Teaching natural computation

Author

Johnson, Colin G.

Author_Institution

Univ. of Kent, Canterbury

Volume

4

Issue

1

fYear

2009

fDate

2/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

24

Lastpage

30

Abstract

This paper consists of a discussion of the potential impact on computer science education of regarding computation as a property of the natural world, rather than just a property of artifacts specifically created for the purpose of computing. Such a perspective is becoming increasingly important: new computing paradigms based on the natural computational properties of the world are being created, scientific questions are being answered using computational ideas, and philosophical debates on the nature of computation are being formed. This paper discusses how computing education might react to these developments, goes on to discuss how these ideas can help to define computer science as a discipline, and reflects on our experience at Kent in teaching these subjects.

Keywords

computer science education; philosophical aspects; computational ideas; computer science education; computing education; computing paradigms; natural computational property; philosophical debates; teaching; Biology computing; Computer graphics; Computer science; Computer vision; Education; Educational institutions; Embedded computing; Heart; Mathematics; Vocabulary;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computational Intelligence Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1556-603X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MCI.2008.930984

Filename

4762307