“Everyone should learn how to programme a computer because it makes you learn how to think.”
“Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers”
“To flourish in today’s world, everyone needs computational thinking”
All about making people think in sequences, not like computers.
Computational Thinking Means…
- Solving problems
- Applying abstraction and decomposition
- Thinking algorithmically – what’s the process?
- Thinking conceptually – what’s the model?
- Understanding how things repeat and scale
- Dealing with errors
Pair activity – this of a number between 1 and 100. Partner to guess the number. Record the amount of guesses.
Kassey got it in 7 questions (The number was 62)
David got it in 8 questions (The number was 11)
Strategies we used
- Eliminate the options in chunks/as many as possible
- Multiples, odd, even
- Narrowed the choice and made a guess with limited options
- The best strategy was chunking
Strategies you could have used:
- Halve the range each time
- Prime numbers
Students becoming fluent with new technologies. Use these technologies to do everyday jobs.
Pair programming is a common technique in agile software development. One member of the pair is the ‘driver’ (does the typing, and focuses on tactics) while the other is the ‘navigator’ (can review and suggest, and focuses on strategy). When pair programming you should change your roles within the pair on a regular basis, and also change your partner on a regular basis.
In class: Pair programming – Use Scratch to create and evolve shapes
In class: Pair programming – understand the Scratch drawing context.
Reflect how and why would you use Computational Thinking in your classroom?
- Teaching real world problem solving
- Create a product
- Analytical approach to learning
- Creating not consuming
- Creating systems that can be made for all
The Backward Brain Bicycle – Smarter Every Day
- He had the understanding how to do it, but not the knowledge.
- Knowledge does not equal understanding
- People will always think they can ride the bike, but they can’t!
- Rigid way of thinking in your head cannot be changed, even if you try.
- Re-designate a bias, so you unlearn, and relearn new things.
- He then tried to teach his 3-year-old son to ride the bike – he was able to something in two weeks that took his father 8 months to do.
- Children have a much more plastic brain than an adult.
- When trying to re-train his brain to ride a normal bike he discovered he had ‘lost’ that pathway.
- His brain eventually clicked back into the old algorithm.
- Truth is always the truth, no matter what we think about it.
- Looking at the world with a bias, no matter what you think.
Is intelligence innate and therefore cannot be developed beyond what you are born with?
Claxton (2008) notes that “intelligence [has] become defined as the kind of mind that responds most readily to the peculiar demands of school.”
Learning something is like crossing a ravine, the first crossing is hardest, with each journey getting easier and easier. A more solid pathway is established each time. Eventually it is effortless.
What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means
“…it’s still not easy to attain a growth mindset. One reason why is we all have our own fixed-mindset triggers. When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compared with others, we can easily fall into insecurity or defensiveness, a response that inhibits growth. Our work environments, too, can be full of fixed-mindset triggers.” (Dweck, 2016)
- Create a 1 minute film that critiques the idea around growth mindset
- Role play/scenario
- Misconception #1 – I already have it, and I always have
- Misconception #2 – Its about praising and rewarding effort
- Misconception #3 – Just adopt a growth mindset and it will happen
- Compare a fixed mindset (misconception) to growth mindset
- Someone who is held back by the fixed mindset triggers versus someone who is not.
- They find something challenging, they receive criticism which causes them to lose self confidence in their ability and willingness to persevere. Compare this to someone who doesn’t allow criticism to effect them and tell themselves they don’t have it yet, but they are going to keep trying.
- The power of yet – don’t give up, not phased by the challenged.
- Flexible – here is Jill she is gymnast, she is flexible, she only knows one way to go over the beam. She has a fixed mindset. This is Bob he has a growth mindset and he knows he can ride his motorcycle over the beam. Being flexible does not mean you have a growth mindset…Yet!
Reflect on how you think a growth mindset could affect the change initiative you investigate in your LEADERSHIP 1 assessment.
Change initiative can be moving from a general classroom to a specialist ICT room. Creating an engaging programme, allowing for diverse range of skills. Setting up systems for students and teachers regarding computer issues, bookings, barcoding, etc…
Requires a growth mindset, or I would not have been able to learn the new skills to teach the student, I would have applied my classroom techniques to this subject, and it possibly would have been boring.
Another change initiative is the use of Google Sites was a flipped classroom idea. I used my knowledge of Moodle, and had to have a growth mindset to adapt to a new programme and style of flipping.