TITLE: More on Programming and Computational Thinking
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 19, 2009  4:32 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I've heard from a few of you about my
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-02.html#e2009-02-17T09_31_04.htm">
   previous post</A>.
People have strong feelings in both directions.
If you haven't seen it already, check out
Mark Guzdial's
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK15F2KG7ARXPHU">
   commentary</A>
on this topic.  Mark explores a bit further
what it means to understand algorithms and data
structures without executing programs, and
perhaps without writing them.  I'm glad that
he is willing to stake out a strong position
on this issue.

Those of you who receive <EM>inroads</EM>,
SIGCSE's periodical, should watch for a short
article by
<A HREF="http://www.cs.duke.edu/~ola/">
   Owen Astrachan</A>
in the next issue, called "Cogito Ergo Hack".
Owen hits the target spot-on: without what he
calls "computational doing", we miss a fantastic
opportunity to help people understand computational
ideas at a deeper level by seeing them embodied
in something they themselves create.  Computational
doing might involve a lot of different activities,
but programming is one of the essential activities.

We need as many people as possible, and especially
clear thinkers and writers like Mark and Owen, to
ask the questions and encourage others to think
about what being a computational thinker means.
Besides, catchy phrases like "computational doing"
and "Cogito Ergo Hack" are likely to capture the
attention of more people than my pedestrian prose!
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