Our
public school system needs to find a way to connect computer technology in the
real world with preparing students in school. After reading “Bringing
Computational Thinking to K-12: What is Involved and What is the Role of the
Computer Science Education Community” by Valerie Barr and Chris Stevenson, I
agree the main objective is to teach kids to problem solve and ask questions to
why things don’t work. “They use a set of concepts, such as abstraction, recursion,
and iteration, to process and analyze data, and to create real and virtual
artifacts. CT is a problem solving methodology that can be automated and
transferred and applied across subjects.” (Barr & Stephenson, p. 51) Today’s
generation of students are used to being given everything immediately and have
very little ability to figure things out on their own.
Computing
has made possible the innovation and imagination of students as it facilitates
our efforts to solve problems and to further understand our relationship with
the world around us (p. 49). As future educators we can join in to embrace teaching
our students what they need, to develop maturity, problem solving skills, and
the ability to prepare for a career in the real world. Learning needs to
connect to computational thinking because that is where the future is.
Barr, David, John Harrison, and Leslie Conery. (2011). Computational Thinking: A Digital Age
Skill for Everyone. Learning and Leading with Technology.
Barr, David, John Harrison, and Leslie Conery. (2011). Computational Thinking: A Digital Age
Skill for Everyone. Learning and Leading with Technology.
Hello Allison,
ReplyDeleteGreat summary. I do agree with what the article says, but I do keep asking myself: with kids being indoctrinated into the world of technology, is all this talk about computational thinking really necessary? I mean, some kids are more technologically advanced than their teachers. Technology, it seems, develops very early in the human brain. What I mean by that is that technology seems to start out as intuitive to kids, and as they grow with technology it gets easier and easier to find out that one can solve problems much more efficiently (sometimes) with the use of technology. As technology continues to seep into every dimension of our lives, I think it is rather mundane to keep talking about how important it is that our kids learn it in schools. They are, and they are doing it better than we are. :) Those are my thoughts...
Thank you!
Marina Skendzic