Teaching ICT with Inquiry
What is the difference between computational thinking and programming?
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In accordance to the recent research, computational thinking is a crucial skill for the 21st Century workforce, yet a definition, what it entails, and areas in which it is applied are generally not so clear. It might seem that the terms computational thinking and programming are interchangeable, but in fact they are not.
It is hard to believe that only less than 10 years have passed since the first iPad was released, that many schools in Europe own a 3D printer or a smartboard, or experts of education speak about broad use of drones and virtual reality for education purposes (https://iet.open.ac.uk/file/innovating-pedagogy-2019.pdf). Eventually, technology and its adoption by education is following these advancements, and plenty of ready-to-use material for classrooms become available online. For example, many excellent programming and STEM teaching/learning ideas could be found in a publication “Coding in STEM Education” (https://www.science-on-stage.eu/page/display/5/28/13343/coding-in-stem-education) from Science on Stage project.
Nowadays there are websites and online tools available for teachers’ disposal at no cost and that support online learning for classes including teaching with Python. For instance, Trinket https://trinket.io/home and interactive environment “101 Computing” https://www.101computing.net/ provide a convenient environment to analyse various STEM topics with Python and build your own projects. In this module we will be using these two online tools to demonstrate activity examples to you, however, you are welcome to use alternative online tools or web-based platform to practice yourself and with your class.