Reflective Essay:

Coming to Cardiff was equally exciting and confusing. With a lot of dreams, ambitions, and a renewed set of insecurities, I set forth to this new country. Getting used to a new routine, culture, climate, and environment was overwhelming enough, to begin with. Adding on to it, the fact that I missed a week's class also contributed equally. For me, Cardiff welcomed me with submission deadlines staring right into my face. Even though I was totally perplexed by how to even try attempting the assessment with zero class attendance, I still gave it a try. Reading through the module and listening to the recordings gave me a better hold, and helped me realize that this complex problem is a lot easier to handle and lies more in my thoughts than in the actual assessment itself. CT was something I always knew and have used many times, but I never knew it was Computational Thinking. I have been accustomed to using various elements of CT in several versions whenever I encountered a problem. I found it equally funny and interesting to understand what I have been using my entire life. Whenever I encountered a complex problem, I tried to solve it by subdividing it and giving importance to the major parts and by trying to recognize the existence of any pattern similar to my past problems and thereby undertaking step-by-step solutions to solve the same. After studying this module I got to know more about CT and its whole process. When I first heard of CT, I assumed it was about thinking like computers, but truth be told, while it has a strong connection with Computer Science, it’s applicable to many fields. It's a process that we can use regardless of having any computer knowledge. We all have been using many versions of CT in our life without even realizing it.

After going through this module, I was able to understand CT in a much better way. I can confidently say that, now I know how to tackle a situation wherein I'm faced with a complex problem. The understanding of the four components of CT, viz., Decomposition, Abstraction, Pattern Recognition, and Algorithm, helped me for the same. I can now effectively divide problems into sub-parts giving more attention to significant facts and trying to look for similar patterns from past problems. And finally, I can make a step-by-step solution for each sub-part and thereby solve the whole problem. CT also helps me to handle complex tasks in other modules too, whenever I face a difficult problem in python or java Script I try to break them down, look for similar patterns and give more importance to major parts. By analyzing all these steps, I can formulate a step-by-step solution to tackle the problem. I can use this not only in my future modules of this Computing program but also in my day-to-day life. For instance, if I face an excess workload in my office, then I can divide the work into smaller parts and give more importance to the ones with the latest due dates and start working on similar parts at the same time. This will make the complex process a lot more simple and easy to tackle, without getting overwhelmed or intimidated from time to time.