Computational Thinking - A Revolution in 4 Steps

Teaching kids to
</code>:
The 4 Step Process for
Computational Thinking
Paul Herring MACS (Snr) CP
St Peters Lutheran College
Brisbane, Queensland

Taking it to the next level:
A Revolution in 4 Steps
If an orange here at the
Australian Technology
Park represents the
nucleus of an atom then
the nearest electron is
around 6.4 km away.
In between is a void –
in reality there is
nothing in this space –
yet is looks and feels so
solid.
- we need to change our
perspective & mindset

Quantum Mechanics
– renewing our thinking
• Quantum Mechanics is not just some esoteric Physics
theory – it’s used in your TV; car engine; phone, etc …
‘Existence is closer to being a association of ideas than a
conglomeration of atoms’– Prof. Gerald Schroeder. MIT
“We, [our personal awareness of being ourselves], are not part of
it (the material world). We are outside. We are only spectators.
The reason why we believe that we are in it, that we belong to the
picture, is that our bodies are in the picture….
And this is our only way of communicating with them.”
- Erwin Schroedinger
The world is not what we thought
– yet the educational system has changed little
- We don’t teach Cognitive Science, (mindfulness?), Genetics, &
Theology, yet these are the deepest most challenging disciplines

WOW!
• ‘The world is made with 'tiny bit's and
words strung together'
– From child in Abi Woldhuis’s video
• This child has no idea how close her simple
definition is, to the reality that Physicists are
only just appreciating
• .
“Physics is theology“
– MIT Professor, Dr Gerald Schroeder

A Revolution in 4 Steps:
Shifting our mindset
Mitchel Resnick. MIT:
Ultimately, what is needed is a shift in
mindsets, so that people begin to see coding
not only as a pathway to good jobs, but as a
new form of expression and a new context
for learning.

The new kid on the block
• profoundly creative and interdisciplinary pursuit.
• great ingenuity - transform patterns of the physical
world into a digital distillation
• Coding is a process of both synthesis and genesis…
Jasmine Tsai

EDSURGE:
• “Every era demands--and rewards--different skills.
• In different times and different places, we have taught
our children to grow vegetables, build a house, forge a
sword or blow a delicate glass, bake bread, create a
soufflé, write a story or shoot hoops.
The 4th R: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic
& Computational Thinking

• Now we are teaching them to code.
• We are teaching them to code, however, not so much
as an end in itself but because our world has
morphed:
• We need to teach coding to help our students craft
their future.”
• https://www.edsurge.com/guide/teaching-kids-to-code
The 4th R: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic
& Computational Thinking

• “Fast forward to 2020. What job skill must
you have? What we do know is, for the
foreseeable future, coding is one of the most
important and desirable skills there is, no
matter how it evolves.”
http://mashable.com/2013/04/30/job-skill-future-coding/

DJ Adams
– Enterprise Architect & Open Source Programmer
• “Positioning coders as artists, and programming as
painting, students can be taught the skills and given
the encouragement to produce individual work,
enabling them to see the personal benefit and reward.
• We must encourage … young people to innovate and
aspire to coding careers, with the same aspiration that
people pursue the dream of becoming a footballer.”
Coding is the new black

• A growing awareness of the impact of
- 3 Game Changers:
• fabrication (3D printing);
• physical computing (robotics);
• programming - ground swell of coding
“Schools need a bolder concept of what computing can mean in
the creative and intellectual development of young people.”
See Gary Stager - http://www.inventtolearn.com/about-the-book/
Also recommend Gary’s ‘Outside the Skinner Box’– read it!
Computational Thinking – the 4th R

My humble opinion is that if we work with our
young people to develop their skills in
innovation, design and "needs" analysis in
combination with computational thinking skills
then we are facilitating the development of a
generation of visionaries and problem solvers
not just "code monkeys".
Danielle Neale - Serial Entrepreneur | Innovation Consultant

Computational thinking encompasses
 logical thinking,
 precision,
 rigour &
 creativity
Pat Nice, CEO, open source and cloud provider Reconnix:
• Those last two terms are not what some people might put together,
but there is a lot of creativity in what some folk class as a science,
and others, like me, class as a craft”
• “With computational thinking skills a person can better get to
grips with problems, find solutions, be creative and find
expression – all at the same time.

