Computational Thinking

About This Course

Digital Skills are becoming ubiquitous with Problem Solving, Critical Thinking and Analysis, Technology Design and Programming, Reasoning and ideation being identified as some of the top digital skills that are relevant for a person to be successful in the digital economy. It has been argued that not only is Computational Thinking a fundamental skill used by and useful for all but is a practice that is central to all sciences, not just computer science.

World over K-12 computing education has moved away from digital literacy to a computational thinking curriculum. To address the skills demand created by the industrial revolution, the Sciences and Mathematics were included in the school curriculum in the early 19th century. To address the skills demands for the digital economy, National Education Policy 2020 recognizing its importance has recommended that CT be taught to all students and be given greater emphasis along with Mathematics.

This course introduces MA students to key concepts in computational thinking, different CT curricula and pedagogical approaches – ranging from a fulling unplugged (without the use of computers) to an approach using computers to hybrid approaches. The course will provide a exposure to data oriented approaches to computing so as to get them thinking about the data centric vs computation centric approach. The course will also focus on assessing both unplugged and plugged activities.

Course Objectives:

The primary objectives of the course will be to:

Familiarize the student (pre-service teacher) with the traditional approach practised by many to teaching programming.

Enhance the mathematical pedagogical content knowledge of the student (pre-service teachers) through exposure to contemporary approaches.

Enable the student to assess the efficacy of different approaches.

Who can join the course?

The course will be available to students who have registered and students who are invited for the MA in Education and Technology program

Note: The best way to access this course is through a laptop/desktop or TISSx mobile app.

Prerequisites

Course is for Learners who are admitted to the long term MAET program of CETE, TISS.

Course Staff

Mr. Vipul Shah, Head Education & Skilling, Global CSR at Tata Consultancy Services

Vipul Shah has worked with Tata Consultancy Services for over 34 years. Since July 2020 he is the global head for Education & Skilling as part of Corporate Social Responsibility where he oversees CS/STEM programs for K-12 students from marginalized communities in 43 countries as well as skilling programs for undergraduate youths in the country. Prior to that he served as Principal Scientist at TATA research development and design center (TCS Research) in Pune India for over 30 years. His areas of research included Software Engineering Research, Programming Languages, and Modeling resulting in several patents and publications.

In 2016 he founded CSpathshala, ACM India’s K-12 CS education initiative to bring computational thinking in schools. 15,000 teachers have been trained on CT through this initiative and over 600,000 students have adopted the curriculum created by CSpathshala. In addition to this, 30,000 schools TN state (SCERT) schools are learning CT through math curriculum. Mr. Shah has conducted over 75 training programs on CT. Mr Shah is also the National representative for Bebras International Computational Thinking challenge in India since 2018. Over 700,000 students have participated in the challenge in India. Mr. Shah is also serves as a board member on the Bebras international community. He has provided position papers to National Education Policy committee and National Focus Group on CT, served on NCERT CS syllabus and IITM BSc Math+CS curriculum committees. He is an avid marathoner. .

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I access the course on a smartphone?

You can access the course via TISSx app on your smartphone. You can install the app from Playstore.

Whom do I contact for further information?

Email at: maet@clixindia.org

What web browser should I use?

The Open edX platform works best with current versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari, or with Internet Explorer version 9 and above.

See our list of supported browsers for the most up-to-date information.