1/26 Dan: Computational Literacy

Summaries:

The Nersessian article was a report on a study that attempted to discover how the brain changed when learning occurred.  Specifically, the researches focused on the connections between synapses in the brain and how their communication functioned and changed.  Nersessian focused her attention on how a model of the brain was able to enhance the teams work by making measurable points of the brain much more accessible.  The article highlighted the process of improving the model by starting with a simplified version and then refining it by tuning its behavior to more closely resemble the actual synapses in vitro.  

The diSessa article explores the idea she terms “computational literacy” by exploring what different forms of literacy exist, and how they have changed over time to become infrastructural.  She breaks the term literacy into three pillars: material, mental, and social.  She also cites several examples of how widely accepted literacies, like mathematical literacy, have come to enhance our knowledge.  She uses an example of Galileo’s six theorems of uniform motion to explain how mathematical literacy has enhanced our understanding of this topic, showing modern algebraic expressions have made his complex reasoning widely accessible to students as young as middle school.  Her point was that when a literacy is so critical to a society, it is not just a result or an aim of education, but a key component of the educational process.  Her view (in the late ’90’s) is that computational literacy will become just as critical as reading, writing, or mathematics.

Connections to NGSS:

The NGSS laid out 8 practices for K-12 science classrooms.  While arguments could be made that both articles addressed all of these topics, some were more prominently featured than others.  The Nersessian article focused mostly on Practice 2: Developing and using models.  A key point in her article was how the use of a computational model of the synapses allowed the researches to measure and control critical variables with a much more precision.  It also focused on the process of developing a model, highlighting that it is a continual process that can always be perfected and refined.  Practice’s 4: Analyzing and interpreting data, and 5: Using mathematics and computational thinking, were also addressed in some detail.  The team developed new ways of displaying their results, creating a visual of the network that could map they type of bursts and where they occurred over time.  Using vectors, they were essentially able to plot the center of activity trajectory (CAT).  These achievements required them to analyze the data they were collecting and use mathematical processes to communicate their results.

The diSessa article focused mostly on Practice 8: Obtaining, evaluation, and communication information.  Much the articles discusses how we have chosen to communicate our mathematical knowledge has had a profound impact on the access to it.  In addition to the Galileo example, where she shows how the equation d = rt essentially explains Galileo’s six theorems , diSessa also discusses how the notation of calculus developed and how that has impacted its ability to be taught throughout high schools and universities. The notation that Newton developed seemed arbitrary and was not self-explanatory.  The current notation, developed primarily by Leibnitz, makes the function of the notation clear.  This change makes the topic of calculus more accessible to a wider range of the general population.  diSessa is clear from theses examples how the ability to communicate our knowledge clearly has a profound impact on its effectiveness and accessibility.