• And it gives them a fighting chance of not just
surviving, but blossoming in the data tsunami
that is brewing under the covers of the everyday
world.”
• Pat Nice, CEO, open source and cloud provider Reconnix
• We are drowning in information, yet starved for
knowledge
• Most are not aware of how filtered what we see and hear
is, whether through our Web searches or news feeds, or
even social media feeds

Computational Thinking is a problem-solving process that
includes (but is not limited to) the following characteristics:
• Formulating problems in a way that enables us to use a computer and
other tools to help solve them.
• Logically organizing and analyzing data
• Representing data through abstractions such as models and simulations
• Automating solutions through algorithmic thinking (a series of ordered
steps)
• Identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions with the goal
of achieving the most efficient and effective combination of steps and
resources
• Generalizing and transferring this problem solving process to a wide
variety of problems
Introducing the Real World Approach:

Introducing the Real World Approach:
- As a 4 Step Process:
1. Real world issue: Posing the right question
2. From the Real world -> to modelling or technical
formulation = Design & Algorithmic Thinking
3. Computation = Programming/Coding
4. Verification =Testing, evaluating, refining &
introducing solutions back into the real-world

• The question – can’t read the sign?
• The question – which avocado?
• These apps highlight the great potential still to be realised
Practical Examples - Commercial

• “The truth is that the more we know,
the more we want to know,”
• “We believe SCiO is, like the search engine, another tool
that will act as a catalyst for our quest for knowledge.”
• Dror Sharon, CEO of Consumer Physics
SCIO

School Examples:
Swimming Carnival
1 32 64 75 8 9
9 Lanes & 9 Houses
Judges call placings; 9 others hand out place cards;
Swimmers take to their House desk where 9 recorders note placing.
Then submitted to Chief scorer to add up. Eg. 1 = 10; 2= 6; 3 = 3; 4 =2; 5 –9 = 1
Student created App replaces some 20+ people

Real World Solutions:
Solution using Corona SDK
IT Solution:
2 Staff – Judge & recorder
Recorder taps each lane cell
as placings called out.
Simple animation moves cells
to second row.
Can be adjusted – once ok,
submitted and scores
auto-updated

Talking Book for young writers on
Tablets/Smartphones
In terms of ebook application, independent reading takes the cake.
An overwhelming majority (90%) report that ebooks are used by students
for independent reading, followed by whole class instruction (44%)
and small group literacy instruction (41%).
Created for
Year 4’s
with there own
stories by
Yr 12 ITS
students

Talking Book for young writers
local w = display.contentWidth
local h = display.contentHeight
local leftSide = display.newImage( "leftside2.png",0,0, true)
local rightSide = display.newImage( "rightside2.png",w/2,0, true)
leftSide.anchorX = -w *0.5
leftSide.anchorY = -h*0.5
rightSide.anchorX = -w *0.5
rightSide.anchorY = -h *0.5
local titlepage= display.newImageRect( "title.png",
display.contentWidth, display.contentHeight, true )
titlepage.anchorX = -w *0.5
titlepage.anchorY = -h *0.5
titlepage.x, titlepage.y = 0,0
local page1 = display.newImageRect( "page1.png",
display.contentWidth, display.contentHeight )
page1.anchorX = -w *0.5
page1.anchorY = -h *0.5
page1.x, page1.y = 0,0
page1:toBack()
page2.anchorX = -w *0.5
page2.anchorY = -h*0.5
page2:toBack()
page3.anchorX = 0.0
page3.anchorY = 0.0
page3:toBack()
display.contentWidth, display.contentHeight ) …
local titleAudio = audio.loadSound("title.mp3")
local page1Audio = audio.loadSound("page1v2.mp3")
local page2Audio = audio.loadSound("page2.mp3")
…
audio.play(titleAudio)
local pageSelected = 0
local function touchListener:touch( event )
if event.phase == "began" then
if pageSelected == 0 then -- do nothing
elseif pageSelected == 1 then
audio.stop()
titlepage:toFront()
audio.play(titleAudio)
pageSelected = 0
elseif pageSelected == 2 then
audio.stop()
page1:toFront()
audio.play(page1Audio)
…
leftSide:addEventListener( "touch", touchListener )
rightSide:addEventListener( "touch", touchListener2 )
The students just modified this template code ,
but needed to create their own graphics and audio, etc.

