Jeannette M. Wing used the term "computational thinking" in an ACM Communication article to present her vision to the computer science community. In this article, she mentioned that anyone can benefit from computational thinking and she also suggested that computation thinking should be a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists.
So what is computational thinking?
"Computational thinking is the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can be effectively carried out by an information-processing agent." - Cuny, Snyder, Wing
Computational thinking involves a set of problem-solving skills and techniques that includes:
- Collecting, logically organizing and analyzing data
- Representing data through abstractions (such as models and simulations)
- Problem decomposition (breaking down tasks into smaller manageable parts)
- Automating solutions through algorithmic thinking (series of ordered steps taken to solve a problem)
- Identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions in order to achieve the most efficient and effective combination of steps and resources
It also includes pattern recognition (the ability to notice similarities or common differences that will help us to make predictions or lead us to shortcuts); generalizing (the ability to represent an idea or a process in general terms) and transferring this process to other problem domains
Computational thinking is applicable to any subject such as biology, medicine, economics, finance, archaeology, journalism, law, social science, arts. Computational thinking influences research in nearly all disciplines. It brings together different disciplines under one platform. For example, in Human-Computer interaction , researchers from computer science, designs and psychology working together to understand how human can interact with computer effectively, Computational Biology or Bioinformatics involves people from computer science and biology.
Why Computational Thinking is important?
We are in 21st Century. Computer technologies are used in every part of our life. We must understand and learn computational thinking because it changes the way we think. When we will apply computational thinking in our problems, we will understand them better. We will know what strategies are applicable to solve them. With the understanding of computational thinking we will have the ability to evaluate the match between computational tools and techniques and a problem. We will be able to explain problems and solutions in computational terms. We will know how to think abstractly to manage complexity.
References:
- Jeannette M. Wing, “Computational Thinking,” Communications of the ACM, Vol. 49, No. 3, March 2006, pp. 33–35
- http://link.cs.cmu.edu/article.php?a=600
- http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/what-is-ct.html
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