Why incorporate Computational Thinking in a classroom?
Hello Eductors! This week’s blog I want to encourage teachers to integrate computational thinking in your classroom. Computational thinking “is a strategy that uses many of the powerful ideas in computer science to solve problems”(Vaidyanathan). However, this doesn’t necessarily have to be computer science material taught to students. Teachers have to wisely select educational apps to involve into their activities for students to gain technology skills like problem sloving. One insight I learned is that one of the recommendations when selecting computationally rich coding apps, is to ensure the app should be suitable for the students' level so students can countinely develop their skills. The reason being students will be more engaged in their learning and thinking more complex throughout each level. Another insight is that by making these selections of coding apps will connect with all STEM disciplines that include the following; “ (1) system thinking, (2) adapting, (3) problem-sloving, (4) creative problem solving, (5) visualizing, and improving” (Estapa, A., Hutchison, A., & Nadolny, L.) The most important insight I tookaway is that it's important for students to gain these skills because technology has almost taken over our brains. According to ISTE “by 2025 1,000 computers will process [the] [processing] power of all human brains on earth”(“Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for Everyone”). These are a few reasons why you as a teacher need to expose students to technology to develop problem-sloving skills because technology is advancing more and more everyday. Nevertheless, “people need to be adaptable, flexible problem slovers, whether they are imagining new solutions, developing hardware or software or using technology” (“Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for Everyone”).
The Hour of Code
n addition, I have personally found the Hour of Code website very helpful to guide teachers to implement it into their classroom. I took a closer look at Course C for 2nd grade students. After reviewing the different 16 lesson plans I noticed that students will be actively engaged in completing each game. Also, in completing each activity or game the students will improve their skills throughout each level of regior. For example, in lesson plan 12 students will be developing a Flappy game. In this activity the students have to find a way to keep the bird from falling by making adjustments of speed on the right side column. This activity is level 11 which is the highest level of regior. Students will have to go through 10 levels to strengthen their skills to successfully complete level 11.
Additional Resources
Moverover, 2 other ways I could integrate computational thinking in my future classroom is when teaching math I can allow students to build their own graphs and visuals that best fits the data they collected. Students have to find patterns and software that best fits the data. As in Language Arts students can develop “network diagrams and interaction graphs to abstract the different connections between characters”(Murphy). In this process students are continuing to strengthen their analyzing skills and creative visual mapping.