Computational Thinking
Problem Solving Skills
Computer science is a relatively new subject. First taught in universities in the early 90s, it has slowly grown to become one of the most widely-applied sciences in the world. There is an estimated 17 BILLION devices in the world currently.
Among educators in general, there is widespread confusion about what computer science entails, and where it belongs in the curriculum. Computer science is not about teaching students how to use a word processor, spreadsheet, or some other computer-based productivity tool. It is not about helping students learn how to make a set of PowerPoint slides to support an oral presentation. It is not about helping students learn how to use digital probe-ware in a science lab, or how to make a video in a humanities class, or how to create an engaging poster in a graphic arts lab. And it is not just about computer programming.
Wing (Computer Scientist) describes computational thinking as being able to apply human solutions to real-world problems. It represents a human way of thinking, rather than a computer's way of functioning. As she puts it, "Computational thinking is a way humans SOLVE problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers. Computers are dull and boring; humans ARE CLEVER AND imaginative."
Computational thinking plays a crucial part in how humans interact with technology and even how we use math and think logically. Theoretically eventually computational thinking could replace math and logic into a single subject.
Learning to use applications on computers and properly type on a QWERTY keyboard are also more than crucial skills in modern-day society; classes that are often ignored like flotsam on the surface of an ocean of classes.
As egregious as it may sound, it is also important that students understand how their computers work at all. Do they know the parts of the computer, or that computers are so crucial in our society that if we were the victim of a cyber-terrorism attack, our country would be left nearly defenseless?
Some computer scientists like Daniel Hudkins are advocating for a slightly more "radical" approach. He would rather have computer science taught as a whole subject separately, allowing for more time to teach more miniscule nuances, however many of his colleagues believe that students would never truly absorb the information unless it was properly integrated with other subjects.
This route is currently being purused by most states in terms of curriculum. They are focusing on using computer-science integration such as Chromebooks and iPads to allow students to use computers more often in their day-to-day proceedings. This method has been substantiated by many districts and states using this policy. South Carolina uses this policy, thought not many schools actually have a chance to take advantage of it.
