Week 4 - Reflection

How to teach Computational Thinking

I read an article written by Steven Wolfram posted in The ED Tech Round UP blog this month about How to teach Computational Thinking. The title attracted me a lot so I decide to know more about it. I have never heard about Computational Thinking before. My first thought  was it could be a new kind of trend or something like that, but not it comes from more than 30 years ago, and the concept is growing a lot now. Computational Thinking is known as "CT" and was created to solve problems formulating things with enough clarity, and in a systematic enough way, so one can tell a computer how to do it. In order to clarify more this concept the author makes a comparison between "Mathematical Thinking" (MT) versus "Computer Thinking" (CT).  MT is about formulating things so that one can handle them mathematically, when that is possible. Computational thinking is a much bigger and broader concept, because there are just a lot more things that can be handled computationally, and it could be anything. According to the author CT is going to be a defining feature of the future, so it is important to be teaching this to kids today, because CT is going to be needed everywhere, and if we do it very well CT is going to be a key to success in almost all future careers.

I made a little more research about CT and I found a lot of information related to. One thing I found is that CT is not only essential to the development of computer applications, but also it can be used to support problem solving across all disciplines, including the humanities, math, and science.

The key is that CT uses a 4 step process to solve almost any kind of problem of any subject. Step 1 is Decomposition, which break down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts. Step 2 is Pattern-Recognition, it  works observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data. Step 3 is Abstraction, it identifies the general principles that generate these patterns, and the Step 4 is the Algorithm Design or the answer to the problem, it develops the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems.
http://www.edtechroundup.org/editorials--press/guest-post-how-to-teach-computational-thinking

E-Rate Requests for High-Speed Internet Connections Keep Growing

This article is about a 2016 analysis of the applicants to the federal E-rate program by Oklahoma-based consulting group Funds for Learning. The E-rate program was created in 1996, and has paid out over $30 billion to help schools and libraries cover the cost of telecommunications services. This article contains two figures that jumps out this year. One is the number of requests for subsidies to help pay for high-speed which have doubled the  last year's requests and the other is that about 90 percent of applicants to the program expect their bandwidth needs will increase over the next three years, with nearly one-fourth saying it will at least the double. This info shows us a clear trend of how important is to be connected today at the highest speed possible.

There have been different trends since 1996. For example, many districts have decreased the requests for support telephone and voice services. Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  overhauled the program, prioritizing support for broadband and Wi-Fi networks over older technologies. In 2015, the program saw a huge jump in demand for internal wireless connectivity, but today there was a huge focus on faster connections, while the demand for wireless network equipment (such as routers and switches) continue growing.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2016/09/e-rate_high-speed_connections.html?_ga=1.98669662.15378313.1455185032