User talk:Bwillkie

From SC Education

I would like to second Brian's advocacy of introductory courses in computational science for the humanities. Some reflections:

• We could dispense with core requirements in foreign language courses, and create a cadre of specialists in translation. But this would be a great loss, not only for practical reasons, but also because learning to think in more than one language is an important human educational experience. But so also is learning to think mathematically, and to think computationally.
• To understand and manage complex organizations, one needs a sympathetic understanding of the though processes of the key players. But engineers, computer scientists--more generally, people who can and do think computationally--are essential players in any contemporary complex undertaking. Managers--from business backgrounds, or from any general education background--should be conversant in the fundamentals of thought in these disciplines.
• Is it even possible to engage in serious data-driven thinking, in this age when the rate of data acquisition is exploding, without being able to follow a computational line of thought from an experienced and sympathetic perspective? Computational thinking is embedded in the nature of evidence and of argument in a data-driven environment.
• So you might argue that computational thinking ought to be fully a part of any core curriculum. But to take a step like that, faculty with the right preparation and research interests must begin to develop some teaching competency for students outside of the existing small subset of students who are exposed to computational thinking. So presenting these kinds of courses in liberal arts programs, business programs, etc, seems a necessary first step.

Thanks for starting this conversation, Brian.