Annette Vee points out something interesting in her article "Understanding Computer Programming as a Literacy" about the development of literacy in our society and how the definition of that word shifts as we the priorities in our society change. She references the 11th century when the writing was an specialized art, that she compares to pottery or word working. (Vee 51) Eventually as the written word began to be integrated into society in terms of records and business transactions, literacy shifted from an option to a necessity. Now as we shift into the technological age where computers and the concept of coding is an integral part of our daily lives, one could argue that computational literacy and knowledge of code could become as essential as knowing how to read and write.
The above metaphor really energized me about our work with the USN students, and lead me to shift my view from the fact that they will have programming as an "extra" or "unique" skill set but rather I feel like I am teaching them a new language which will be extremely important in the future for them to successful functioning member of our future society. I would propose that computational literacy and computational thinking, will be come increasingly essential skills for these students, therefore as teachers we are responsible for exposing them to these concepts and developing this new set of skills. The questions that remain for me are; Am I adequately prepared to encourage computational thinking and develop the components of computational literacy? How should these lessons differ from those teaching traditional literacies such as reading, writing and mathematics?
I also have the same questions/concerns as you. With very little background in education, I am unsure whether I have the knowledge and understanding to be able to create an environment that supports computational thinking. However, I am inclined to believe that teaching computational thinking will be much like teaching traditional literacies, like reading, writing, and math. When I think about how these literacies are traditionally taught, I can't help but realize that much of the teaching is just trial and error. In Kindergarten, you pick up a book to read and try to sound out the letters. If you're wrong, someone will correct you. When you learn to write, you create a draft that someone will revise with feedback. Eventually, after 12 years of school, your college application essays look a lot different (and hopefully a little more complex) than what you were writing at age 5. In math, after learning a basic set of rules, you apply those rules to many different problems to try to ingrain those rules. Your knowledge after that just builds on your foundation. Teaching computational thinking, then, should be no different. Students learn a basic set of rules (basic coding language), which are then applied to many different problems (games, programs, stories, etc) through a process of trial and error. The programming language just happens to make this process of trial and error very clear and give it a name - de-bugging. This is, at least, what I'm hoping I will discover when we start teaching students at USN.
ReplyDeleteHello Michaela,
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to your concerns. Actually, coming from a Computer Engineering background (although I haven't practiced programming since 2011 and forgot a lot of its principles), I definitely feel that it requires a person to have in-depth knowledge about this domain before she/he can teach it. Computational thinking is pretty unique; there are so many concepts and some vary depending on the used language. The idea of recursion, loops, stacks, pointers and so on are not ones we learn or practice elsewhere. They require some practice. Since I think I might venture into this domain again (along with education), I might very well go over my old coursework.
I echo the clearly common concern you brought up: "Am I adequately prepared to encourage computational thinking and develop the components of computational literacy?" I think I'm learning the theories and arguments for computational literacy. I'm "buying in" that we need integration, but I'm not sure I have the skills to teach it. I need more practice and hands on experience with the tools (programs) and teaching methods.
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