A New Site for Computational Thinking in Education

This is a new site dedicated to creating a greater awareness of the value of Computational Thinking as a core part of the K-12 Educational landscape.

While the realisation that Computational Thinking and it’s foundational component, Computer Programming/Coding is growing, generally the public and especially educators are not aware of its importance in today’s very technological world and its growing relevance to a great many attractive career choices.

“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. 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

“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.” – Mitchel Resnick

These is a potential tsunami coming

• • of needed change;
  • of lack of qualifications;
  • of serious redefinition of some of what we teach,  not just how we teach.

• “This is an amazing time to go into computing, with unprecedented opportunities.
• Computers are a ubiquitous and growing presence in all aspects of modern society, and thus there is huge and increasing demand for computing professionals that is far from being met by the profile of today’s graduates.
• Computing-related careers are some of the most versatile, creative, and satisfying career choices you can make, and computational thinking and skills are valuable complements to virtually all other career areas.” –Maggie Eppstein, Ph.D. Chair of Computer Science, University of Vermont

This 5 minute video will give you a good overview: The Importance of teaching Coding

“Five of the top ten fastest growing jobs will be in a computer related field and two of the top three top bachelors salaries are in computer science and engineering.”
– http://tealsk12.org/

This site contains a number of my presentations and some sample workshops for introducing teachers to this new curriculum  area.

I am also available for presentations, consultancy & workshops on Computational Thinking.

Email: pfherring at gmail