School of Computer Science THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM CN-CR Ghost Machine
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LINK TO CAS-2014 CONFERENCE PROGRAMME (PDF)
-- Local Arrangements --

Computing at School (CAS) 2014 Conference
University of Birmingham 21st June 2014

Notes for invited talk on Computational Thinking
at the University of Birmingham

WHAT IS COMPUTATIONAL THINKING?
    What forms of computational thinking
    will our children need when they grow up?
PDF slides:
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/talks/#cas14

Aaron Sloman
School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham.

Link to 'teachmeet' 10 min. presentation the previous night (Friday 20th June):
TYPES OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
Notes for pre-conference Teachmeet
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/compthink.html
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/eliza
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This web page was originally, in part, an invitation to influence my
presentation, by sending me suggestions for classroom implementations
of the ideas below. Write to: a.sloman @ cs.bham.ac.uk
(All contributions will be acknowledged)
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Installed: 20 May 2014
Last updated: 20 May 2014; 14 Jun 2014; 5 Aug 2014
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This is
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/cas-2014-compthink.html

A partial index of discussion notes is in
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/misc/AREADME.html
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TALK FOR CAS 2014

My abstract for the talk on computational thinking is below.

What forms of computational thinking
will our children need when they grow up?

I had previously given a related presentation in 2012:
What is computational thinking? Who needs it? Why?
How can it be learnt? (Can it be taught?) (PDF) (FLASH at slideshare.net)
Also presented at ALT 2012, in this video (talk without slides):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXAFz3L2Qpo
Since the previous presentation is freely available, I thought that this time I
should focus more on generally unnoticed requirements for the future of
computing education -- with help from members of the audience, if possible.

IDEAS INVITED:
Anyone with ideas related to this topic and Computing at School is welcome to
email me at a.sloman[AT]cs.bham.ac.uk. Let me know if you will not mind my
adding your comments to this document, with or without your name (please specify).
Suggestions or questions from teachers particularly welcome.
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Note added 4 Jun 2014: Seymour Papert: Let's Tie the Digital Knot

I have just come across this paper by Seymour Papert challenging many educators
and researchers on education, about 16 years ago:
http://www.ait.net/technos/tq_07/4papert.php Let's Tie the Digital Knot
in Technos Quarterly Winter 1998 Vol. 7 No. 4
His answer to the Question: "What sort of force can enable deep changes to happen
in education?"
        "I call the force Kid Power."
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ABSTRACT
What forms of computational thinking
will our children need when they grow up?

For some people "Computational thinking" means designing algorithms and writing
code. Around 2005 Jeannette Wing (see below) proposed a broader interpretation
emphasising everyone, including children, learning to think "like a computer
scientist", echoing earlier educational ideas of Alan Kay, Seymour Papert and
Marvin Minsky. New forms of computational thinking are now being developed,
replacing older, shallower, forms of thinking, in many fields, including
evolutionary research, neuroscience, psychiatry, cancer studies, developmental
biology, chemical engineering, linguistics, economics and even philosophy, among
many others: all of which study naturally occurring systems that acquire, store,
manipulate, and use information of many different kinds encoded in many
different media. Even Alan Turing, a major pioneer of electronic computers saw
the need for a broader view, e.g. in his 1952 paper on morphogenesis in biology,
where chemistry controls development. His famous 1950 paper introducing the
'Imitation game' claims that chemistry is also essential to what brains do. As
more and more academic and applied disciplines discover the relevance of
computational thinking broadly understood, can we prepare our brightest
children for the challenges they will encounter as future thinkers and leaders,
including problems of understanding the workings of our own minds and how they
evolved, and how they develop, rather than simply preparing youngsters to do
more of what is already being done now?

This may include introduction of radically new forms of computation into future
education.
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The 2006 version of Jeannette Wing's ideas on Computational Thinking:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wing/www/publications/Wing06.pdf

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SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING WELCOME ESPECIALLY FROM
TEACHERS WITH EXPERIENCE OF INTRODUCING "NON-STANDARD"
TEACHING MATERIALS -- E.G. AI PROGRAMMING.

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A selection of previous discussions and presentations

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Maintained by Aaron Sloman
School of Computer Science
The University of Birmingham