Computational thinking: Why learn to program?

Computational thinking: Why learn to program?

As part of the flipped preparation for Mindlab I watched "The Poetry if Programming" by Linda Liukas:  a delightful way to teach kids about computers
 It'a a TED talks video about computational thinking and I wrote down some notes. 

"Look wider, don't be too narrow" 

I think this quote is important as sometimes we try to focus on only what we know. I think it is especially important for high school trained teachers as it's potentially a trap that a teacher falls into when planning activities for students.

I learnt that computational thinking is a way humans solve problems and relates to human behaviour. This surprised and intrigued me. When you know very little about coding it seems very daunting, I think a lot of people may be put off the idea just by the perception that it contains a lot of maths.

I found this video fascinating as it explores the concepts that programming and computational thinking. There was an activity done in Mindlab where we had to guess a number with the fewest amount of guesses. There was methods that worked but ideally the strategy is to take the number and divide by half each time to narrow the range.
Other concepts discusses were, decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and designing algorithms.

Our next activity was "unplugged programming" where we have to write a list of instructions to move one of our team around a table. We then also used this to make a series of movements we all did, to make a "dance". We had set criteria for this activity.

"Lets teach kids to code" by Mitch Resnick (Fluent in language) Is a book mentioned during this workshop. I want to look into this further. Let's teach kids to code by Mitch Resnick
We then had a go at using Scratch, this is found on a website and suited for 8+ year olds. It's possible to use it to make interactive stories.

In pairs we had turns being the driver and navigator role. These roles help ākonga to work on collaborative tasks.

Digital Technology Curriculum - Digital Passport is something I would like to look at if I had more time.

Backwards Bicycle  - Brain Experiment

knowledge =/= understanding

This video teaches you to be careful how you look at thing because you have bias
For an adult it took 8 months to learn but it was quicker for a child, for them it took 20 mins to relearn!
This relates to neuroplasticity & rewiring brain. As a teachers is relates to experiences of your students as what is given attention and repetition grows and strengthens these connections

We looked into growth mindsets, especially Dweck (2010) Mind-mental attitude and 
Dweck (2006) "Mindset: The new Psychology of Success"  www.mindsetonline.com and 
Guy Claxton (2002) "Building Learning Power" and explored the implications for learning. 

We then tried to research so we could bust a myth about the brain 

I enjoyed learning how to use stop motion and we worked together to make stop frames to demonstrate whether Mozart makes our brain smarter.
Ideas for further use: replacement parts and facial expressions can be made suing a 3D printer e.g. used in movies like Box Trolls & Paranorman

Suggested app - Unmashable? Stop motion animation - is a chrome extension and its fun to play with. This inspired me to introduce this to students... I want to continue to try new  and different ideas as I believe this is an exciting and accessible way to have students be creative and collaborate naturally.