Most of the context that we think is so important in our AI age for mathematics – like medicine, bioscience, data science, finance – they all rely on computers. None of those existed for mathematics before computers in any serious way before. Mathematics has been liberated from hand calculating by computers and the most incredible mechanisation. So, if you go back and say, right, we want to teach people in education for the context of the real world, and you strip the computer out of it, there isn’t a context and you learn the wrong toolset.” But there is a way forward, and he is surprisingly
optimistic. Many educators have learnt traditional maths so Wolfram suggests working backwards to understand what’s relevant in an AI world. “What we need is a computational curriculum that assumes computers exist.” It’s not just computational thinking we need either. “I think we should teach machine learning in primary schools too,” he added.
NEXT-LEVEL PROBLEM SOLVING So, what does Wolfram think a new computational curriculum will achieve? “What we now need is first-rate human problem-solvers, not third-rate human computers. We need to work a level up from the machines, not compete with what machines do. If history has told us anything it is when we have industrial revolutions, when we have new machinery, don’t get the humans doing what the machinery is now good at. Instead, get them doing something more difficult, more conceptual, bigger.”
Another reason for his championing of
computational thinking, along with many other thinkers on the future of education and work, is the computational knowledge divide. “We have a few people at the top of society who are
good at this stuff. And we have most of society depending on this who don’t know much about this at all, and that’s very dangerous.” What we need, concluded Wolfram, is computational
literacy for all and education reform for an AI age – not just for maths, but all subjects.
“ We need to work a level up from the machines, not compete with what machines do. If history has told us anything it is when we have industrial revolutions, when we have new machinery, don’t get the humans doing what the machinery is now good at.”
WHAT IS COMPUTATIONAL THINKING?
Computational thinking enables students to develop processes and solutions that can be understood by both computers and humans and is different to programming. It involves taking a complex problem and breaking it down into a series of small, more manageable problems. Each of these smaller problems can then be looked at individually. The key elements of computational thinking are decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition and algorithmic thinking.
Conrad Wolfram speaking at the World Innovation Summit of Education in Doha
Outside of computer science and technical subjects many countries are now looking to integrate computational thinking into their wider education curriculums to enhance problem solving and critical thinking.
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GLOBAL EDUCATION
AI FOR K - 1 2 EDUCATION
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