Group items tagged

"Computational Thinking (CT) is a problem solving process that includes a number of characteristics and dispositions. CT is essential to the development of computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines, including the humanities, math, and science. Students who learn CT across the curriculum can begin to see a relationship between academic subjects, as well as between life inside and outside of the classroom."

"Exploring Computational Thinking (ECT) is a curated collection of lesson plans, videos, and other resources on computational thinking (CT). This site was created to provide a better understanding of CT for educators and administrators, and to support those who want to integrate CT into their own classroom content, teaching practice, and learning."

"The research group that I'm a part of, Re-Making STEM, of is looking at ways that computational thinking (CT) practices intersect with creative, collaborative human activities.  This has led to some really interesting explorations in computing, cognition, and culture. Our practical goals include: discovering ways that teachers and their students can engage with and learn CT, and discovering design principles for learning and applying CT in interesting ways.  In this post, we'll look at some of those explorations and hopefully leave you with some things to think about."

"This post is a summary of an article submitted to the Learning Partnership for use in their monthly newsletter Spark. To read the full article, please visit: https://bit.ly/2pERWIG  Computational Thinking (CT) and the use of computer programming (often referred to as "coding") to support math instruction has gained momentum in recent years. CT has many definitions but most researchers agree that it "involves the use of computer science concepts such as abstraction, debugging, remixing and iteration to solve problems" (Brennan & Resnick; Ioannidou, Bennett, Repenning, Koh, & Basawapatna; Wing as cited in Lye & Koh, 2013).   There are many "potentials" for using computer programming as a context for the development of CT in the mathematics classroom, four of which I've listed below:"

"Problem Solving through Computational Thinking for Educators, provides teachers with an understanding of what CT is, why it is important, and ways you can incorporate CT skills into your classrooms. Comprised of five distinct "bite-sized" learning modules that introduce the concepts behind CT will spark new ideas, expand teachers' skill sets, and provide concrete ways to help their students excel at critical thinking and problem solving. "

"I enjoy some of the TED-Ed lessons so much that I have an alert on my phone that goes off whenever a new TED-Ed lesson is published. How X-Rays See Through Your Skin is the latest TED-Ed lesson. I found the lesson fascinating because it not only explained how modern x-rays and CT scans work, but it also explained some of the history of x-ray development."

"Like many kids of my generation growing up in India, I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton's novels. Many of her books were written as a series ("The Famous Five," "The Secret Seven" and "Five Find-Outers") and I recall wondering if the lives of characters overlapped in any way. Did a character from one series ever run into one from another, for example? I recall wondering the same thing in later years about P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle and Jeeves series. Today, in a world where communities real and imagined are digitally connected via platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr, we can reframe that question in terms of those common nodes (or friends) in those characters' social networks. As it turns out, network theory as an analytic technique, or what I'd call computational literary analysis, is not just a bona fide research endeavor. It's also a great example of how computational thinking (CT) is truly a cross-disciplinary skill that can be weaved to enrich learning in any subject (not just math and science, as is sometimes the assumption). In an earlier article on computational thinking, I offered teasers of how CT could be integrated into language arts and social studies, in addition to math and science. Here's a detailed treatment of one of those examples, drawn from the work of Franco Moretti's group on "Computational Criticism," which is part of the broader Digital Humanities initiative at Stanford. (See this New York Times profile for more on the work of this group)."

"In this post, I would like to review a thinking processes that can be applied across the curriculum providing a process for authentic understanding of standards. The cognitive process I am referring to is Computational Thinking (CT). This type of thinking is important not just in high stake testing, but also success in that world after school. Perhaps you have come across the idea of computational thinking in education. The best way to describe computational thinking is to look at the way a computer thinks… or at least runs a program. This is actually the most important concept a student learns through coding and developing computer programs. We must keep in mind that it is not the coding that is important… but the thinking process. After all… one can use a computer, but not actually use computational thinking skills. "

Computational Thinking (CT) is the ability to solve a problem by reducing it down to discrete steps that a machine or computer can solve. Students who learn CT can apply these skills across all subjects as well as life outside of the classroom. Coding is just one aspect of this.

