Looking back at week one computational thinking

Once again looking back at week one, I found a wonderful resource that helps me to remember the differences between design and digital technology and to think about computational thinking more and hopefully understand it more in depth.


                        Design and Technologies                Digital Technologies

Thinking	Design Thinking	Computational Thinking
Focus	On the design and production process of creating solutions through the design process	On the use of digital systems, information and computational thinking to create solutions for identified needs and opportunities.
Nature	Design thinking is predominantly heuristic in nature. It includes using strategies in order to understand design problems, generating creative and innovative ideas, and analysing and evaluating those ideas to find the best solution.	Computational thinking is predominantly algorithmic in nature. This includes problem solving techniques and strategies, such as organising data logically, breaking down problems into components, and the design and use of algorithms, patterns and models
	Design and Technologies: Provides students with an opportunity to consider the environmental impact of decisions and re-design and re-engineer products, services and environments to support more sustainable patterns of living, for example, sustainable food supply. Students will reflect on the future impact of decisions from ethical, economic and social perspectives. They will apply futures thinking across a range of contexts, including food and fibre production, and evaluate designed solutions and traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies from the point of view of sustainability.	In Digital Technologies: students will assess the role of contemporary and emerging digital technologies in creating more sustainable patterns of living including technologies used to: manage and monitor natural, managed, constructed and digital environments; model data and identify trends; control conditions and machinery to enable systematic increases in productivity and significant reductions and efficiencies; and facilitate social interaction and the development of ethical forms of entertainment that develop world views.

Figure 1: Fasso, 2015

I also found this table to be useful to jog my memory of the two strands of technology and their differences and similarities.

Aims - Design and Technologies  In addition to the overarching aims for the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, Design and Technologies more specifically aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students: develop confidence as critical users of technologies and designers and producers of designed solutions investigate, generate and critique innovative and ethical designed solutions for sustainable futures use design and systems thinking to generate design ideas and communicate these to a range of audiences produce designed solutions suitable for a range of technologies contexts by selecting and manipulating a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment creatively, competently and safely; and managing processes evaluate processes and designed solutions and transfer knowledge and skills to new situations understand the roles and responsibilities of people in design and technologies occupations and how they contribute to society.

Aims - Digital Technologies In addition to the overarching aims for the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, Digital Technologies more specifically aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students: design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs use computational thinking and the key concepts of abstraction; data collection, representation and interpretation; specification, algorithms and implementation to create digital solutions confidently use digital systems to efficiently and effectively automate the transformation of data into information and to creatively communicate ideas in a range of settings apply protocols and legal practices that support safe, ethical and respectful communications and collaboration with known and unknown audiences apply systems thinking to monitor, analyse, predict and shape the interactions within and between information systems and the impact of these systems on individuals, societies, economies and environments

Figure 2: Fasso, 2015

References

Figure 1 and 2: 

Fasso, W. (2015). Week 1 Materials: What are the differences between the Design and Technology, and Digital Technologies subjects?. Retrieved on April 4, 2015, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDCU12039 Design and Digital Technologies, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au