Why IT should be a foundational subject for all students in the Senior Years of Secondary Schooling (16-18 yr olds)

[Paul Herring]

IT needs to be given that same level of significance and importance that the disciplines of  English and Mathematics get in the Senior School (Upper Secondary) as ‘Core’ subjects. In other words, every single student in Years 11 and 12 (last 2 years before University - Qld, Australia) may not study these subjects but they are strongly recommended to do so.

In today’s networked world where IT is unpins so much of todays relationship, business, educational and social, a sound grounding in IT should not be assumed to be absorbed by osmosis, but needs to be purposely integrated into the education of our students before they leave Secondary School.

 

Also, IT involves a new way of thinking about problem-solving: 

It's called Computational Thinking,

• and it's about understanding the difference between human and artificial intelligence,
• as well as about thinking recursively,
• being alert to the need for prevention, detection and protection against risks,
• using abstraction and decomposition when tackling large tasks,
• and deploying heuristic reasoning, iteration and search to discover solutions to complex problems.

Computational Thinking involves some unique knowledge and paradigms, as well as a wide skill set. Among the foundational areas of study are the following:

• algorithms - the mathematical recipes that make up programs;
• cryptography - how confidential information is protected on the net;
• machine intelligence - how services such as YouTube, Google and Amazon predict your preferences;
• computational biology - how the genetic code works;
• search - how we find needles in a billion haystacks;
• recursion - a method where the solution to a problem depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem;
• heuristics - experience-based techniques for problem-solving, learning, and discovery;
• Entrepenurial enabling – learning how to utilise IT to employ yourself, to be your own boss; to sell your uniqueness;
• Critical thinking support – utilising IT applications to better develop critical thinking skills.

 

Most of these areas are to some degree unique to IT and can certainly be better taught through the use if IT, than in other academic subject disciplines. 

For example, Algorithms are used not only by computer scientists and computer engineers, but also by many in other engineering and science disciplines. Also Shannon Information Theory is not only of use within the discipline of IT but also important in the study of genetic coding.

The Prezi at the URL listed here gives a little of the background to this issue.

Computational Thinking in Digital Technologies