Eid Carol- Distinguishing Terms

I think there is an important distinction that we need to make between what diSessa is talking about and what other authors that we have read for were saying. While diSessa refers to “computational systems/media,” Wing and Grovers and Pea refer to “computational thinking” and Kafai (and others) refers to “computational practices.” I will utilize this diagram to illustrate how I think these three concepts are different (please click on the diagram to enlarge and view it clearly):

Computational media/systems could be thought of as one level higher than computational thinking. They are media through which computational thinking could be realized, and each medium has its affordances and constraints for learning about computational thinking as well as other topics (such as speed, vectors or any other concept). 

Computational thinking comprises the mental tools that are required to operate within computational media. When working with a computational medium, we need to be familiar with how to bend the medium to our will, and this requires computational thinking. It requires an understanding of what could be and could not be done with computers and, ideally, how things could be done in an efficient and productive way.

Computational practices has been utilized very differently by the authors we have read for. Kafai uses the term computational practices to illustrate how people learn or the way learning happens, and it is through social interaction. Therefore, she emphasizes learning-communities, shareable projects, and social processes such as reusing and remixing. Weintrop et al use this term to explicate how scientists and mathematicians are using computers and computation, so they discuss data collection, modeling, and other applications as well as what they call “problem solving practices,” which converge with what others call “computational thinking” (such as abstraction, debugging…). On the other hand, Brennan and Resnick use the term computational practices to refer to the elements of computational thinking (as defined by others) that could be better thought of as processes. For instance, while others dump abstraction, debugging, loops, sequences and other terms under the umbrella of “computational thinking,” Brennan and Resnick distinguish between elements of computational thinking that could be better thought of as static concepts (such as sequences, conditionals, operators), or what they call “computational concepts,” and elements that could be better described as processes (abstracting and modularizing, reusing and remixing etc…), or what they call “computational practices.”

Let me know your thoughts!