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Computational Thinking Skills

Computational Thinking Skills. Preparing Our Students For the 21 st Century To the Glory of God!. Computational Thinking?. Why?. How?. What?. Why?. 21st Century - so what's the big deal?. Did You Know presentation.

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Computational Thinking Skills

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  1. Computational Thinking Skills Preparing Our Students For the 21st Century To the Glory of God! KCEA 2009

  2. Computational Thinking? Why? How? What? KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  3. Why? KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  4. 21st Century - so what's the big deal? Did You Know presentation KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  5. We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  6. Information Age • term that has been used to refer to the present economic era • alludes to the global economy's shift in focus away from the production of physical goods (industrial age) and toward the manipulation of information • Bits • Binary Digits • 1011001111001 KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  7. ATOMS Building blocks of all prior economic ages See ‘em, touch ‘em, feel ‘em, break ‘em, lose ‘em Tangible Cost of copies = cost of original (almost) Not very adaptable BITS Building blocks of the information age Cannot see ‘em, touch ‘em, feel ‘em (except with software – an interface) Intangible Cost of copies = FREE, but cost of the original EXPENSIVE Very adaptable Consider the Contrast KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

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  10. Bits are EXTREMELY Scalable • If, over the past 30 years, transportation technology had improved at the same rate as information technology with respect to size, cost, performance, and energy efficiency, then an automobile would be • the size of a toaster • cost $200 • go 100,000 miles per hour • travel 150,000 miles on a gallon of fuel! KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  11. Digital Kids in Analog Schools • We desperately need a generation of young people who are imaginative, inventive, fearless learners, and compassionate leaders. • No generation in history has ever been so thoroughly prepared for the industrial age. • As educators, we are not grasping (or prepared for) the depth of the change that is occurring under our feet. If it's happened (breaking apart the center) in every other industry - movies, music, software, business - what makes us think that our educational structures are immune? KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  12. Digital Kids in Analog Schools • While we teach whatever we teach at school, the kids go home and learn the skills they need to survive and prosper in an interconnected global economy. • If we do not become leaders to our students, we will be followers, seen as irrelevant, and left to cry in our books while the kids are off setting the agenda. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  13. Digital Kids in Analog Schools • No one jumps a 20 foot chasm in two 10 foot jumps. • Our kids are connected. Technology is part of their lives. But it’s not technology, it’s information. These gadgets are their links to information. These gadgets represent intellectual appendages to our children. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  14. Digital Kids in Analog Schools • In a rapidly changing world, it becomes much less valuable to be able to memorize the answer, and much more valuable to be able to find and even invent the answers. • We need to produce learning experiences that help our students to teach themselves. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  15. What’s Going on Out There? • Flat Classrooms: Two "School 2.0" stories to report from the trenches. • 1. Vicki Davis' 10th grade Computer Science class at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia and Julie Lindsay's grade 11 ITGS class at International School Dhaka (ISD) in Bangladesh are in the middle of a two-week combined project to discuss topics from the Thomas Friedman book The World is Flat. • 2. Chris Craft, that innovative language arts teacher from South Carolina, has done it again. Using old computers and Skype, Chris brought his 6th graders into a direct videoconference with students at an American school in Lima Peru. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

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  17. Digital Native • The term digital native is being applied to individuals who have grown up immersed in technology. • The opposite term is the "digital immigrant" those individuals that are trying to get to terms with digital technology. • A "digital native" will refer to their new "camera", a digital immigrant will refer to their new "digital camera" KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  18. Who Needs CS & CT? • Chemists: to predict protein behaviors for drug development. • Biologists: to genetically classify species all the way back to the dinosaurs. • Economists: to predict the effects of pricing, market trades, and interest rates. • Astronomers: to build models of our galaxy and beyond. • Geologists: to predict earthquakes and model the earth's structure millions of years ago. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  19. We do not acquire technical skills simply from the use of technology any more than engineering skills evolve from using automobiles or aeronautical engineering skills from flying. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  20. What? KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  21. What it is • Is a fundamental skill for everyone! • To reading, writing and arithmetic we should add CT to every child’s analytical ability • Printing press brought about 3R’s in education • Computers are bringing about CT KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  22. What it is • Required in most 21st century problem solving scenarios • Designing systems • Understanding human behavior • It asks and answers these questions • What can humans do better than computers? • What can computers do better than humans? • What is computable? KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  23. What is it NOT! • It is NOT thinking like a computer • It is NOT learning how to use a word processor or spreadsheet • It is not writing a computer program (necessarily) KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  24. In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a ripple on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge, they are without precedent in the cultural history of mankind. — Edsgar W. Dijkstra KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  25. Computer Science is no more about computers than the music industry is about microphones. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  26. How? KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  27. Web 1.0 was about Reading Surfing Browsing Consuming Passive Participation Web 2.0 is about Writing Connecting Collaborating Creating Sharing Active Participation Web 2.0 KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  28. Computer Science • Telescope Science = Astronomy • Its not about the study of the telescope • Its about using telescopes to study stars • Computer Science = ???? • Its not about studying computers • Its about using computers to study ……. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  29. CSUnplugged • Examples of how to teach CT in K-12 • Unplug the computer! • CSUnplugged.org • Youtube.com/user/csunplugged – very good video demos of teaching this stuff to elementary & junior high ages KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  30. Data: Representing Information • Count the Dots – binary numbers • Color by Numbers – image representation • You Can Say that Again! – text compression • Card Flip Magic – error detection & correction • Twenty Guesses – information theory KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  31. Algorithms – putting computers to work • Battleship – searching • Lightest and Heaviest – sorting • The Orange Game – routing and deadlock KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  32. Daily Examples of CT • Looking up a name in an alphabetically sorted list • Linear: start at the top • Binary search: start in the middle • Standing in line at a bank or check out line • Performance analysis of task scheduling • Putting things in your child’s backpack for the day • Pre-fetching and caching KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  33. Daily Examples of CT • Taking your kids to soccer, gymnastics, swim practice • Traveling salesman • Cook a gourmet meal • Parallel processing: you don’t want the meat to get cold while cooking the veggies • Cleaning out the garage • Garbage collection KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  34. Daily Examples of CT • Storing Lego pieces scattered on the floor • Hashing – by shape or by color • Learning long division, factoring • Algorithms • Moving • Fixing my sprinkler timer KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  35. CT applied KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

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  38. schools.telescope.org All your pupils can take and share images of space using a real telescope. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

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  43. Spotting Stardust • Computers are now better than humans at some things like playing chess, but there are others that humans still excel. • Vision is one of them. • Computers can still help in other ways though, as the stardust mission shows. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  44. Spotting Stardust • Stardust is a space capsule that has been collecting star dust in trays of gel for the last seven years. It did this by flying through a stream of interstellar dust that flows through the solar system. It contains the heavy elements that originate in stars. The capsule just landed back on earth. The problem now is to find the dust. Not too hard you might think, until you realize there are millions of pictures of the gel to search through and only a few dozen specks to find. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  45. Spotting Stardust • That is where the computers...and you come in. The scientists concerned think that humans will find the specks faster than computers as the human eye, or at least lots of them as can now be provided by the web, is extremely good at spotting anomalies. They have therefore set up a web site that allows anyone with an up to date browser to take part in the search. You could be the first person ever to see star dust. KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  46. Book Recommendations KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

  47. My Challenge: incorporate a CT skill into your class Slides available on my blog: woosters.org/dan – keyword search KCEA ? dwooster@bju.edu KCEA 2009: Computation Thinking

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