Emergent Computational Thinking
Computational thinking (CT) has been hailed as a necessary 21st century competency that should be incorporated across the curriculum; however, the research shows that CT is generally confined within coding and programming curriculums. In this paper, we argue that if we are to foster CT in areas such as the arts and humanities, then we must deepen and complexify our understanding of computational thinking to include emergent and creative expressions of computational concepts. We explore the makerspace through a new materialist lens as a fertile environment for intuitive experimentation, inter-agential collaborations, and play with CT concepts through haptic engagement with littleBits™ electronic building blocks. We suggest that play can facilitate emergent computational thinking, which can be further deepened and complexified through the extension of creative writing and imaginative extrapolation, during which learners creatively metabolize CT and imaginatively project it beyond the confines of the actual and into rich potentiality.