Web Sites for Clients
In creating websites for Commercial businesses the students would also help with the
url names, web hosting, marketing, & uploading, etc.

Web Sites for Clients
Websites for community events

Tutorials & Learning Objects

Advertising Kiosks
‘Resume’ kiosk app for
a Graphic Designer

More Practical examples -Raspberry Pi
Seventy Torres Strait Islander girls have coded a Raspberry Pi with an LED, GPS
module and FM transmitter for emergency beacons to help their communities signal if
brush fires become widespread, or alert people of poisonous snake and spider bites.

More Practical examples
- Helping with dyslexia
Eighth-graders develop app to
help dyslexics read better:
They envisioned the Mind Glass
app allowing background colours
and text fonts or sizes on Web pages
or mobile devices to be altered for
the specific needs of an individual,
much like how prescription glasses
help people see.

Verizon App Challenge: Is Young ICT Explorers our version?

Verizon App Challenge
Not coded - only storyboards/designs, research, etc.
– in Australia we go one better with ICT Explorers

The Classic Maze Problem
Using Computational Thinking skills to develop automated algorithms
- this challenge may help foster ideas.
See http://www.problemspace.org/ for more

The Classic Maze Problem
The right turn
algorithm
Pseudo code is deceptively easy

The Classic Maze Problem – Python Code
Python code also
deceptively easy

The Classic Maze Problem –
Code.org
The Maze challenge is developed to a small degree in Hour of Code tutorial

Scratch version:
Try here – incomplete solution http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/49644014/
- Good challenge for your students?

Scratch:
Design first
We need to help students do some
algorithmic design
(eg. Nassi-Schneiderman Charts)
before tackling more challenging
questions like this one, which
typically uses the ‘greed
algorithm’.

The Genesis of the 4 Step Approach:
Conrad Wolfram argued that Mathematics Education today
should involve this 4 step problem solving process:
His steps are:
• Posing the right question – of a real world problem/issue
• Real world -> math formulation – that is, state the problem in
terms of its mathematics components
• Computation – solve the mathematics models & formulas
involved
• Verification – implement the solutions into the original real
world situation to verify their ‘correctness’, effectiveness, etc.
‘4 Step’ Foundations - Wolfram

• The skill that is in great demand today, and
will continue to grow, is the ability to take a novel
problem, possibly not well-defined, and likely not having
a single “right” answer, and make progress on it, in
some cases (but not all!) “solving” it (whatever that
turns out to mean).
• The problems we need mathematics for today come in a
messy, real-world context, and part of making progress is
to figure out just what you need from that context.
Kevin Devlin & Mathematical Thinking

• “I have had as students (in his MOOC’s),
engineers with years of experience who suddenly
found themselves out of a job when their
employers replaced them with software systems
(or sometimes overseas outsource services).
• Those engineers are now having to retool to learn
this other skill of creative problem solving –
mathematical thinking.”
Kevin Devlin & Mathematical Thinking

Wolfram Language: - the next iteration in
Computational Thinking?
• A knowledge-based language where small amounts
of code can produce remarkable results.
• Create immediate compelling visualizations
• Run locally or in the cloud, using only a web
browser
• Broad coverage of system reaches all STEMx areas
– But still syntactically challenging compared with Visual
Programming Languages

Wolfram Language:
Programming the Internet of Things
Designed for ubiquitous computing of the future
• With its device framework:
– ability to handle real-world data,
– built-in distributed computing, and
– both cloud and embedded implementations,
the Wolfram Language is in a unique position to support the
Internet of Things.
• Built-in highly automated analysis and visualization
• Full cloud infrastructure, supporting apps, APIs, etc.

