Computational Thinking ? Is it for All? Do you see it as another divide?

  There is a publication at academic levels by the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation

www.sasc.org , Contact person is Sue Fratkin    Sue@sasc.org for copies.

The National  Picture of Computational Thinking/ Rsearch

Because of my interest I attended two workshops that try to help define computational thinking. There were two of these. The scope and nature of the reports will give you new undersatndings.I worked with the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, and learned that whay I knew was only the beginning of what teachers, , students and the community of learners can achieve with infusion of new ways of thinking into schools.

SCOPE AND APPROACH OF A WORKSHOP on Computational Thinking, National Research Council

The report summarizes a workshop on the nature of computational thinking held February 19-20, 2009, in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Committee for the Workshops on Computational Thinking. The workshop was structured to gather inputs and insights from computer scientists, information technologists, and disciplinary experts knowledgeable about how computational thinking might be relevant to their domains of expertise. It also involved a number of education researchers and cognitive scientists familiar with educational dimensions of computational thinking.

Here is an online report of one of the workshops.

Source  http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12840&page=1

Research at the Supercomputing Centers

Another group working with computational thinking is the group of EOT at NCSA. I was introduced to them and learned from them over several years in workshops, outreach and using their resources.

NCSA.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, provides powerful computers and expert support that help thousands of scientists and engineers across the country improve our world.

With the computing power available at NCSA, researchers simulate how galaxies collide and merge, how proteins fold and how molecules move through the wall of a cell, how tornadoes and hurricanes form, and other complex natural and engineered phenomena.

NCSA—established in 1986 as one of the original sites of the National Science Foundation'sSupercomputer Centers Program—is supported by the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, the National Science Foundation, and grants from other federal agencies. The center is part of the Illinois Institute for Advanced Computing Applications and Technologies.

Some of the projects I did there were Bugscope. Chickscope and I learned the future of cell phones much before they were in use in general ways in America. I remember being heckled at a conference when I shared the research and a preview into the future. Many teachers were very sure that I did not know what I was talking about. The celll phones of course are everywhere now.

Public Engagement Portal

There too was the public engagement portal  http://engage.illinois.edu/entry/593

Here is one example of kid power using Bugscope.I used this in my classroom at 4th grade.You can see how interesting this application was to kids at the Edutopia web site.

Bugscope: Magnifying the Connection Among Students, Science, and Scientists

http://www.edutopia.org/bugscope-magnifying-connection-between-stud...

"What if expensive but important scientific instruments such as the Hubble telescope, electron microscopes, or even remote sensing satellites were on the network, and students could queue up requests for their use? This is not a farfetched scenario."-- Dr. Elliot Soloway, professor of computer science and education, University of Michigan, 1994

A University of Illinois program allows students anywhere in the country to use the university's $600,000 environmental scanning electron microscope via the Internet.  

 We used Bugscope, and the resources of the Orkin exhibit on the mall to learn about bugs. 

BUGSCOPE  http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/

Ever seen a bedbvg up close and personal? A butterfly? A flea?

A University of Illinois program allows students anywhere in the country to use the university's $600,000 environmental scanning electron microscope via the Internet.

Chickscope was the one I loved the most. I never wanted to open the eggs to see the stages of the development inside the egg.The F-H supplied the eggs and teachers were coached to teach embriology. But Chickscope magnified our ability to engage, inform , have kids use scientific reasoning and problem solving, and to explore new ways of scientific thinking. 

What is Chickscope ? Using computers in the classroom with access to the Internet, students and teachers are able to access data generated from the latest scientific instruments. The goals include an increased understanding of the process of gathering scientific data and the opportunity to interact with scientists from several disciplines and students in other classrooms The access to unique scientific resources and expertise provides motivation for learning science and mathematics and stimulates interest in the scientific world

 http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/

THere was the geowall, the cave and other applications that were shared with us. This was my favorite workshop.There are lots of projects that other NCSA groups can offer to educators. All of this information is available on the web. The public, the teachers, the professors of education seem not to know about these EOT resources.

Introduction to Advanced Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science and there were additional workshops that I participated in.Seeking the future of the promise of the use of high performance computing was my journey.my quest. This work has been in the education space for a long time. But  it has not translated to be a parr of schools especially in the era of No Child Left Behind.

