Time to do more with computational thinking

So, if you've read this blog before you know I'm not happy with what is passing for 21st Century skills education in the United States. Some colleagues and I have been talking about what we can do to move things along in a direction we'd be happy with. I suggested we need to get computational thinking embedded in national content standards. We don't need a whole new set of standards directed at computational thinking we need to help move the existing content standards into the 21st Century.

Last week I was at a meeting of the Diversity Council for Engineers Week. The engineering community is struggling with this issue as well. They'd like to see engineering education take place in high school. A few states do allow elective engineering courses to count toward the high school graduation science requirement. Obviously the Diversity Council is working to encourage diversity to be a cornerstone of engineering recruitment. The efforts to inform and encourage youth to explore engineering is reaching down into the middle grades.

Can computational thinking reach down into the middle school? There are people and programs doing that today, but they aren't having a large-scale impact. Can computational thinking find a place in Engineers Week; does it need something different? What are your thoughts about expanding awareness about computational thinking?

another event

invitation from Lynn Nolan:

Come join us for the…

Digital Equity Summit: “Success Against All Odds”

Lynn Nolan, Senior Strategic Initiatives Officer, ISTE

Bonnie Bracey Sutton, 2009 Digital Equity Chair

Jenelle Leonard, Director, School Support and Technology Programs, US Department of Education

Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Renaissance Washington DC Hotel, Grand Ballroom North

Plan to participate in a highly interactive exploration of success stories against all odds... offsetting the digital divide. Hear from the U.S. Department of Education - How this aligns with the Obama Administration’s commitment to improve Education and the Department’s new focus on success and solutions. We’ll also hear “Success Stories” from selected participants, each providing a brief overview of their challenges, success results, effective implementation, and the evidence of their success.

We look forward to interacting with you as we look at success…against all odds!

Thank you!

21st Century Skills discussion.

Maybe you'd like to join and participate.

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/cybersummit

Let's do away with Web 2.0 in education.

So, there's lots of discussion about Web 2.0 and the use of Web 2.0 tools in education. I recently joined the eLearning Guild and was struck by a presentation about Learning 2.0.

I like the term Learning 2.0. It puts the emphasis where it should be for education -- on the learning rather than on the tools. Yes, Web 2.0 tools can be cool. (blogging is in that Web 2.0 tool box) But the general development of Web 2.0 tools has more often than not, been about the social networking and making a buck, than about education and learning. But educators should be looking at Web 2.0 tools for the application and benefits to learning. Hence, Learning 2.0.

It may seem like a small thing, but I think words, and how we use them, can be big things, and Learning 2.0 focuses on how the tools are used, rather than just on the tools.