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Stephen Wolfram Reveals Ambitious Plan to Teach Computational Thinking (stephenwolfram.com)
Can we teach future generations how to solve their problems with computers? Slashdot reader mirandakatz writes:
Doctors, lawyers, teachers, farmers -- whatever the profession, it'll soon be full of computational thinking. Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha creator Stephen Wolfram argues on Backchannel that it's essential we start teaching kids to talk to computers today to ensure their success in the future -- and he's got a comprehensive lesson plan.
Arguing that Wikipedia popularized "a more direct style of presenting information," Wolfram writes that computer-assisted education continues the trend, "taking things which could only be talked around, and turning them into things that can be shown through computation directly and explicitly." Wolfram's 11,000-word essay adds that "with all the knowledge and automation that we've built into the Wolfram Language we're finally now to the point where we have the technology to be able to directly teach broad computational thinking, even to kids.." (And without having to start off with loops and conditionals...)
Arguing that Wikipedia popularized "a more direct style of presenting information," Wolfram writes that computer-assisted education continues the trend, "taking things which could only be talked around, and turning them into things that can be shown through computation directly and explicitly." Wolfram's 11,000-word essay adds that "with all the knowledge and automation that we've built into the Wolfram Language we're finally now to the point where we have the technology to be able to directly teach broad computational thinking, even to kids.." (And without having to start off with loops and conditionals...)
This were how learning occurrs. Sigh. The tech sector just will never get it. Computational thinking is actually the *problem* we are currently having, it is absolutely the wrong way to teach. I would put the energy and money into tech literacy, instead. It is astonishing to me how people like this miss the mark again, and again, and again. We are already starting to reap what we've sown with a generation that is incapable of critical and abstract thinking. We are not robots, and life is not an algorithm. Disappointing.
Although most of that may be true about Wolfeam, he's not wrong. Quite a bit of useful computationally derived information and decision making created from discipline/domain specific models can help augment traditional methods for the better, if nothing else. This type computational thinking doesn't have to involve "big data" or bs analytics derived from NLP, we just need to use readily available quantitive information on a more regulsr basis. That alone could push most industries forward quite a bit. It's already happening, Wal-Mart is a great example.
Computer, write me a term paper.
Computer, get Jennie to like me.
etc. etc.
My high school math teacher did it right: She let us use a non-programmable scientific calculator but only AFTER we proved we knew how to do do trig and logarithms by hand. Yes, we had to learn some formulas to estimate them and we had to memorize the "easy" ones like sine(30 degrees). We also had to learn to use log tables. No, we didn't have to learn to use a slide-rule, I was a decade or two too late for that.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Wolfram's Mathematica has been available on the Raspberry Pi educational computer for quite some time.
How's that working out?
With 10 million machines, you would think the Mathematica user community for RPi would be really HOT.
Not so. You'll look far and wide to find it being used - let alone in a classroom environment.
Creating excitement for computational computing has nothing to do with the language.
It is based on understanding what students are interested in learning and making the discovery process "naturally" lead them in the direction you want them to go.
Eugene Presta had it right when he said that the trick to effectively teaching a subject is to learn how the student wants in presented.
Humans learning how to think. Forget the emails, forget the texts, forget instant messaging, forget typing in what your problem is into a search bar and hope something useful comes back, pick the goddam phone up and talk to someone for five minutes to figure out what the problem is and how to get it resolved rather than spending days, if not weeks, doing the other things.
I'm still waiting for that to happen.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Just because other people are wrong on how we should be doing computing doesn't mean that Wolfram with his delusions of grandeur is always right. He's most likely not even the first one to suggest these things.
Ezekiel 23:20
Making Apple pay taxes requires a lot of computational thinking.
Roads, street signs, traffic signs, elevators, locks, stairs, and so on and so forth should be standardized all over the world to make them suitable for machines.
As it is now, it is easier to send a robot to Mars that to a local supermarket.
Even plates and glasses, - it would free from hard manual labor millions of people who prepare plates for dishwashers in cafes and resaurants.
How about we teach critical thinking skills first.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Wolfram was supposed to become the new Einstein. He burnt himself out more than two decades ago, accomplishing quite little in academia, becoming instead a predatory businessman who takes credit on the work done mostly by others.
The NewSpeak language in 1984 was developed from a popular linguistic theory whose name I forget, but has a Wikipedia article of its own, if I remember correctly.
It's based on the concept that words have absolute meaning and that the words you have in your vocabulary shape the way you think. As such, it's a darling of the "Political Correctness" crowd, who think that if you ban discriminatory words, it will result in the extinction of the corresponding discrimination.
Which isn't entirely true. Ban the use of the word "retard" as an insult and kids will run around calling each other "special". The human race is quite adaptable that way.
... or only need to learn how to best please their AI overlords, who will do all the "computational thinking" required on their own?
Luring children into a dependency on a proprietary software system is not a good way to shape their future...
So we all should buy Mathematica?
There are seven disciplines medicine needs to learn much from: maths, stats, logic, computation, science, engineering, psychology.
Medical doctors can't be experts in all these, but the current climate requires them to be, or else fall prey to being persuaded by clever marketing. How one gets from a clinical trial to the 'one-on-one doctor-patient' scenario is a major case in point: how one adds back the significance of all salient features not selected for in the clinical trial is a matter which most doctors look blankly at when pointed out. (This is simple Bayesian statistics: what is the probability that treatment X works, or is most effective, given only that the patient has diagnostic label D? What if they have label D and are between ages of 20 and 40? What if they have diagnosis D and are between ages of 20 and 40 and are a Buddhist who meditates daily? What if they have label D and are between the ages of 20 and 40, are overweight, don't exercise, and eat junk food? and so on. What matters is how the 'best' decision changes as we limit towards a precise description of the patient in front of the clinician, and if that decision can change, the sensible clinician will realise they need more information to make a reliable decision.)
John_Chalisque
They won't need it. But wouldn't it be better to help them be on the other side of the equation? ie, being a producer rather than a consumer?
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
... on crucial adjective the proprietary Wolfram Language.
"Another Aspie Wanker"
Christ. I don't know where to begin. that "Aspie Wanker" achieved more before he was 25 than you ever will in your life.
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Gonzales: There is one question, Inspector Callahan: Why do they call you "Dirty Harry"?
De Georgio: Ah that's one thing about our Harry, doesn't play any favorites! Limeys, Micks, Hebes, Fat Dagos, Niggers, Spics, Honkies, Chinks, you name it. Harry hates everybody equally.
Gonzales: How does he feel about Mexicans?
De Georgio: Ask him.
Harry Callahan: Especially Spics.
— Dirty Harry
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism