12 students per year. The creation of a robust and sustainable OSE for EarSketch will ensure a path of continued growth and impact for the software platform and curriculum, including expansion into more academic classes, after school programs, summer camps, and adult learner programs. This expansion will increase computational thinking skills and AI literacy within the current and future U.S. workforce and help to maintain a competitive edge. The creation of a robust and sustainable OSE for EarSketch will help ensure the continued expansion and impact of the software platform and curriculum. The Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) project will build this ecosystem through three core activities: 1) establishing an open-source managing organization in the form of a new non-profit or a non-profit fiscal sponsor, 2) performing a compliance, security, and data privacy analysis and remediation to align the security posture of EarSketch with the expectations of school districts, teachers, parents, and relevant regulations, and 3) bolstering training and outreach efforts with teachers, administrators, and partners. As a result of these activities, the EarSketch platform and ecosystem will continue to expand computer science and computational thinking education and help further both computational and AI literacy by facilitating experimentation with computational thinking education, AI, and AI education. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Florence Rabanal