Huang - Computational thinking = programming?

A lot of the readings that we had done prior to this week pointed me to this idea that computational thinking had to be exclusive of computers. There had to be some way that computational thinking existed outside of programming. A lot of different authors argued for a lot of different definitions, which just confused me more. It was a lot of abstract talk about what computational thinking is and how it differs from critical thinking/problem-solving/higher-order thinking. However, the more that I think about the discussion we had in class, the more I wonder why we need to separate programming and computational thinking.

First of all, we already know that computational thinking occurs outside of computers. It occurs in the mind. Every programmer uses computational thinking when writing code. Every child who uses programs to write or drag/drop code is using computational thinking. Perhaps by calling it computational thinking rather than programming though, we open the door for more “non-science/math/computer” learners. We give it a more inclusive title that can be adapted for K-12 classrooms.

Indeed, Wolz describes the use of programming in an interactive journalism class. But from what I gather, the article essentially uses programmed animations to display some of the projects the students produce; she calls this computational thinking. So why can’t we just call computational thinking programming and all of the thoughts/mental algorithms that go into writing code? I don’t see anything wrong with incorporating programming into every student’s grade-school curriculum. It will help them 1) improve their “computational thinking” skills, 2) become more familiar with computers, not just in the interactive sense but in the design of programs and games, and 3) take away the programmer/non-programmer distinction. Every child can learn to program. The integration of programming into other disciplines will only help us achieve that goal. It will help each child become empowered in their own personal way, learning and designing things that they enjoy learning about.