The Introduction of Computational Thinking
What is Computational Thinking (CT) and what does it do? Before had this module, my answer would be like ‘to think like a computer, trying to judge everything with 1 or 0 and true or false, so we can do coding and make programs’. That sounds reasonable for most people who never set foot in systematic Computer Science (CS) learning, since the myth of ‘CS is programing’ has emerged in the 1970s(Emary 2017).
But once you look inside, like what I did through this module, you will find an entirely new world. Computer Science is not just about programming, making software or websites, but also can be adapted into other fields, which has become a trend. And Computational Thinking (CT) has become the spear head of this trend in the level of thinking(Denning et al. 1989).
My understanding
In my own thoughts, CT is a series of problem-solving methods that be used to create the computer and in return, was brought out as a whole because of the invention of computer. It is not just about to know how computer thinks so we can do some coding, but more about how to solve massive complex problems efficiently, in studying, working and in daily life.
The core of CT has long existed among our lives, even before the invention of computer. When facing a giant pizza, what we do? We cut it into smaller pieces—that is decomposition. When two football players fighting for the ball, will they focus on how many hairs they have? Absolutely not, they only have the ball and each other in mind—that’s called abstraction, ignoring the irrelevant details and aiming on the key points only. Also, our ancestors already knew when the best time was to sow and harvest by recognizing the pattern of weather. And the algorithms, just like those pipelines in car factories. Scientists put those concepts together to build a silly machine called computer that can calculate way faster than any of human beings.
In return, People like Alan Perlis and Jeannette Wing noticed the huge impact those concepts might have on human beings, not just in computer science, but also in many other fields(Wing 2006). Computational thinking, as well as this module, can help me in my future study and career in a lot of ways.
Why it is important to me?
In the short term, it can help me in learning how to write codes. Before I had this module, I tried some python, which they said it was the friendliest coding language for beginners. But I just kept doing coding in the thought of human. When I looked at the Jupyter Notebook, I didn’t know where and how to start, and more crucially, I wrote codes like I was talking to Siri.
But after this module, I’m much more aware of what I am doing now. As I’m building the website for this assessment, for example, I almost instinctively tear the whole task into smaller parts: build the website, write the texts, combine those two together then fix all the details and small bugs.
If taking the longer view, since I’m in MSc Computational and Data journalism, as a combined course, I can not only use CT in programing learning, but also can and should apply it into the field of journalism, where there always have complex problems and pattern can also be found in news.
People in media industry often complain about the huge tasks they are facing, that there are always news leads waited to be followed… But if put the concept of CT into journalism, which I will in my future career, things will be much easier. We can tackle one major event into small parts, for example, dispatch journalists on different small topics instead of letting them all focus on the whole picture.