Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems by Unknown

Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030505066
Publisher: Springer International Publishing


2 Related Work and Theoretical Foundations

In our study we are working at the intersection of CT and multimodal literacy, as we aim at:promoting CT as a creative thinking approach that could be applied to the analysis and representation of any field of knowledge,

supporting forms of multimodal literacy in schools, enabling teachers and pupils to create multimodal texts, seen as interactive representations of knowledge.

In our study we approach CT as an emergent competence in a symbiotic relation to multimodal literacy, combining problem solving with the use of digital tools and the creation of digital content. We see CT and multimodal literacy as rooted into each other. In this sense, CT can be cultivated and applied in schools, to the representation of knowledge across curricular disciplines.

CT has been defined as a subset of knowledge, mindset and skills from the computer science and engineering domain [19]. CT has been proposed as a fundamental component of literacy, together with writing and counting, including skills like: problem solving, design thinking, understanding human behavior drawing on fundamental concepts from computer science that would be desirable for “everyone” and not only IT professionals [19]. However, this perspective has been criticized for being “arrogant”, suggesting that everybody should aspire to learn to “think like a computer scientist”, no matter what they do [13]. Moreover, so defined computational thinking appears as overlapping, including or included within soft skills or the of the 21st century, such as: digital literacy, innovation and creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, and also (digital) citizenship, self-regulated learning [17].

However, we believe that CT should involve also hardcore computational skills, such as: understanding of “algorithmic thinking, navigating multiple levels of abstraction, decomposing problems into manageable pieces, and representing data through models” [3, p. 1]. Hence, CT can be seen defined as “a collection of computational ideas and habits of mind” that are acquired by learning to make “software, simulations, and computations performed by machinery” [13]. In this sense, we argue that CT should include competent use of software tools and coding, at different levels of proficiency, applied to a set of problems originated within other fields than computer science. An interesting example is represented by digital humanities, in which CT is already applied to solve problems from the domain of the humanities [7].

Considering the multitude of definitions that have emerged in recent years, the meaning of CT is going through a complex elaboration process and it is still ambiguous [13]. We find that the main issue is represented by ambition levels for hardcore computational skills, such as proficiency level in the use of software and if coding should be a requirement at all. In our view, CT is emerging as an interdisciplinary field, including also creative thinking skills from the design field and collaboration from the management field. However, if CT is deprived of specific skills related to the process of using, testing, and constructing software, as it is defined in [19], CT becomes a mix of design and management skills, with superficial relation to Computer Science.



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