Wolfram Programming Language:
– simple example
• Simple examples

Wolfram Programming Language:
Mountains example
Simple examples:

Wolfram: Mountains
• https://www.wolframcloud.com/app/objects/ff0ff9fe-4d46-4a33-8c22-fbdeee9baeb9

Sydney:
CloudObject[https://www.wolframcloud.com/objects/7ff9f8b5-dc44-4c06-9c2b-264dfb03f2fc]
https://www.wolframcloud.com/objects/7ff9f8b5-dc44-4c06-9c2b-264dfb03f2fc
Try ‘Empire State Building’

Blurred Lines Faces
img = this pic;
faces = FindFaces[img]
Possible application
with school photos
and privacy concerns

Blurred Faces
mask = Graphics[Disk[Mean[##], First@Differences[##]/2] & /@ faces,
PlotRange -> Transpose[{{0, 0}, ImageDimensions[img]}],
ImageSize -> 1 -> 1]
blur = Max[Abs[#2 - #1] & @@@ faces]/5 - works out size of largest face in pixels
- give 8.2
SetAlphaChannel[Blur[img, blur], ColorNegate@Blur[mask, blur]]

Blurred Faces
ImageCompose[img,
SetAlphaChannel[Blur[img, blur], ColorNegate@Blur[mask, blur]]]

Using the Power of the Mobile
How many different uses for the GPS device that
comes with your smartphone can you imagine?
• How many do you think exist right now
• How many distinctly different uses.
– There are many Car Navigation apps on the market, but what about
other uses?
• How many you can come up with?
How far can we go:
Real World Problem Solving:
What limits are there on our students?
This is not the right question:
– we should look for opportunities
and then give them the challenge
– it’s ok to fail

1) Normal car/bike/walk navigation
2) track mileage for reimbursement
3) flight log book
4) mashup between a to-do list and GPS
5) tracks your phone, so if you get lost
6) share your location details with friends
7) amenities nearby
8) Google Maps
9) Golf
10) Runkeeper
11) Speedo
12) Altimeter
13) Family Locator is the most reliabale and
accurate family locator & children safety app.
14) Family Locator app lets your family be in touch
and stay connected with your friends anytime.
15) Find the value of Taximeter
16) Truck Fleet management
17) location like Google Earth
18) emergency road side assistance
19) Track your luggage, laptops, pets and anything of
importance - need unit in collar
20) GPS games - eg. GeoCache, a global GPS based
treasure-hunt
21) Freight Tracking
Some Smartphone GPS Apps:

• touchscreen
• accelerometer
• gyroscope
• camera
• compass,
• barometer
• Magnetometer
• Proximity Sensor
• Orientation Sensor
• Infra-red sensor
• Bluetooth
• NFC
• Force Sensor
• Ultra-sonic sensors
• RFID
• IR Spectroscopy
• etc...
SO:
• what opportunities are open
to utilising these sensors
• & what problems can now be
solved?
The Power of the Mobile – Add ons

1) Comeback of governments
2) Digitization
 The Internet of things,
 Automation everywhere, and
 Intelligent alarming
3) Everything as a service
4) Sustainability
5) Geographical shift
 Augmented reality,
 eg. Central Qld Uni uses augmented reality to coach train drivers
 Wearable devices, and
 Home automation.
- Simon Fuller and Michael Postula, Schneider-Electric (ACS Seminar: Brisbane 21 August)
So many opportunities!