"This approach to teaching critical thinking (CT) makes use of the 'descriptive-not-prescriptive' principle I introduced in this article for Innovate My School. In other words: teach by showing them (the students) what they already do rather than telling them what they should be doing but aren't. Though I will talk about philosophy sessions, as that is my background, the principles and procedure that you will find outlined here apply to any teaching context where the teaching of CT skills will be of value, whether maths, English or P.E."

"Computational thinking isn't new. Three decades ago, Seymour Papert introduced computational thinking when he developed the concept of bricolage, which is the construction of something new from many sources. He rightly understood the significance of computers, and with computational thinking, he surmised that they would not only be an integral part of our educational process, but we would need to acquire new ways for learning when using computers. In essence, the bricoleur builds knowledge by engaging in a process of building precise steps that encourage the construction of knowledge. Papert recognized that over time, the learner's theory may change as the result of refining his or her responses in any of the four stages of computational thinking. Even before Papert's work, however, educational visionaries insisted that the way to solve problems in any field was by adopting sequential problem-solving methods, which became algorithmic or computational thinking. In short, we use computational thinking (CT) to solve problems."

"In my last EdSurge article, "Computer Science Goes Beyond Coding," I wrote about the difference between coding and computer science, to help us understand what we mean by phrases like "Teach kids to code" and "Computer science for all." In that article and in many other articles, there is another term that appears often: "Computational thinking." Well, what is Computational Thinking (CT), and how does it differ from Coding and Computer Science-especially when it comes to classroom practice and instruction?"

"For better or worse, computing is pervasive, changing how and where people work, collaborate, communicate, shop, eat, travel, learn and quite simply, live. From the arts to sciences and politics, no field has been untouched. The last decade has also seen the rise of disciplines generically described as "computational X," where "X" stands for any one of a large range of fields from physics to journalism. Here's what Google autocomplete shows when you type "computational." (You can try it for yourself!) But the big question is: Does current K-12 education equip every student with the requisite skills to become innovators and problem-solvers, or even informed citizens, to succeed in this world with pervasive computing? Since the turn of this century, the "4C's of 21st century" skills-critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication-have seen growing recognition as essential ingredients of school curricula. This shift has prompted an uptake in pedagogies and frameworks such as project-based learning, inquiry learning, and deeper learning across all levels of K-12 that emphasize higher order thinking over rote learning. I argue that we need computational thinking (CT) to be another core skill-or the "5th C" of 21st century skills-that is taught to all students."

"Over the past five years, we have developed a computational thinking framework based upon our studies of interactive media designers. The context of our research is Scratch - a programming environment that enables young people to create their own interactive stories, games, and simulations, and then share those creations in an online community with other young programmers from around the world. By studying activity in the Scratch online community and in Scratch workshops, we have developed a definition of computational thinking that involves three key dimensions: (1) computational concepts, (2) computational practices, and (3) computational perspectives. Observation and interviews have been instrumental in helping us understand the longitudinal development of creators, with participation and project portfolios spanning weeks to several years. Workshops have been an important context for understanding the practices of the creator-in-action."

"Earlier in the school year my students created whole-class videos using our large green screen studio. While I assigned students a variety of tasks (director, camera operator, acting coach), my students spent the majority of their time on the carpet as an audience member. At the end of these units I wondered how we could increase student ownership of the production. Could I have my students create a green screen movie without having to play the audience member for large portions of the time? Could they be empowered to create a movie independently of the teacher? Could this be done by kindergartners and first graders? For most of the school year I struggled with these questions. That was until I met Brenda Windsor and Mary O'Neil of Trumbull, CT at the Fairfield University "Education Technology Collaboration Day" in March.  Brenda and Mary presented on how they have incorporated green screens in the classroom, and shared the idea of using a pizza box to make a miniature portable studio. Here is a link to the video they created.  From that moment, I was on a mission to have my K-2 students write, direct, film & star in their own collaborative group mini green screen movies. "