research-article

Developing a community definition and teaching modules for computational thinking: accomplishments and challenges

Authors:

Mo ZhangAuthors Info & Claims

SIGITE '10: Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Information technology education

Pages 143 - 148

https://doi.org/10.1145/1867651.1867689

Published: 07 October 2010 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

The NSF-funded Northwest Distributed Computer Science Department (NW-DCSD) project brings together 24 multi-disciplinary faculty from 19 diverse colleges and universities in an effort to change the face of computing in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. We offer an innovative and inclusive vision of computing in the 21st century and foster opportunities for multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional computing and computer science education collaborations. Over the project's first two years, this community has created 9 engaging, easy-to-use learning modules that teach various levels of computational thinking to two different audiences: non-computer science and computer science undergraduate students. This paper presents the development of a community definition of computational thinking, the learning modules, initial findings, unanticipated challenges, and next steps.

References

[1]

}}Astrachan, O., Hambrusch, S., Peckham, J., Settle, A. The present and future of computational thinking, In Proceedings of the 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (March 2009, P 549--550).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[2]

}}Bundy, A. Computational thinking is pervasive. Journal of Scientific and Practical Computing Vol. 1, No. 2 (2007, P 67--69). http://www.spclab.com/publisher/journals/Vol1No2/N1.pdf

Google Scholar

[3]

}}Cassel, L., Way, T., Potluri, S. CPATH: distributed expertise - collaborating with other disciplines. Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (July 2009, P 382).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

}}Computing and Information Technology Interactive Digital Educational Library. http://www.citidel.org/ (viewed 8/29/09).

Google Scholar

[5]

}}CPATH Community Website, Computational Thinking. http://www.cpath-community.msu.edu/about, (viewed 9/4/2009).

Google Scholar

[6]

}}Denning, P. J., The profession of IT beyond computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, Volume 52 Issue 6 (June 2009, P 28--30).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[7]

}}Guzdial, M., New NSF CPATH Solicitation: Defining Computational Thinking. http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK8NL4M807LROY (Feb. 2009).

Google Scholar

[8]

}}Lu, J. J., Fletcher, G. H. Thinking about computational thinking. In Proceedings of the 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (March 2009, P 260--264).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

}}Wing, J. M. Computational Thinking, Communications of the ACM, v.49 n.3, March 2006.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Kosmas PPhilippou APsomos P(2022)Towards the Development of a Game for Computational ThinkingDesigning, Constructing, and Programming Robots for Learning10.4018/978-1-7998-7443-0.ch007(136-158)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7443-0.ch007
Kosmas PPhilippou APsomos P(2022)Towards the Development of a Game for Computational ThinkingResearch Anthology on Game Design, Development, Usage, and Social Impact10.4018/978-1-6684-7589-8.ch025(507-529)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-7589-8.ch025
GÖKOĞLU S(2022)Bilgisayar okuryazarlığı eğitimi için bilgisayar programlama öz-yeterlik ölçeği: Türkçe geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmasıComputer programming self-efficacy scale for computer literacy education: Turkish validity and reliability studyAbant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi10.17240/aibuefd.2022..-65454722:2(529-551)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.17240/aibuefd.2022..-654547
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Developing a community definition and teaching modules for computational thinking: accomplishments and challenges

Recommendations

Teaching how to teach computational thinking
ITiCSE 2018: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

Computational Thinking is argued to be an essential skill for the workforce of the 21st century. As a skill, Computational Thinking should be taught in all schools, employing computational ideas integrated into other disciplines. Up until now, questions ...
Computational thinking in high school courses
SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

The number of undergraduates entering computer science has declined in recent years. This is paralleled by a drop in the number of high school students taking the CS AP exam and the number of high schools offering computer science courses. The declines ...
Training Teachers to Integrate Computational Thinking into K-12 Teaching
SIGCSE '16: Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education

Computational thinking (CT), which encompasses strategies for problem analysis and solution design, is highly applicable in all STEM disciplines, including computer science, for learning concepts as well as solving problems. Yet, the exposure of K-12 ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

SIGITE '10: Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Information technology education

October 2010

180 pages

ISBN:9781450303439

DOI:10.1145/1867651

General Chairs:
Michael Stinson
Central Michigan University, USA
,
Norman Cregger
Central Michigan University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Ken Baker
Capella University, USA
,
Rob Friedman
New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 October 2010

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

SIGITE '10

Sponsor:

SIGITE

SIGITE '10: ACM Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education Conference

October 7 - 9, 2010

Michigan, Midland, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 176 of 429 submissions, 41%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

23
Total Citations
View Citations
808
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)45
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4

Reflects downloads up to 13 Dec 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Kosmas PPhilippou APsomos P(2022)Towards the Development of a Game for Computational ThinkingDesigning, Constructing, and Programming Robots for Learning10.4018/978-1-7998-7443-0.ch007(136-158)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-7443-0.ch007
Kosmas PPhilippou APsomos P(2022)Towards the Development of a Game for Computational ThinkingResearch Anthology on Game Design, Development, Usage, and Social Impact10.4018/978-1-6684-7589-8.ch025(507-529)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-7589-8.ch025
GÖKOĞLU S(2022)Bilgisayar okuryazarlığı eğitimi için bilgisayar programlama öz-yeterlik ölçeği: Türkçe geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmasıComputer programming self-efficacy scale for computer literacy education: Turkish validity and reliability studyAbant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi10.17240/aibuefd.2022..-65454722:2(529-551)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.17240/aibuefd.2022..-654547
Kutay EOner D(2022)Coding with Minecraft: The Development of Middle School Students’ Computational ThinkingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/347157322:2(1-19)Online publication date: 9-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3471573
Haseski HIlic UTuğtekin U(2021)Computational Thinking in Educational Digital GamesResearch Anthology on Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Students10.4018/978-1-7998-3022-1.ch019(345-376)Online publication date: 2021
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3022-1.ch019
Nicolajsen SPischetola MGrabarczyk PBrabrand C(2021)Three +1 Perspectives on Computational ThinkingProceedings of the 21st Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3488042.3490024(1-11)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3488042.3490024
Hooshyar D(2021)Effects of technology‐enhanced learning approaches on learners with different prior learning attitudes and knowledge in computational thinkingComputer Applications in Engineering Education10.1002/cae.22442Online publication date: 9-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.22442
Jeng YLai CHuang SChiu PZhong H(2020)To Cultivate Creativity and a Maker Mindset Through an Internet-of-Things Programming CourseFrontiers in Psychology10.3389/fpsyg.2020.0157211Online publication date: 6-Jul-2020
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01572
Iñiguez-Berrozpe TMarcaletti FElboj-Saso CGaravaglia E(2020)Conceptualising, Analysing and Training in Adults in the Knowledge SocietySOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO10.3280/SL2020-156007(143-169)Online publication date: Mar-2020
https://doi.org/10.3280/SL2020-156007
Hooshyar DPedaste MYang YMalva LHwang GWang MLim HDelev D(2020)From Gaming to Computational Thinking: An Adaptive Educational Computer Game-Based Learning ApproachJournal of Educational Computing Research10.1177/073563312096591959:3(383-409)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2020
https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633120965919
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Teaching how to teach computational thinking

Computational thinking in high school courses

Training Teachers to Integrate Computational Thinking into K-12 Teaching