Smart cities
A safer world
A simpler world
An emerging world
A world of service
A greener world
The three principal ramifications of these trends are:
1. Business model disruption
2. Competencies and skill sets of your people
3. Segmentation - end-user solutions - customized and personalized
- Simon Fuller and Michael Postula, Schneider-Electric (ACS Seminar: Brisbane 21 August)
CT & the Top Megatrends

 Understand which aspects of a problem are amenable to
computation
 Evaluate the match between computational tools and techniques
and a problem
 Understand the limitations and power of computational tools and
techniques
 Apply or adapt a computational tool or technique to a new use
 Recognize an opportunity to use computation in a new way,
 Apply computational strategies such as divide and conquer in
any domain.
Foundational Skills:

• Ask good questions
• Hardest part may be understanding/characterising &
then modelling the problem
• Two standard approaches here:
• Ask someone else
• Look for a similar problem you already know how
to solve
• What makes problems similar?
– Similar information + computations
Foundational Skills:

The 4 Step Process again:
1. State or define a problem in order to
identify the inputs and outputs of the problem
2. Modelling: Decompose a problem into multiple sub-problems,
including the specification of how solving the sub-problems will
lead to a solution to the problem as a whole.
Use design tools, & algorithmic thinking tools
3. Create the computational artefact - coding

The Modelling Issue & the Design Imperative:
- needs to be addressed

Design Thinking & Algorithmic Design:
• Following a top-down design, the problem at hand is reduced into
smaller and smaller subproblems, until only simple statements
and control flow constructs remain.
Nassi–Schniederman diagrams reflect this top-down
decomposition in a straightforward way, using nested boxes to
represent sub-problems
• Structorizer - http://structorizer.fisch.lu/

Step 4: Verification; Evaluation;
Refine; Implement

• Sports Carnival recording
• School Wireless Coverage
• Language learning support
• Supermarket Queues
– self-checkout vs ‘manned’; item(s) check with phone camera
• Back-on-Track GPS Algorithm
– Improving Navman
• Tour Itinerary
• Theatre Seating Diagram
• Social Media Feed Algorithms
Some practical suggestions

• Computational Thinking is now being recognized
as vital to our students and our world’s future progress.
• needs to be a core part of the curriculum in our
schools
• It is time to recognize that value of this 4 Step Process of
Computational Thinking and,
• begin to integrate it into the curriculum,
• in particular from Middle School to Junior High but …
The 4 Step Process:
Pedagogical Implications

• … it is in the Senior School (Yrs 10-12)
where we could see an increasing emergence of
Computational Thinking being used in Project
Based Learning to create real world solutions
and innovations
– this has the potential to transform Senior Secondary,
where the core subjects become support subjects, and
enablers to the central role that CT and PBL could fulfil.
& Project Based Learning

• Occupations
• Employment Skills
• Learning Analytics
• Disruptive Innovation @ Uni level
• Online education – true de-regulation
• Megatrends
• Motivators
What are the Drivers?

Career Growth
STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Degrees vs Jobs
STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

USA Stats – Coding Camps
http://code.org/stats
Advance your career
without having to go
(or go back) to a university.
Learning to code can be a
cheaper option than going to a
university.
It takes on average 3 months
instead of 4 years, and it costs
between $10k-20k instead of
$50k-200k.
From <http://elearninginfographics.com/2015-year-learn-code-
infographic/>
* Times are changing – coding camps in the Caribbean Islands by
the beach!

Women’s employment in STEM
occupations: 1970-2011

Sustained growth is projected for STEM
occupations:

• Ian Jukes:
“Our education system is not broken, just obsolete”
• Creative workforce jobs
– facilitated by technology and are therefore much less likely to be negatively
impacted by the changes brought about by
• outsourcing,
• off-shoring &
• automation.
Disruptive Innovation:

Future Skills
“The world doesn't care what you know, it only
cares what you can do with what you know!
1.Teamwork
2. Problem solving
3. Interpersonal skills

 Long life skills such as creativity, interpersonal skills, critical
thinking and problem solving will be the key to success.”
 Connectivity is transforming knowledge. We live in the age of Info-
whelm.
 Students are now our clients. They have many options for learning
- Are we offering them a valuable and competitive product?
 For the digital generation the world is one great big social
network.
 Mobile devices will transform learning experience.
 Big data is here to stay. Radical personalization of learning is on
the way.
- Ian Jukes
Future Skills

21st Century Fluency Project & CT
 Problem Solving - Yes
 Creativity - Yes
 Analytical Thinking - Yes
 Collaboration - Mostly
 Communication - Yes
 Ethics, Action, Accountability - Always
- from ‘Literacy is Not enough’ – Lee Crockett, Ian Jukes & Andrew Churches
These are long term goals – are our students developing these skills; are they
mandated in the curriculum?
What skills will students most need to
succeed in the 21st century?

