On Semiotics Perspectives of Computational Thinking: Unravelling the “Pamphlet” Approach, a Case Study

Vladimiras Dolgopolovas and Valentina Dagiene
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Vladimiras Dolgopolovas: Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies, Vilnius University, Akademijos Str. 4, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania
Valentina Dagiene: Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies, Vilnius University, Akademijos Str. 4, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Computational thinking (CT) is in the midst of an ongoing debate about its scope and definitions. There is a trend away from a “traditional” computer science-inspired agenda towards a focus on universal competences for today’s labor market. However—and this is the motivation behind the research—the shift described is just an unconscious attempt to reveal the immanent nature of CT as an evolving semiotic phenomenon. The aim of this study is to explore directions and perspectives for the further development of CT and related methodological design approaches. As a research strategy, this article utilizes a case study on the presented set of resources dedicated to CT early education and reveals it in terms of multimodal discourse analysis. As a result, a landscape of future CT trends is presented, uncovering CT from a multimodal semiotic perspective. This article discusses various issues related to CT and its multimodal semiotics nature, perspectives on the design of CT-related resources and additional educational issues such as the perspectives on instructional approaches for CT teaching. We conclude that CT as a social phenomenon is in the process of an evolutionary transformation of its constitutive structure in the direction of further revealing its agentive semiotic nature.

Keywords: Computational thinking; educational policy; early education; multimodal semiotics; futures studies; sustainability issues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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