Computational Thinking and Learning Initiative

Computational thinking (CT) is perhaps the cornerstone of the modern Information Age: the capacity to frame, analyze, disaggregate, and reconfigure problems to best leverage ever-expanding computational capability. CT is distinct from the high level application of data science; it is more concrete and more encompassing than the broader “digital literacy”; and it is inherent to, but not definitive of most disciplines, including the digital humanities. Every field and K-16 subject area has different approaches and needs that define their disciplinary knowledge and practices, and thus computational thinking in each discipline is a hybrid creation, connecting general computational methods with specific disciplinary ways of thinking and inquiring in generative ways. The Computational Thinking and Learning Initiative (CTLI) will develop the institutional capacities needed for Vanderbilt to foster innovative disciplinary computational thinking research and education across the university and in K12, and it will act as a nexus for re-imagining Vanderbilt.