Patrick Reany
29 January 2024
After I was introduced to Wolfram's notion of 'computational thinking', I wanted to know more about it. The videos I watched on it seemed to go in different directions than the video I saw of Wolfram himself defining it. So, I asked BingChat (Copilot) to enlighten me on the details. I learned of the Wolfram Open Cloud and Wolfram Language, which, at the time of this writing, I have no direct knowledge of how either work. Thus, the information below is provided for general information's sake.
Patrick:
What can you tell me about the concept of 'computational thinking' as it is conceived of by Stephen Wolfram?
BingChat (Copilot):
Stephen Wolfram, a British-American computer scientist, defines computational thinking as "formulating things with enough clarity, and in a systematic enough way, that one can tell a computer how to do them" [1]. He believes that computational thinking is going to be a defining feature of the future and it's an incredibly important thing to be teaching to kids today [1].
Wolfram has been involved with computational thinking for nearly 40 years now and has spent 30 years building the Wolfram Language, which he believes is the perfect tool to teach computational thinking to kids [1]. The Wolfram Language is a high-level programming language that has all the knowledge and automation built into it to directly teach broad computational thinking, even to kids [1].
Wolfram's computational thinking process (CTP) is a problem-solving framework that starts with real-world problems and works back to relevant concepts and then tools [2]. The focus is on thinking, including conceptualizing the problem and validating the solution [2].
Wolfram has also launched the Wolfram Open Cloud, which allows anyone anywhere to start learning computational thinking with the Wolfram Programming Lab, using the Wolfram Language [1].
I hope this information helps!
[1] https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2016/09/how-to-teach-computational-thinking/
[2] https://blog.wolfram.com/2021/10/06/introducing-wolfram-u-computational-thinking-certifications/
[3] https://physicsworld.com/a/exploring-the-computational-universe-with-stephen-wolfram/
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Patrick:
Tell me a little about the Wolfram Open Cloud.
BingChat:
The Wolfram Open Cloud is a cloud-based platform that provides open access to the Wolfram Language, a high-level programming language that has all the knowledge and automation built into it to directly teach broad computational thinking, even to kids [1]. The Wolfram Cloud combines a state-of-the-art notebook interface with the world's most productive programming language, scalable for programs from tiny to huge, with immediate access to a vast depth of built-in algorithms and knowledge [1].
The Wolfram Open Cloud provides an interactive notebook environment on the web capable of running the code [2]. It allows anyone anywhere to start learning computational thinking with the Wolfram Programming Lab, using the Wolfram Language [1].
The Wolfram Open Cloud is used to power Wolfram|One, Wolfram Mathematica, Wolfram Enterprise Private Cloud and Wolfram|Alpha, as well as Wolfram instant APIs, instant Web Apps and more [1].
I hope this information helps!
[1] https://www.wolframcloud.com/
[2] ??
[3] https://blog.wolfram.com/2016/12/12/launching-wolframalpha-open-code/