1. Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum Amber Settle, DePaul University Co-PI: Ljubomir Perkovic Computational Thinking Panel November 14, 2008

2. Goals Long term goal – Incorporate computational thinking in courses across the liberal arts curriculum Project goals 1. Develop a framework that will be used by instructors outside of information technology to understand and integrate computational thinking into their courses 2. Improve understanding of computational thinking 3. Improve likelihood of buy-in by non-IT faculty 4. Develop a community of educators across institutions that will implement the framework and the necessary institutional changes

3. Participants Institutions: – DePaul University – Other Chicago-area colleges (including the Illinois Institute of Technology and the City Colleges of Chicago) By year: – First year: School of Computing (SoC) and School of Cinema and Interactive Media (CIM) in College of Computing and Digital Media – Second year: SoC, CIM plus College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (History, Anthropology), College of Commerce, and other Chicago-area institutions

4. First Year Initial framework – Analyze select courses and categorize computational thinking examples using Denning’s Great Computing Principles – Develop strategies to teach computational thinking – Develop assessment tools that evaluate the learning of computational thinking Courses – Five from SOC: Codes and Ciphers; Problem Solving; Personal Computing; Internet, Commerce, and Society; The Internet and the Web – Four from CIM: Introduction to Visual Design; Modeling for Animation and Gaming; Introduction to Screenwriting; Multimedia and the World Wide Web – One joint between CIM/SOC: Introduction to Game Design

5. An Example ECT 250: Internet, Commerce, and Society Case studies to introduce computational thinking – Online order processing system used by Dell computers (www.dell.com)www.dell.com – Activity questions: What characteristics did you notice during the order process? (Standardized procedure, repetitive, etc.) Did you perceive any human intervention during this process? Are humans good at processing this type of orders? Why? (Benefits of human information processing?) Why not? (Limits of human information processing) Who actually handled all the orders? (Computers). Define the term "automation" in computational thinking. What are the benefits of automation (Consistent, error free, fast, efficient, cost-effective, etc.) What characteristics of order processing make automation helpful? (Large number of orders, standardized procedure, repetitive, etc.)

6. Contribution Technology-focused faculty with diverse backgrounds – First year group: 7 Ph.D.s and 3 M.F.A.s The integration of computational thinking into existing courses in a variety of disciplines The expansion of computational thinking beyond the hard sciences into the social sciences, humanities, and business