One  questions r often is “what is computation?” Jeannette Wing defines “Computing is the automation of our abstractions” Computational thinking then becomes selecting the right abstractions and the right computer (where computers are defines much more broadly than just computing machines) to solve problems. I really like these descriptions because they really bring out how broad and wide ranging computational thinking really is.

Jeanette Wing's paper os a gppd read fpr those who need more information 

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wing/www/publications/Wing06.pdf

Another way of looking at the use of computational thinking? We go to Carnegie Mellon.

This is how the scientists at Carnegie Mellon define  what we are talking about.

"Computational reasoning is the core of all modern Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM) disciplines and is intrinsic to  all sother disciplines from A to Z. You may not be able to define or share what computational thnking is but it is used in our every day lives from baking a cake, changing a tire or brushing our teeth. THe human brain is wired to think computationally as or modern computing devices. as educators a Computational Thinking perspective can help us to convey fundamental computing ideas to all students.Computer science is having a revolutionary impact on scientific research and discovery. Simply put, it is nearly impossible to do scholarly research in any scientific or engineering discipline without an ability to think computationally. The impact of computing extends far beyond science, however, affecting all aspects of our lives. To flourish in today's world, everyone needs computational thinking." http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~CompThink/

What is computational thinking?

http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/index.html

Computational thinking makes it possible for transplant surgeons to realize that more lives can be saved by optimizing the exchange of organs among pools of donors and recipients. It enables new drug designs to be analyzed so that they are less likely to create drug-resistant strains of diseases. Artists, when given the tools to think and express themselves computationally, can create totally new modes of human experience. Users of the Internet, when empowered with computational thinking, can demystify privacy technologies and surf the web safely. 

One more reference

Computational Thinking: A Problem-Solving Tool For Every Classroom

The Computer Science Teachers Association and Microsoft have teamed up to create an excellent overview of computational thinking and have compiled a useful list of computational resources for teachers and students. Click the link below to open the PDF document:

Open the PDF

http://education.sdsc.edu/resources/CompThinking.pdf

 Tranforming Schools How Long Will it Talk?  Some of these projects need to be in schools now as we talk about change and transformation.

I have been working with computational thinking and modeling for about ten years. At first the people in the field said they were only interested in juniors and seniors and undergraduates. When a group of us created a team to show the advantage of K-12 infusion we were treated as if we had lost our minds. Fortunately there were resources that were available in the Shodor.org Foundation, and then there were individual curriulum pieces that were generated for teacher use.  Later there were visualization and modeling practices that were taught by NCIS, and through the Teragrid. 

One person who was an activist for K-12  is  Bob Panoff was very much interested in K-12. He created curriculum.

Resources for Educators

http://www.shodor.org/educators/programs/

Master Tools

http://www.shodor.org/master/

Interactivate is one of the best projects.

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/

That was and is Henry Neeman, who actually came to the various conferences where K-12 and college professors met to share and to work to create awareness. We are fortunate to have a SIG in the SITE.org ( AACE) conference. We are happy to be able to present in Nashville. You can see his basic workshop here.

Another concern that people had was about teacher ability. Some argued that teachers were not able to learn languages nor understand visualization and modeling. There is on the Shodor.org site, curriculum that shows that this is not true. But , it is true that in the last two years, people have still been saying , well just take it to the kids.

Karen North, Ray Rose, Bob Plants, Vic Sutton, Bill and Katie Klinger worked at SC and in a grassroots initiative before ISTE to to create , share and show the possibilities. We are very grateful to the Teragrid staff, particularly Scott Lathrop who stood by us as we learned, shared and participated in the use of supercomputing though some people tried to Excel us to death. We love Excel and understand it, but for a while it was all that people though we could handie. Then came Alexander Repening of Agent Sheets, and using his programs and ways of teaching , he involved teachers in a workshop that changed the way that some of us think about how teachers can be taught. Scalable Game Design through the Atlas Institute was a model that showed that teachers could do hands on, and even I was able to create a game in two days. Some of us as teachers have been rebuffed by those in authority, in education as being unable to learn, use and disseminate the use of computational thinking.  What was also powerful was that we used digital wireless tools with visualizations on them IPAD to share what Supercomputers do.

I was glad to find this in my mailbox today. Way to go Google!!!

Exploring Computational Thinking

Monday, October 25, 2010 at 10/25/2010 10:00:00 AM

Posted by Elaine Kao, Education Program Manager

Over the past year, a group of California-