Personal Reflection for Computing Thinking

   Computing Thinking was my first postgraduate course at Cardiff. During my undergraduate years, I also took courses about computer science and programming, such as Java, Data Structure, and Database, etc., but when I take these courses, I always get a little confused. I feel that although I have learned how to use these, I can't use them well, or I have to think for a long time for each step. So Computing Thinking I think is a very good class before learning computer science. It is not like other programming classes, where you have to write code at the beginning, but when you first learn to face programming problems, you must first learn to think. If you encounter a programming project and start directly without any process thinking, then the more you do it, the more difficult it will be. This is the problem I faced when I was an undergraduate.

   But this class taught me that when it comes to dealing with programming problems, it's like a combination of writing and math. When starting, there needs to be a framework, as with writing, what each part needs to do, rather than putting everything together. When dealing with each part, you need to be attentive, just like doing math problems. Only by doing well in each step, the whole will not be a problem. If you think about a big problem all the time instead of breaking it down step by step, you will have nowhere to start when you encounter a big programming project.

Computing Thinking has four main parts, composition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithms.

"Each cornerstone is as important as the others. They are like legs on a table - if one leg is missing, the table will probably collapse. Correctly applying all four techniques will help when programming a computer."(Introduction to Computational Thinking.) All four of these components need to be considered when solving programming problems. The best way to learn programming is to practice, and to find patterns in practice.

   Also, this class taught me some knowledge about HTML and CSS and basic programming. Compared with other programming languages, making HTML web pages is simpler, so that students who are new to programming will not find it difficult or boring to understand. Also, web pages are tools that people use every day and are easier to understand. The use of CSS can make web pages more vivid.

   Although the knowledge points of this course of Computing Thinking are not difficult, they are very impressive. These knowledge points are very important in my future study and work. When starting to solve a programming project, you should start by breaking a large project into small problems and then connecting them together. It may take a while to do these steps, but it would be much more efficient if the entire solution process could be written down.

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