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Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

What I like about this presentation is that it takes the concept of computational thinking and, drawing from a number of recent models, presents it in a way that is accessible and easy to follow. But here's the thing. As I read Ian O'Byrne's presentation slides (there's also a video) I realized more and more that this is essentially a re-presentation of the system outline in Descarte's Discourse on Method, especially part 2, and Rules for the Direction of the Mind. Now Descartes is working with a different vocabulary, but the core ideas are the same. There's a history of what has come to be called rationalist thinking, and while there's a lot of value to it, it's important to remember that rationalism, and hence computational thinking, looks at the world in the abstract, and that this is not reality.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Nov 03, 2024 4:52 p.m.

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