Reflection on learning

As the first course I have attended during the program, Computational Thinking was of great help. By learning this module, I received a new understanding of computer science in both theory and practice.
First of all, we learned about the introduction of Computational Thinking, including what it is and how to utilize it to decompose problems and apply computational processes to derive solutions. Computational Thinking is a fundamental skill can be used by everyone which involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behaviour. In general, computational thinking can be divided into four processes: decomposing, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms. Briefly, decomposition and pattern recognition broke down the complex into easier to manage parts, abstraction then figures out how to work with the different parts efficiently and accurately. Moreover, we also learned some fundamental programming, which can lay a good foundation of the further study.
Secondly, we learned basic HTML and CSS skills, which allowed us to complete fundamental programming task, such as building our first webpages. HTML is the language for describing the structure of webpages. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It describes how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, paper, or in other media CSS saves a lot of work. It can also control the layout of multiple web pages all at once. Specifically, HTML draws the skeleton of a webpage, then CSS can be used to fulfil and change the layout of webpages.
The last but not the least, personally, Computational Thinking was a perfect start of the program. As a beginner in computer science, there are so many logics and computing skills I need to understand gradually. Apparently, CT was of great help for me to master basic programming such as building a webpage. Furthermore, CT provided me scientific methods of computer science studies, for instance, how to decompose and solve problems, increasing efficiency, reducing complexity, designing procedures, or interacting with humans and machines. For the rest of my course, such as Fundamentals of Programming and Databases and Modelling, they all can be combined with CT to address computing related problems. For example, we can create a system by using HTML, CSS, Javascript, and databases instead of simply building a static webpage. In a nutshell, Computational thinking is a mindset that has to do with developing problem-solving skills where you are logically interweaving data analysis to develop solutions and is the process of identifying a problem, thinking of a solution, and ensuring that solution can be carried out and repeated by another[1].

Reference

[1] TERC. 2022. What is Computational Thinking? Available at: https://blog.terc.edu/what-is-computational-thinking [Accessed: 1 November 2022]