Disruptive Innovation @ Uni level:

• Predictive analytics
– detect gaps & differentiate instruction
• Special computer programs
– like ‘Knewton’provide infrastructure platform
• Analyse which lessons resonate best, for who,
and why.
• An entire class of students can work through
material in a sequence
– and at a pace customized for them.
• The learner is much more in control
Learning Analytics:

• 'Open limit talent' - e-Lancer's (freelancers)
• Fractional products - talent hired for specific project
– Eg. Amazon - 24/7 - use of different time zones
• Better productivity; better lifestyle for the worker;
• But - lack of security
The Future of
Work

Udemy
Online Tutoring continues
to grow drammatically.

Ultimately, the most effective motivators are
• autonomy
– (the ability to chart your own course),
• mastery
– (the ability to become an expert at something), and
• purpose
– (the idea that what you are doing serves a purpose larger than yourself).
• Dan Pink – see Ted Talk 2009
• Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are three concepts that Dan Pink explained with great clarity in his 2009
TED talk. The essence of Pink's talk is that tangible rewards (a paycheck, a grade, a promotion) are only
effective at motivating people to a certain point.
• Computational Thinking as a discipline/approach to problem
solving can offer all three of these motivators
Dan Pink:
Autonomy, mastery, and purpose

• Code for Mobile Apps;
• Games Design;
• Computational Biology
• Cryptography & Encryption algorithmic design
• Big Data algorithms
• Augmented Reality development
• Gesture Based Apps: - eg Leap Motion
Education: Create not Consume:

• “This is why using games as an example is so powerful:
If you tell students that they’ll learn how to create a
video game, they won’t focus on the math, or the skills
they have to learn to get there.
They’re going to focus on what they need to do to make
the games. If the goal is exciting enough, the steps to get
there cease to be serious barriers.”
– Les Miller, Professor of Computer Science at Iowa State University
Learning through Game Development:

• ‘The one thing that I wish I had known about computer science
(and programming more generally) earlier is that it is a
profoundly creative and interdisciplinary pursuit.
• What you choose to apply your problem-solving to is something
that demands great ingenuity in how one transforms patterns of
the physical world into a digital distillation.
• Coding is a process of both synthesis and genesis; not only is it
guided by rules and syntax, but also something you create from
scratch (like you would with a painting or a novel).’
– Jasmine Tsai Software Engineer, Hackbright Academy
Profoundly Creative

Atlassian co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes believes
entrepreneurs and technology will be the only source of true job
growth in the next 20 or 30 years.
Bimodal IT advocates that a business operate two distinct ICT teams:
1) traditional ICT – stability, efficiency, etc.;
2) agile or experimental approach to deliver rapid innovations
- “young turks whose attitude is, ‘if it ain’t broke, break it”.
3) Seattle: Thanks to their entrepreneurial vitality, they create
software engineering jobs ~10x faster than they produce grads
qualified to take those positions.
Bimodal IT

Concluding Remarks
1. Posing the right question = Computational Thinking
2. Real world -> modelling or technical formulation
= Design & Algorithmic Thinking
3. Computation = Programming/Coding
4. Verification =Testing, evaluating, refining &
introducing solutions back into the real-world
The 4 Step Approach:

Concluding Remarks:
These is a educational tsunami coming
• of needed change;
• of lack of qualifications;
• of serious redefinition of some of what we teach,
not just how we teach.
We need to advocate for Computational Thinking & coding
as foundational to today’s curriculum.
We need to demonstrate how it can both
transform learning & teaching, but also
truly bring the real-world into the school.

My Computational Thinking Curation site:
http://www.scoop.it/t/computational-thinking-in-digital-technologies

Thank you! – My Consultancy Site
• https://computationalthinkingk12.wordpress.com/

Computational Thinking - A Revolution in 4 Steps

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