Computational Thinking and Programming


Programming and Computational Thinking
When I was growing up in Ghana, computers and internet were not very common. The first computer in my house was a Pentium 4. It was for the entire family and we had to use it in turns. Today, computers are very common in types and sizes to choose from. There many forms of computer technologies and applications for general and specific purposes. The ability to use them is gradually becoming a requirement hence the need to educate oneself.

The idea of computational thinking began with algorithm thinking. In Tedre Matti and Denning, Peter journal article, "The Long Quest for Computational Thinking", they classified computational thinking from the perspective of early pioneers who viewed computational thinking from the algorithm thinking and the later pioneers who view computational thinking as systems, architectures and design.

The concept of computational thinking in schools being in different ways. Google, Microsoft, BBC, are among companies who are investing heavily through the production of platforms, software and hardware tools.

Importance of Computational thinking and Programming

                                                   Visit video source

Do not get it twisted! Computational Thinking is not always about programming with computers. It can be done without computers. Really? Yeah. But how? Computational Thinking Unplugged is the answer.

Credit: Code.org



Computation thinking by Jules


In my opinion, computational thinking is useful in education to teach different subjects and concepts behind principles. A typical example is using colors to explain the need for good designs which can be linked to Human Computer Interaction (HCI), a hot topic in Computer Science. The video is my personal favorite computational thinking unplugged. Enjoy☺


                                                      Credit: Computer Science Unpluggged


References
Bundy, A. (2007). Computational thinking is pervasive. Journal of Scientific and Practical Computing, 1(2), 67-69.
Tedre, M., & Denning, P. J. (2016, November). The long quest for computational thinking. In Koli Calling (pp. 120-129).


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