Title: "Computational Thinking for Life - The Challenge at Third level"

Speakers:
Richard Millwood,
Glenn Strong,
Nina Bresnihan and
Catherine Higgins


"Computational Thinking for Life - The Challenge at Third level"
Richard Millwood, Glenn Strong, Nina Bresnihan and Catherine Higgins

12:00pm Friday 6th February 2015
LCR

This seminar introduces the scope of a new research direction founded in the Centre for Research in Information Technology in Education (CRITE) base in Information Systems in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin.

Computational thinking started as an issue for lifelong learning with Papert et al’s development of Logo in 1967 and reported at the first IFIP World Conference on Computer Education in 1970. His subsequent book, Mindstorms, published in 1980 is most often remembered as about turtle geometry, but in fact Logo was invented as an introduction to a much more extensive view of computing. One view is that computing allowed learners to “make the abstract concrete” and thus benefit from an earlier Piagetian capacity. But there is no reason to think that computing is the preserve of the very young, the school child or the undergraduate - adults of all ages can also benefit.

In the noughties, a crisis in schools computing started to be noticed and discussed more widely and this led to the risk of extinction. So why is computing in schools so interesting to us now? The modern renaissance stems is in part driven by an article by Jeanette Wing, Carnegie Mellon University. Many other commentators have spoken about its value and of the industry demand, but it is not clear that we have the research evidence to inform the bandwagon of re-introduction of computing in primary and secondary education and there is little consensus on how it can best be learnt, assessed nor what it means.

So we need clarity about the nature of computational thinking and how it relates to the more established mathematics and problems solving worlds. It is necessary to have an evidence-based curriculum based on an analysis of knowledge which includes facts, skills, mental models, strategies and dispositions.

We have started exploring what knowledge our students have acquired before they begin in college, and how well they think that knowledge has prepared them. What might a growth in interest at primary and secondary level mean for our own teaching? What might a broader interest in Computational Thinking across society mean for our research and activities? Many people are already doing all of this work. We would like to get your insight and find out how we can contribute.