Information Technology Education

Some define computational thinking in 4 parts and that is how I started my students with computational thinking - decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms.  There are two other ways of thinking about computational thinking.  One is the one from MIT media lab (Creative Computing) that sees computational thinking composed of computational concepts (sequence, loops, parallelism, events, conditionals, operations, and data - which by the way looks a lot like the Scratch menu), computational practices (being iterative, testing and debugging, reusing and remixing, abstracting and modularizing) and computational perspectives (expressing, connecting, questioning).  This is the framework I have been using to guide my students on their journey into coding. The other definition is the one that had me stumped for a while - it's the one on ISTE's site, with input from CSTA and it is seems simple, at least on the surface: Critical Thinking + Computing Power =...

A resource I have used quite a bit is the Google Exploring Computational Thinking site. They have broken down CT into decomposition, pattern recognition, pattern generalization, and algorithm design.  I really liked how they introduced each part of CT and provided analogies for each one.  For example, they likened decomposition to tasting a dish and figuring out what all the ingredients are in it.  After going through a few examples of CT in action, I thought that it would be good to go more in-depth into each part.  I started with decomposition and had the students brainstorm examples of decomposition in the world around them: -mysteries - because you need to break it down to find clues, or sometimes they are broken down and you need to put the clues together -planning a trip - first you have to find hotel, decide where to go, buy tickets, board the plane, budget -building a house - because it is made up of different rooms -Legos - there is a big model on the front,...

Our school just got a 3-D printer with digitizer, so off I set on how to enter this world of 3-D printing with my students.  When I first told them that we have a 3-D printer, I got some pretty perplexed looks, and then after the silence, questions such as, "You mean it prints 3-D pictures on paper?"  I thought about how I would introduce it to the class and decided to bring them back in time to the 1300s and Black Death: "Fear of the plague paralyzed the times.  It left a shortage of labor, a need for technology to fill the void, and questions, lots of questions, about the meaning of life."  (Joy Hakim, 2005).  We moved ahead to when painters first started painting with perspective.  We read an excerpt from Joy Hakim's The Story of Science together, analyzing and discussing it together. "In Italy, the Polish student Nicolaus Copernicus learns of Columbus's voyage and of others that follow.  He studies some of the new maps.  He also studies an ast...

Now that my students have had some hands-on practice with computational thinking (CT), I wanted them to see how it is used in real-life to solve real problems in the computing world.  I showed them this great video about how Google uses CT with Google Earth. We talked about how all the aspects of CT were used to solve the problem with pegman, or in the words of one of my third graders, "Pegman is so dumb that he can only land in fields."  I wanted to see my students apply CT vocabulary to a new situation, not just one that they did themselves hands-on.  In other words, I am looking for transfer of learning to novel situations to be sure that 'they really know what they are talking about.' Here are some student responses: "In Google, they use CT like decomposition which is breaking down big problems and making them smaller.  Another aspect of CT is algorithms which is a step by step strategy.  Another is pattern recognition which is identifying patterns and simil...

This starts a series of blogs on computational thinking (CT) and how I have been integrating it into my third/fourth grade class.  I started with a hands-on, "unplugged" activity from learn.code.org.  The video from learn.code.org provides background on CT as well as lesson ideas on teaching it in the classroom. Through decomposing, looking for patterns, abstraction, and algorithmic thinking (hence the CT in 4 parts), my students learned the terminology as well as the concepts behind CT in a hands-on and engaging manner.  They were able to label what they were doing with the monsters using the CT terminology.  It provided a great introduction in order to delve deeper into CT and all its applications. Here are some student responses: "Computational thinking requires problem-solving.  Look for patterns.  When we were working on the monster thing, each monster had its own parts.  We had to find new parts for each monster.  We had to take apart the m...

We are more than halfway through the week for Hour of Code.  Virtually every class in my school has signed on to participate - including our principal.  My students have been helping out kindergarten classes throughout the week to help them navigate through the levels, distinguish between right and left, and manipulate their mouse.  It was amazing to listen to some of the strategies they were using with the kindergarten students.  I heard modeling (pretended to be the 'Angry Bird'), use of visualization (pointing to the screen), questioning, mnemonic devices (how to remember left and right), scaffolding (providing the first one or two blocks to help get them started), providing a familiar point of reference (likening Blockly to Scratch), and use of non-examples to show them the 'right' way to go.  Wow!  They also expressed how difficult my job must be and appreciate the difference between knowing how to do something yourself vs. helping someone else do it.

As we begin the kickoff to Computer Science EdWeek, I took some time to look back in time at the history of computer science.  Today's Google doodle focuses on her and so did we - Admiral Grace Hopper.   We read the following article and watched the "60 minutes Overtime" segment on Grace Hopper. Great way to integrate non-fiction text, a bit of history, math, and making connections to coding and technology today.  Followed up with students weaving in writing skills as they summarized what they learned about Grace Hopper in a well-organized paragraph.