{"id":6264,"date":"2025-04-07T02:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T01:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/?p=6264"},"modified":"2025-04-07T02:12:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T01:12:31","slug":"pensamiento-computacional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2025\/04\/07\/pensamiento-computacional\/","title":{"rendered":"Computational thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u00b4ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that every now and then I like to use the metaphor of a computer<\/a> (or a mobile phone, which is basically the same) to explain how the human mind works. That\u00b4s why I couldn't miss the opportunity to share with you what I learned this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, I took my daughter Alicia to the Irish national final for Bebras, an initiative she was participating in through her secondary school. I had not heard of this before; I only knew that we had to be at Maynooth University at half past nine, and that while our kids were doing \"the challenge\" (a series of timed activities on a computer), the parents were going to attend an informational talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Slightly blurry photo of the cover of one of my college books, from a subject called English for Computing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bebras<\/a><\/strong> is an international initiative aiming to promote Informatics (Computer Science, or Computing) and computational thinking <\/strong>among primary and secondary school students. The informational talk was really interesting (thanks, Kim!), starting with this definition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computational thinking is the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can effectively be carried out by an information-processing agent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This definition may seem a bit convoluted, but at the end of the day, it refers to problem resolution processes, utilizing skills like logical reasoning, abstraction, pattern recognition, decomposition of complex tasks into smaller steps, etc<\/strong>. These are skills that we all have: in fact, \"the challenge\" is made up of tasks that any person can solve; the challenging part is resolving them in a short period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I loved about the talk was how they explained the connection between these skills and life in general, not only in relation to academics. Abstraction <\/strong>allows us to eliminate unnecessary details and focus on the essence of a problem or a story (and depending on the context, the essence may involve different sets of details). Decomposition <\/strong>allows us to tackle a big, overwhelming task step by step, or to distribute the work and collaborate on projects, having each person do their part. And understanding and creating algorithms<\/strong> allow us to use them as tools to accomplish our desired results, with flexibility to adapt them to each circumstance or need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have noticed that the definition above doesn\u00b4t specifically mention computers, only \"information processing agents\". This is because humans are also information processing agents<\/strong> (that\u00b4s why I like that metaphor so much). Even the word computer<\/em> was initially used to refer to a person whose job consisted of making calculations (often women, by the way, and if you haven\u00b4t watched the movie Hidden figures<\/em>, I recommend it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to modern times: during the talk, it was mentioned multiple times how quickly technology is changing, and with it, the world. Our kids are preparing for jobs that don\u00b4t exist yet<\/strong>, and we don\u00b4t know exactly what those jobs will be. But we do know that we will need lots of people who can adapt and communicate effectively<\/strong> with other information processing agents, be it computers or people. Who can understand and make themselves understood. And above all, who can add the creativity that machines lack<\/strong> (despite what anyone says, and this particular comment is just my own), in order to find solutions to the problems of the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the best part is that we can practice all these skills in a fun way<\/strong>, with challenges and exercises like the ones in Bebras. They reminded me of some of the activities they used to publish in magazines way back when, where you had to make deductions based on the clues you were given... Can you think of a better way to keep your mind active and at the same time prepare for the future?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los que ya llev\u00e1is tiempo leyendo este blog sab\u00e9is que de vez en cuando me gusta usar la met\u00e1fora de un ordenador (o de un tel\u00e9fono m\u00f3vil, que para el caso es lo mismo) para explicar c\u00f3mo funciona la mente humana. Por eso no pod\u00eda dejar pasar la oportunidad de contaros lo que he aprendido … Continue reading Computational thinking<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3116429,"featured_media":6263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"BinaryWords - Pensamiento computacional \/ Computational thinking","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Querido agente procesador de informaci\u00f3n, este art\u00edculo es para ti \/ Dear information processing agent, this article is for you","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5007],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-informatica","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DPtR-1D2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5752,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2025\/01\/13\/palabras-intraducibles-declutter\/","url_meta":{"origin":6264,"position":0},"title":"Untranslatable words: declutter","author":"binarybea","date":"13\/01\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"La semana pasada se me qued\u00f3 pendiente hablaros un poco m\u00e1s de esta palabra, que me parece maravillosa en ingl\u00e9s y para la que no encuentro traducci\u00f3n elegante al espa\u00f1ol: declutter. 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